How do we move the conversation away from dystopia, and not to utopia, but to being present in the now most constructively?
You know … we humans are pretty darn amazing!
- There’s fear about AI’s future impact, but there’s creative hope too.
- A computational designer thinks critically about technology and its impact on people.
- Design makes what is hard, easier. And makes what is easier, memorable.
- So with all the dystopia and crises right now, I’d like to taste some signal instead of noise.
- I subscribe to Fred Kofman’s doctrine of Player versus Victim — so I’m not being a Polyanna.
- And I think I heard somewhere that, “Yes we can!”
I’ve collected my “top fourteen” favorite things out there over the last twelve months, and they’re all listed here.
- Xbox Adaptive Controller
- Lyra
- MuDA
- Project Alias
- Squadbox
- Purl
- Canvas
- Humaaans
- Cloudflare Color
- Braille Neue
- Sans Forgetica
- One Trillion To The 10th Power
- Arm Wrestling Meets Payments System
- Bushwick Analytica
Awesome Humans reshape technology to be more awesome.
01
Xbox Adaptive Controller / Making gaming accessible.
02
Lyra / Symbol to speech app for children with autism.
Awesome artists keep the enigma alive.
03
Zach Lieberman / Hanging method by MuDA.
04
Project Alias / Open source Google Assistant muzzle.
Fighting for awesomeness takes a village.
05
Squadbox / Collaborative anti-harassment tool.
Awesome humans recast culture with creative courage.
06
Purl / 8 minutes worth watching.
07
Canvas / Indie film by Pixar animator Frank Abney III.
? Join me in launching Frank Abney’s film!
You can still fund Abney’s new short film on Kickstarter at the Executive Producer level with me if you hurry!
08
Humaaans / Mix and match illustration library.
09
Cloudflare Color / Accessibility in-context color tool.
You can pre-order How To Speak Machine: Laws of Design for a Computational Age from IndieBound to support independent book stores, or
Barnes & Noble as a non-Amazon alternative, or Amazon because 80% of us tend to choose this route.
Human Inventiveness (HI) is still fontastic awesomeness.
10
Braille Neue / Hybrid visible/tactile typeface.
11
Sans Forgetica / Unusually memorable letterforms.
There’s something about GenZ × Chinese awesomeness.
12
One Trillion To The 10th Power
“Siri: What’s one trillion to the tenth power?”
13
Arm Wrestling Meets Payments System
“I ?? bet you can’t beat me in arm ? wrestling!”
Tech superpowers can be used for awesomeness, too.
14
Bushwick Analytica / Targeted advertising by children.
“… a series of workshops for Bushwick Public Library that invites local middle schoolers to harness the power of data driven advertising & publish their own targeted campaigns.”
—@tegabrain
No school on Mondays
Global warming is no joke
You’re done with section 3 of the report. There’s 3 more to go.
Next up is …