Can two individuals with contrarian views still have a civilised conversation online? On Letter.wiki they can: a beautifully simple platform where two people exchange their opposing views respectfully through long ‘letters’ in an open forum.

On my iPhone I use a shortcut (see issue 90) to email myself things I want to revisit at a later point. EmailThis does the same, but as a desktop browser extension. With one click you can send open tabs to your inbox to check out again later, optionally with some personal notes or keywords.

Linear is a web-based progress tracking app that helps software teams keep an eye on projects, sprints, tasks, and bugs.

For those wanting to understand their Twitter stats better: my friend Dan created an analytics tool that dissects your Twitter activity and gives insight into the performance of your tweets.

User Friendly →

The hidden rules of design

We often talk about user experience (UX) design as if it’s solely a discipline practiced in the digital world. User Friendly tells stories of user experience design (challenges) in the real world “such as what the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island reveals about the logic of the smartphone; how the pressures of the Great Depression and World War II created our faith in social progress through better product design; and how a failed vision for Disney World yielded a new paradigm for designed experience”.

Icarus Complex Magazine →

Exploring climate challenges

While the main stream press refuses to cover the climate crisis in meaningful ways, independent publishers are getting more creative and audacious. Luxembourg-based Icarus Complex (in print and online) wants to “look at the issues and solutions around climate change in a holistic way, and inspire individuals and institutions to not only take, but also demand both institutional and governmental action.” And they do so with some wonderful editorial design.

I shared this short essay with lots of friends when I came across it in 2017 and now is as good a time as ever to resurface it: “Personally, I’m happy to pay an extra 4.3 percent for my fast food burger if it means the person making it for me can afford to feed their own family. If you aren’t willing to fork over an extra 17 cents for a Big Mac, you’re a fundamentally different person than I am.”

A great thought piece on designing technology and why we need an approach that focuses on user empowerment, resilience, and empathy, rather than just hiding away complexity. “Whenever we are about to substitute a laborious activity such as learning a language, cooking a meal, or tending to plants with a – deceptively – simple solution, we might always ask ourselves: Should the technology grow – or the person using it?” I love the animated doodles, too.

An unexpectedly interesting read about how camera sensors see the world in light, not colours, and how we built technology around them to fill in the gaps based on our perceived reality: “Camera sensors are color-blind – they see only brightness, and engineers had to trick them into reproducing color using algorithms.”

I migrated to Australia during an unparalleled real estate boom, witnessing how housing turned into a currency for investors. I like John’s take in this opinion piece: “Housing policies and programs must be anchored in key principles; use value and not exchange value; building communities and neighbourhoods and social mixing and sharing. Society is more important than markets. Markets must be the means to serve society.”