☕️ Interface as Environment • Doubleshot
Part of the work I’ve been doing during the hiatus centers on the role of the interface as an environmental facet of our lives.
Theory
Design at its intersections with sociology, philosophy, and cognition.
A Reading List for Individualized and Adaptive Design
It’s (still) summer, which is the perfect time for a reading list.
The Interface Behind (Liquid, Frosted, Tinted) Glass
The cyclical revival of “glass” as a sign of newness, technical sophistication, and innovation.
📚 Read This: “How humans became microplastic” on UnHerd
Plastic promised a world in which our inventive capabilities would be unbound and infinite. It’s easy to hear an echo (or a warning voice) of those proclamations today.
Unpacking “Craft” in the Software Interface
The more I see craft mentioned as a power of design, the more I feel that a working definition is urgently needed.
📚 Read This: “Neural networks & the architectural imagination” on Recessed Spaces
A piece of architectural criticism focused on the role of generative AI in the imagination of architecture and the ways that the technology elides questions about whose work went into the image.
✨ AI-generated Screens and Matters of Taste ✨
Figma has added the sparkle emoji to our design tools. What does it really mean?
Generative AI and the Urge to Transcend “Human Error”
In some AI discourse, “error” can be anything that’s open to multiple interpretations. In other words, error can be seen as subjectivity itself.
The Chair as Interface
Continuing the exploration of how tangible objects present us with an interface of everyday life.
Skeuomorphism and the Morphology of UI
What to make of aesthetics in the interface, “neu” and old.
Metaphor and Transformation in the Interface
The way metaphor permeates the interface points to a continued struggle to live with the complexity introduced by the very media we’ve created to manage it.
📚 Read This: Jarrett Fuller on Simple Tools
The irony of recommending this essay on Interface Café, which is hosted on Ghost, a CMS platform, is not lost on me.
📚 Read This: “What Things Do” by Peter-Paul Verbeek
A quick book recommendation: What Things Do, Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design by contemporary philosopher of technology Peter-Paul Verbeek. If you'
Reshaping our expectations for generative design
From Le Corbusier to Figma, “design is, at its core, a permanently subject-oriented discipline.”
View Counts and the Detotalization of Social Media
On an infinitely scrolling, algorithmically generated list, scrolling past something is about the least intentional thing one could do.
The Future of Design is Still Personal
Connecting historic conceptions of adaptable design with contemporary visions, looking toward a truly adaptive future.
Experiencing the next mutation: user characteristics, defining success, and a new way to research mutative patterns
I’ve talked to designers, developers, users, coworkers, and strangers about the theory and the practice behind mutative design and Selene’s nascent mutations.
Mutate More: Digging Deeper Into UI That Evolves With the User
Project Phoebe Phase 2: Dynamic contrast, and a mutative engine.
Meet Project Phoebe: A Moonshot Concept for Mutative Design
Design shouldn’t just adapt to screen size. Context isn’t all about adding more information.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Join the newsletter and I'll send the best new essays straight to your inbox, no searching required.