OrderOfThePhoenixX

Design in the wilderness There was a time 10 or so years ago when we got really focused on human centered design. I think it's time to retrieve that earnestness. When we were designing web sites we could perfectly architect every touchpoint. Then apps, with their algorithms, where we did our best to provide users a map but they ultimately chose their own journeys. Now, they are in the wilderness, and we can't possibly craft every potential experience or interaction they will encounter. So we have to think differently. I'm increasingly seeing experience design merge with service design. In the former, we shaped the thing itself. In the latter, we shape the inputs, improve the connections, make it easy to pass data out and make it legible and true when it's received, reduce inefficiencies, improve predictability, always focused on the humans in the center. I actually don't see agents as our new users. They are intermediary software, like RNA. It's important they are successful in their task, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the importance that the ultimate persona in the matrix is the human. So in this context, whether you're working on interfaces, or agentic workflows, or model behavior, we're all working in service of the people trying to derive value, efficiency, and meaning out of the things we are creating. Because honestly, technology sometimes feels like a pretty meaningless industry to work in. Staying centered on what people need, and how I can make their lives easier and better is what drives my engagement and my ambition