Stephen FarrugiaI don't believe a good criticism needs to offer a good solution, but I do think a criticism has to be good enough to recognise the problem being identified
I shouldn't have to say this but, but, but, mastodon is not perfect. But, but, but, it does not have a "boosting underappreciated communities" problem. That's a problem for a platform that boosts communities
and I shouldn't have to say this but, but, but, boosting communities is different to silencing communities
call me old fashioned, but "word of mouth" is the most genuine method of dispersion
I will never ask you why you don't offer a solution. I know that is what design is. Criticism identifies a purpose, design finds ways to satisfy it.
If you are going to identify a purpose, do it well.
always sucks to hear someone perfectly identify and articulate an obscure problem/purpose and then give in to pressure with a "if i had to suggest a solution..."
NO! It's ok to be good at cornering what's wrong, that's a skill
focus on making your criticism sharp. There is so much value in making an undeniable observation about how something is broken or how it could be much better.
If the designers* involved are genuine in their intent, they should not be able to ignore it.
*design is a process of purpose satisfaction, it is not figma or photoshop
there is a thing with DESIGN in the tech realm which is like the star wars trash compactor, slowly compressing it into a peripheral concept of (ugh) user experience, and usability, and UI design, which is *all* after the fact of a thing coming into existence
design needs to be fed with purpose. Purpose needs to be seen as a design problem. Design needs to be seen as a deliberative process of finding ways to satisfy a purpose, with the means being an infinite variable.
design should always be free enough to determine that the purpose is not satisfiable with whatever means is being imposed on the process
commercial constraints should be acknowledged as what they are. They are a layer of circumstance.
this was a mastodon rant that turned into a design rant
Enqfila: mestrando de 2 jeitos@fasterandworse always grateful for those!
flere-imsaho 🇺🇦@fasterandworse fwiw it chimes well with what imani joy talked about in their presentation
Imani Joy – A Solo Designer’s Survival Guide to the Fediverse #FOSSDesign
Dave Alvarado@fasterandworse thank you for this thread. I have a pinned post that got a ton of traction that was just me rephrasing the work of others into a digestible series of posts.
I was very frustrated by people asking me what I would do to fix the problem. I didn't reply to any of them, because I don't have a solution that wasn't the point in the first place.
This thread clarified for my why I was so frustrated--fixing wasn't the work I was trying to do.
@dave i'm glad it connected with you. I think it's important that people feel comfortable putting effort into identifying problems without the need for some kind of leveraged payoff. It's a mechanism of fiction that doesn't apply to the real world
Almad@fasterandworse I agree, but as someone in that camp, OMG so many orgs have the “I don’t want to hear problems, I want to hear solutions” approach…