Design, Digested 52 – Conflicted design, the disappearance of web designers, bad trends
16 March 2024 | 12:18 pm

This issue marks the beginning of a different type of series, where I mostly share blog posts from people writing on their personal websites.

Digital design is conflicted

UX is conflicted. I’m conflicted. I’m conflicted between pushing to go fast and fighting to slow down. I’m caught between fixing things and breaking things. I’m forced to compromise between caring and causing harm.

James Royal-Lawson wrote an essay I wholly support. In it, he describes the many conflicts designers are presented with, why, and what to do to resolve them. I bookmarked it because it contains data and advice useful to make the case against the infamous move fast and break things motto.

🔗 Read Digital design is conflicted on Beantin

It’s 2023, here is why your web design sucks

[…] the gendering of design as women’s work is why people don’t use the title “web designer” anymore. It’s been belittled and othered away. It’s why we’ve split that web design role into two; now you’re either a UX designer and you can sit at that table over there or you’re a front-end developer and you can sit at the table with the people that build websites.

This one hit home. At some point, the title of web designer disappeared. I had no clue of the reason behind the split, and just went with it, choosing UX design over web development. Rachel Buchel is spot on, and reading it all so well layed out left me gobsmacked, irritated, and nostalgic.

🔗 Read It’s 2023, here is why your web design sucks on Heather Buchel’s website

Please, don’t force me to log in

It feels like everything these days needs you to create an account and log in to use them.

Good point from Juhis. Opening an account is a hassle that should be balanced in favour of users. Good reason: to keep track of progress on a learning service. Bad reason: to gather more data. Accounts can also be barriers to information – see the small businesses that created a Facebook page instead of a website.

🔗 Read Please, don’t force me to log in on Juha-Matti Santala’s website


Reply via email


Reply: My gripe with the concept of ’content creation‘, perfectly explained by Ana
14 March 2024 | 2:26 pm

A photo, a post, a video, a podcast. These are among the things that are now called ’content‘ on social media. You create content and present it to your followers the right way, at the right time. Have you tried monetise it? Well, wouldn’t it be great to be paid to do what you love? It became common thinking that turning your hobbies into profit is a great idea.

Except, when you do, they become something you have to do with consistency, no matter what, to be relevant. Capitalism wants you to be always productive, and that is reflected on social media.

As Ana suggests, there is another way to be found on the web: by getting a website. It doesn’t have to be anything complex, just give people a way to contact you. The rest comes later, and is totally under your control.

A photo, a post, a video, a podcast. These are among the things that are now called ’content‘ on social media. You create content and present it to your followers the right way, at the right time. Have you tried monetise it? Well, wouldn’t it be great to be paid to do what you love? It became common thinking that turning your hobbies into profit is a great idea.

Except, when you do, they become something you have to do with consistency, no matter what, to be relevant. Capitalism wants you to be always productive, and that is reflected on social media.

As Ana suggests, there is another way to be found on the web: by getting a website. It doesn’t have to be anything complex, just give people a way to contact you. The rest comes later, and is totally under your control.


Reply via email


International Women’s Day and theatre
9 March 2024 | 6:13 pm

Yesterday I got to celebrate International Women’s Day in a pleasant and unexpected way.

It was a double celebration, actually, as it was my birthday a few days ago. Simone and I had delicious Thai food for lunch, before walking home. The cold and strong winds made it a more difficult, but nonetheless charming five kilometres stroll. Feeling tired and a bit sluggish, we considered swapping dates for the event we booked for the evening. I’m glad we didn’t.

We went to the Leper Chapel of St Mary Magdalene1, where Richard Spaul performed two Ghost Stories2. The first is Miss Mary Pask, by Edith Wharton3, the second is Pink May, by Elizabeth Bowen4. His delivery, both spoken and sung, is moving. The venue is perfect, chilly and yet cozy. On the chairs arranged in front of Richard’s, an introductory text. One passage in particular got my attention:

These are two prodigiously gifted women writers, far less celebrated than some of their male contemporaries in the same genre, but in my opinion far better, so I am hoping to make a tiny contribution to setting that record straight. They are not just writers who happen to be women. They deal in an extraordinarily powerful way, I think, with important women’s issues: social isolation, social conformity, sexual liberation and constraint, and the longing for happiness and fulfilment in an unequal and hampering world. That they achieve this through the unlikely medium of the ghost story is a great testament to their talent and originality. Richard Spaul

As we’re dealing with some of those issues even today, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the women’s rights movement.



Reply via email



More News from this Feed See Full Web Site