Link tags: agency
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The map-reduce is not the territory
Unlike many people, I’m not particularly worried about AI replacing peoples’ jobs, although employers will certainly try and use it to reduce their headcount. I’m more worried about it transforming jobs into roles without agency or space to be human. Imagine a world where performance reviews are conducted by software; where deviance from the norm is flagged electronically, and where hiring and firing can be performed without input from a human. Imagine models that can predict when unionization is about to occur in a workplace. All of this exists today, but in relatively experimental form. Capital needs predictability and scale; for most jobs, the incentives are not in favor of human diversity and intuition.
The Web Is For User Agency
I can get behind this:
I take it as my starting point that when we say that we want to build a better Web our guiding star is to improve user agency and that user agency is what the Web is for.
Robin dives into the philosphy and ethics of this position, but he also points to some very concrete implementations of it:
These shared foundations for Web technologies (which the W3C refers to as “horizontal review” but they have broader applicability in the Web community beyond standards) are all specific, concrete implementations of the Web’s goal of developing user agency — they are about capabilities. We don’t habitually think of them as ethical or political goals, but they are: they aren’t random things that someone did for fun — they serve a purpose. And they work because they implement ethics that get dirty with the tangible details.
Middle Management — Real Life
The introduction to this critique of Keller Easterling’s Medium Design is all about seams:
Imagine the tech utopia of mainstream science fiction. The bustle of self-driving cars, helpful robot assistants, and holograms throughout the sparkling city square immediately marks this world apart from ours, but something else is different, something that can only be described in terms of ambiance. Everything is frictionless here: The streets are filled with commuters, as is the sky, but the vehicles attune their choreography to one another so precisely that there is never any traffic, only an endless smooth procession through space. The people radiate a sense of purpose; they are all on their way somewhere, or else, they have already arrived. There’s an overwhelming amount of activity on display at every corner, but it does not feel chaotic, because there is no visible strife or deprivation. We might appreciate its otherworldly beauty, but we need not question the underlying mechanics of this utopia — everything works because it was designed to work, and in this world, design governs the space we inhabit as surely and exactly as the laws of physics.
Presentable #96: The Employee-Owned Design Agency - Relay FM
If you want to know more about Clearleft’s new employee-ownserhip model, Andy tells Jeff all about it in this huffduffable hour of audio.
On design systems and agency | Andrew Travers
Design systems can often ‘read’ as very top down, but need to be bottom up to reflect the needs of different users of different services in different contexts.
I’ve yet to be involved in a design system that hasn’t struggled to some extent for participation and contribution from the whole of its design community.
Paul Ford: Facebook Is Why We Need a Digital Protection Agency - Bloomberg
The word “leak” is right. Our sense of control over our own destinies is being challenged by these leaks. Giant internet platforms are poisoning the commons. They’ve automated it.
AMPlified. — Ethan Marcotte
As of this moment, the power dynamics are skewed pretty severely in favor of Google’s proprietary AMP standard, and against those of us who’d ask this question:
What can I do about AMP?
Inside Design: Clearleft
A profile of Clearleft from the nice people at InVision.
Although there is this:
@adactio looks like you are trying really hard to not crack up laughing & shoot coffee out of your nose in this posed photo. /cc @andybudd pic.twitter.com/WQbRmqqpY8
— Nick Finck (@nickf) November 7, 2017
Design in the Era of the Algorithm | Big Medium
The transcript of Josh’s fantastic talk on machine learning, voice, data, APIs, and all the other tools of algorithmic design:
The design and presentation of data is just as important as the underlying algorithm. Algorithmic interfaces are a huge part of our future, and getting their design right is critical—and very, very hard to do.
Josh put together ten design principles for conceiving, designing, and managing data-driven products. I’ve added them to my collection.
- Favor accuracy over speed
- Allow for ambiguity
- Add human judgment
- Advocate sunshine
- Embrace multiple systems
- Make it easy to contribute (accurate) data
- Root out bias and bad assumptions
- Give people control over their data
- Be loyal to the user
- Take responsibility
Blandly. A Full-Service Integrated Digital Blanding Agency
Well, we might as well bin the Clearleft website rebranding project. Somebody has beaten us to it.
For BERG, My London Launchpad | MORNING, COMPUTER
BERG closed its doors today. Their work stands for itself and the agency will be greatly missed.
Warren Ellis shares his memories of the founding of this seminal group.
Client/Agency Engagement is F*cked, Waterfall UX Design is a Symptom | disambiguity
Leisa nails it. The real stumbling block with trying to change the waterfall-esque nature of agency work (of which Clearleft has certainly been guilty) can be summed up in two words: sign off.
And from a client’s perspective, this emphasis on sign-off is completely understandable.
It takes a special kind of client to take the risk and develop the level of trust and integration required to work the way that Mr Popoff-Walker any many, many other inhabitants of agency world would like to work.
Gardens and Zoos – Blog – BERG
A lovely piece from Matt examining agency and behaviour in the things we surround ourselves with: frying pans, houseplants, pets, and robots.
These are the droids you are looking for.
ribot - Mobile application design & rapid prototyping
Local siblings Ribot Maximus and Ribot Minimus have launched their smart-looking site. All mobile, all the time.
LIFEBLOG.anina.net: slides gave me an ultimatum
Anina, the blogging model, is told by her agency to stop blogging because "fashion and technology do not go together". Asshats.