Notices by Stephen Farrugia (fasterandworse@hci.social)

The gist: Software, or generally computation, can be categorised as a type of building material rather than a type of product in itself.

This framing opens up the view that design within the software industry begins with an assumption that software was the best means for the supposed purpose.
2/6

Video Dispatch #15: Software as Material

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6350LGaIy-0
1/6

the thing about all the "copilot increased our engineer productivity by a million%" pieces is the worst code doesn't break when you push to prod. It breaks a year later on a sunday at 2am and the only reason it can be fixed is because the person who caused it was hoping this wouldn't happen

The gist: Elegant mechanisms tend to mislead us into believing they are more useful than the purpose that necessitated their invention. This can create entire industries based on anticipated potential that just isn't there.
1/5

Video Dispatch #9: Mechanism Lust

How it works is not what it is for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bwuE6EvOs4

When criticism of a product's usefulness is challenged with "you don't understand how it works" that person is assuming the skill and energy that went into making the mechanism comes out of it as usefulness.
3/5

A mechanism which delivers its function perfectly can seem more powerful than it actually is. Its origin purpose is seen as one of many possible purposes because we hold the mechanism higher than it deserves to be.
2/5

this is a common theme. Look at any "state of design" - "state of dev" - "state of ux" survey and they always ask what tools do you use in your job, what languages/frameworks, what is the company size, what is the business "category" - never "do you like the product you are building?"

some tech dude on linkedin saying your remote workers not working is your own fault because: bad hiring, inability to motivate, bad leadership, bla bla

thing is they never talk about the tech products being built by the workers are more and more torment nexussy and that is becoming harder than ever for their own employees to ignore

A use case is a solution to a problem they wish people had. This means that the use case will always be smaller than the thing that was created in the first place. There will always be additional baggage around the benefits the thing provides for any particular purpose.
2/5

Even if the use case is virtuous, like the health benefits of the apple watch, it is not the reason the product came into existence. The maker can't be trusted to adopt the importance you may hold for that use case because it would cost them attention to other use cases.
4/5

The health and emergency benefits of the apple watch serve as a good example because in order to access those benefits you have to buy a device which carries the baggage of ever-connectedness and luxury surveillance https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/10/amazon-tracking-devices-surveillance-state/671772/
h/t @hypervisible 3/5

Video Dispatch: A Use Case is a Trojan Horse

A use case is a solution to a problem they wish you had

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3JdvqGafAk

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.
1/5

This is where I will collect images designers have drawn to show what design is.

@aral nice! in my experience the thing about streaming setups is they are a vortex of "ooh that would be cool to add to my setup"

@aral enshittification is just the polish fading from the turd

@aral this is (if you're me) actually a really important point. I feel like something can only really become shit if it starts from a shit place. Even if along the way it managed to be good at *something* it still started from a opportunity of the means to a self-serving ends

we need post-tech-industry careers advisors

Communication is a product anchor

Music is a product anchor

Video is a product anchor

Computing is not a product anchor