How do interfaces quietly steer us toward one option and away from another?
In our latest bite-sized video, Superbloom's Molly Wilson looks at how UI design choices shape our behavior:
🎨 Color + contrast
↔️ Button order
✍️ Copy choice
👁️ When to make an action obvious vs. subtle
You’ll never see a “Continue / Cancel” box the same way again.
Service design and the Mario complex
At Service Design in Government, I discovered that service designers see themselves as Mario. But that is an unrealistic model for what service design should be.https://duncanstephen.net/service-design-and-the-mario-complex/
When we know the common, image-clicking type of Captcha adds friction for humans,
and anti-spam functions that run in the background can block spam just as effectively,
it gives rise to cynicism:
"Have you tried clicking on all of the photos that contain traffic lights about it?"
Credit: https://beige.party/@maxleibman/115051388486069682
#spam #SpamBlocker #HCD #HumanCentredDesign #HumanCenteredDesign #tech #Captcha #UX #usability
Have you tried clicking on all of the photos that contain traffic lights about it?
In our latest post in the "Who's holding the remote control?" series myself and @iainh1 explore the impacts on civic life and society of pervasive personalised AI.
https://medium.com/@alexbfree/whos-holding-the-remote-control-8-9-f4faaa0c1c98
#mydata #empowermenttech #civicparticipation #datafication #humancentreddesign
That awkward feeling when you walk three kilometres from Travemünde ferry port to Lübeck-Travemünde Skandinavienkai train station to see the ferry you got out of like a hour ago just behind the bushes less than 500 metres away.
The panoramic path was beautiful, but it's gravel coverage was impossible for wheeled luggage.
Tomodashi's (@vga256) design philosophy so much resonates with my own, even if my reality/interests and having roots in different social & technological environments/communities sometimes still causes friction/confusion/dilution of principles — it's all a process, an ongoing dismantling & rebuilding, and the path has become more clear over the past 5-10 years... thi.ng plays a major part (and stepping stones) for me in that context and very much shares the same principles laid out further below.
https://tomodashi.com/philosophy
"The sub-Arctic regions of the Canadian Northwest Territories have many communities of fishers, hunters and trappers who live off the land with simple and effective tools. When technology breaks down in the north, there isn't a tech support number to call, or dealership or mechanic to take it to. You're on your own.
This encourages you to care for your tools, and make repairs using whatever knowledge and resources you have on hand. People who live on the land only take with them what they can maintain, upgrade and repair themselves. Big, complex, fragile, expensive, high-performance, high-maintenance stuff is left at drydock.
The elders of the far north teach us that these human-sized and human-shaped tools are extensions of who we are. To care for one's tools is to care for one's community, and oneself. These are not separate things.
That is the key to the Tomodashi design philosophy.
Principles
All Tomodashi software is crafted with these four related ideas in mind:
1. Human-sized things are friendlier, more economical, and easier to learn.
2. The user is both a creator of things and a playful being.
3. Let people personalize, modify, and repair their toys and tools.
4. Imperfect creations feel more human, serene and beautiful.
When human qualities and self-expression become the focus of software engineering - whether it's a game or a programming tool or an IDE - all other arguments about programming and software design become moot"
❤️❤️❤️
#Technology #SoftwareCraft #HumanCentredDesign #ThingUmbrella
Begging the questions: what are the limitations of #HumanCentredDesign, and how do we move to a #PlanetCentredDesign approach – without forgetting the needs of the user?
What Are the Rights of Nature? - Inside Climate News April 2, 2025 Here’s what you need to know about one of the fastest-growing environmental and social movements worldwide—to secure legal rights for ecosystems and other parts of the natural world. By Katie Surma https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02042025/introduction-to-rights-of-nature-movement/
Anybody else out there using #Linux as their everyday driver for #UX and #UXresearch work? Having just got a 'new' (refurbished Dell) laptop I've installed #Ubuntu - which I've been using for years for home use. But with more or less *everything* now cloud-based or available on linux (e.g. Figma) I can't really see any reason why not? Most of my colleagues are on Macs, so it's always cross-platform anyhow.
Are there any key 'killer' applications (it used to be the Adobe suite, but I haven't used that in years) that you can't run in linux? Thoughts?
(And before you ask - yes, I've used and very much appreciated, Linux Mint, Elementary OS, and other distros. I think they're all great.)
#foss #opensource #uxdesign #design #humancentereddesign #humancentreddesign #research #ResearchOps
Back in 2019, we joined Cookpad at their global headquarters in Bristol to work for three months with their product squads and designers, bringing #humancentreddesign and #innovation to the heart of product discovery.
Check out the case study: https://contextstudio.ie/coaching-product-discovery-at-cookpad/
Superbloom
Duncan Stephen
Jerome
Dr. Alex Bowyer
Lauma Pret ♡ ᪲᪲᪲🌈
Karsten Schmidt
David O'Brien
CoolMcCool
Context Studio