Tech products have a work/life balance problem

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Master of none.

If they don't say what it's for, don't help them.

Products that are marketed with purposes they can't be optimised for.

Don't ask what problems it solves, ask what purposes it satisfies

Software is a material among infinite other materials for satisfying a purpose.

Features that are more profitable as a detriment than a benefit.

Old hardware that can do more than new hardware designed to do less.

Automation assumes peripheral effort is inconvenient.

People use it because they will be unemployed if they don't

The distraction which is always ready to distract. The gist: There are two types of digital distraction. The actual and the potential. Actual distractions are things like notifications and alerts. Potential distractions are the features a thing has which can provide an escape from a challenging thing we are using it to do. If someone is using a com…

How it works is not what it is for

The assumption that empathy isn't used to manipulate The gist: Standardised "dark patterns" of UX design exist separately from any underlying products. Because "dark" implies otherwise degrees of "light" a sense of free legitimacy is given to products which use them. Usability is based on a removal of obstacles in a user interface. Any library of u…

A use case is a solution to a problem they wish you had The gist: The tech industry has rejected the design process of starting with a purpose and deliberating over ways to satisfy it and, instead, latched on to a model of making the thing first and then deliberating over possible purposes it can satisfy. A use case is a solution to a problem they …

Software as an amorphous blob The gist: Software as a service providers leave us to find purpose in their product's collection of features. They escape accountability by only asserting vague purposes like "collaboration" or "productivity" SaaS products are merging into something that, rather than being an "everything app", is more of a "general app…

How commercial tech products have turned design into antidesign Tech organisations take a concept or thing which began with a sole purpose to benefit people and, through iterative antidesign, turn it into something that is both bad for people and bad for their business. These things begin in the area of, supposed, human-centered design where the ne…

SaaS products don't deliver anything specific because they don't promise anything specific Video also available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJuXUpuFOGM This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

The aspect of snake oils which rarely gets mentioned Video also available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_EhTVBR9Js This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

UX is how we are sold things that don't have much else to offer Video also available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S_hwTKeE8c This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Why innovation can't be stifled Video also available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBKnOagRXqA This podcast is powered by Pinecast.