People, place and space newsletter #21
Deceptive patterns, service patterns at scale, and the need for a new design philosophy
Hi everyone, after a bit of time off we’re back with more interesting reads and thought provoking concepts in the design world. Don’t forget to check out the design mystery at the end…!
Why it's time to update our language about bad design patterns
By Amy Hupe
Photo by kalei peek on Unsplash
I’ve been calling out the poor language we use to describe undesirable design patterns for a while now, so I was excited to see Amy has written a fantastic article about this topic. There are so many other words we can use to describe these patterns (deceptive, bad, manipulative, coercive…), and we need to listen if people tell us this term is offensive to them. That should be enough for us to make the change in our design language.
How we are using Service Patterns to improve efficiency at BT/EE
By Jeanette Clement
Picture credit: Jeanette Clement, BT/EE
Jeanette is a user centred design leader at one of the UK’s largest telecoms provider, BT/EE, so it has been interesting to read how that team designs services at scale, how it gets documented and what the benefits are to both designers and customers. It looks like a lot of work, but with a big reward in consistency of experience and efficiencies internally.
Digital technology demands a new political philosophy
By Jamie Susskind, Noema Magazine
Picture credit visuals on Unsplash
I’ve been closely following the news about Elon Musk purchasing Twitter with a growing sense of unease, and this article sums up that discomfort perfectly.
“The unaccountable power of digital technology is at its most obvious when a vast social media platform is purchased by one man for expressly political purposes.” […]
[…] “The question is not whether Musk or Zuckerberg will make the ‘right’ decision with the power at their disposal — it’s why they are allowed that power at all.”
How society runs will lie more and more with those that own and control the technologies and digital spaces that permeate our lives, that is the uncomfortable truth that we haven’t planned for. I was fascinated to see the article refer to software engineers as “social engineers”, alluding to our complicity in what we design and develop, and that demands a new philosophy and set of principles for technologists to follow. A really thought provoking piece.
Also worth your time
For people and planet: moving beyond human centred design from Nesta is an interesting take on why we must expand to include more than just humans in our efforts
The Integrator Burden by John Cutler demonstrates a lot of how I have felt about my job in user centred design over the years, definitely resonates!
The haunted city - the most uncanny of human habitats is a bit of a left-field addition, but an interesting and poetic long read on human behaviour in cities and urban spaces
Jack Garfinkel has written a much needed article about how the charity Scope is actively removing barriers in content designer recruitment - useful for other design disciplines too
Dominic Warren has put together a great list of techniques for working with stakeholders - an useful read for designers trying to influence others to be more user centred
It’s old but still good, is urban design a matter of public health?
An interesting notion on Wired, does the internet need “you are here” maps?
What I’ve been up to
It’s been a busy month, mainly because I have been at UX London speaking at their first in-person conference for several years. I met many design heroes, learnt lots of new things and generally had a fantastic time. It was great to be back in London, and to visit somewhere I’ve not been before - I highly recommend the Tobacco Docks, beautiful!
I did have a bit of a design mystery to solve - can anyone work out what this piece of “furniture” is in my hotel room? It appears to be a ladder with a hose pipe wrapped around it…the term “form over function” springs to mind!
That’s all for this month, take care folks and see you next month!
Laura