Great interview. The thought that stands out for me is the repeated assertion that fantasy UIs must serve the narrative first. That's analogous to the way a lot of people design UIs for real products in that they tell "user stories."

However, there will always be tension between that narrative-first approach and the real world where narratives don't exist. A real user, trying to use a real interface, just needs it to work. There's no audience, no dramatic tension, no character arc, etc. It just serves their needs in the moment or it doesn't.

In a story, the fantasy UI really is a pixel-deep metaphor substituting for the technological capabilities available to the characters. "Access denied" isn't really an interface, it's a visual way to communicate a complex plot point, just like all of the other crafted visuals in the movie. Nobody ever has to puzzle over a bad interface for the same reason nobody ever has to go to the bathroom.

But real UIs are more than one pixel deep. They're the Rosetta stone that translates between human thought and machine logic.

So when Minority Report makes up a gesture-based interface it's because they have to show the audience something plausible that they've never seen before. However, when a designer makes a real gesture-based interface it's because there's something their users can't do with the interface they're used to.