My disillusionment with technology - Design & other obsessions
Technology no longer excites me. To be precise, I’m not able to feel enthusiastic about new technology anymore. Might be because I’m getting older.| silviamaggi.co.uk
Once again I frantically looked for my phone in every room. The smartphone is not where I expect it to be. Happens all the time. A rush of adrenaline makes me look for it in every room, because I might have missed important messages or calls. Even though only a few minutes have passed. Cursing at myself, modern life, and everything in between, a pang of nostalgia hit me. Before the invention of smartphones, there were cordless phones. Before cordless phones, there were corded phones. Smartpho...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
A place where time flows differently. Past, present and future happen at the same time. No structure, no constraints.| silviamaggi.co.uk
A baffling conversation from the past keeps causing anger, books to the rescue. One summer in the 90s, I was riding my bicycle home after a day at the swimming pool with friends. The street was gently curved, with a nice slope that made me go a bit faster than usual. I was enjoying the breeze, and had a big smile on my face. A boy I knew only a little, just enough to say “ciao”, was cycling the other way with a friend. With that same big smile on the face, I said ciao to him. I had just e...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Redesigning a website is never straighforward. I tell you what prompted me to change so much more than the surface of my personal space. In late July, I was struck with fresh inspiration and decided to redesign my website. The plan was simple: base it on my work site and use my favourite colours. I couldn’t just import the posts from the old version, because I had to adjust their front matter. While editing each post, I also checked every link, which made me realise it was time to take a fi...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
A short tale of heads, memory, and virtual farms. I was hanging the laundry to dry outside on a sunny morning, and there it was: a headless field mouse resting on the lawn. Then I remembered the camera had caught a dry-heaving cat the previous night. A domestic, well-fed cat with outside access is probably not that interested in eating its prey. In fact, my husband found the mouse’s head elsewhere in the garden a few days later. What a grim end for the poor little thing. --- I finished read...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
If it sounds like an adventure, it might just be. I believe that books choose us. At least sometimes they do, which is usually when we need them most. I read rave reviews about Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library but I never really felt compelled to read it, until I found it in the “Read Local” section of my library. It’s the first time I borrow from the library, which is a shame. It’s also the first time I read a book on my phone. That has been possible because I switched back to usin...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Considering the current situation in the world, here are the things I’m doing to take care of myself. As I gaze out at my garden from the window, I feel calm and connected to nature. A robin is flitting around, working on its nest in the ivy-covered fence. Meanwhile, a hedgehog is tucked away, hibernating in a small wooden house at the back of the garden. It makes me happy to know that while my husband and I turned a house into a home, we also created a welcoming space for other creatures t...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Following up on my previous post, I'm sharing my new professional direction. During the peak of my perfect storm over the past few months, I was reminded of how much I care about accessibility. While I have mostly lost interest in the UX industry in its current form, accessibility is a subject that continues to stir big emotions in me: I want to help make the web a better place for everyone. Therefore, with over twenty years of experience in design and development, I’m offering consultancy ...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Brief story of my perfect storm. I finished reading Normal People for the second time. In between, I saw the TV series. It seems I couldn’t let go of Marianne and Connell, some aspects of their story so similar to mine. It’s not the first time I feel so emotionally involved in a fictional story, and hopefully it won’t be the last. I don’t buy into the argument that Normal People is a millennial story. I honestly don’t even know what that means. With a few small changes on what tech ...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Today I launch my photography website for family, friends, and anyone who lands there to enjoy my pictures. For a long time after quitting Instagram in 2021, my photos were nowhere to be seen. Sometimes I would post a few pictures on my blog but it never felt quite right. I thought there had to be a reason to publish one or more pictures, or a similarity between them to build a story. With infinite gratitude to Simone for helping me so much, I am happy and proud to launch my new photography w...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
The second of a series of posts in which I document my progress learning to play the ukulele This post is long overdue. I started writing it several times but I have never been focused enough to do it. As with writing on my blog, also my exercising has slowed down. The previous diary entry ended with strumming rhythms and changing between the C, F and G chords. I was struggling with both. Not anymore. Despite the fact I learned just one new chord (G7), I feel much more confident playing. Song...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
We have become distracted and let technology companies build things that have no value, but there are ways to revive the internet and thus foster more competitive and meaningful environments. We need to rewild the internet Our online spaces are not ecosystems, though tech firms love that word. They’re plantations; highly concentrated and controlled environments, closer kin to the industrial farming of the cattle feedlot or battery chicken farms that madden the creatures trapped within. Mari...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
If you ever thought ageing is the reason why technology seems more complicated, read on. Also, a guide to live in harmony with the world. The decline of the user interface Software has never looked cooler, but user interface design and user experience have taken a sharp turn for the worse. Form has taken over funtionality and substance, contravening the rules of good design. The evidence is in front of our eyes. Read The decline of the user interface on InfoWorld Accessibility overlays are ...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
As a reminder of everything that went well while during the past four years, I published the sketches I made while following the Drawabox lessons. I tend to think about the past four years as a negative period of my life. In a way, it’s true. I was back in Italy, but not feeling home, and I had stopped doing what I like most: taking pictures, baking bread, knitting. I used to say that I was dead inside, and couldn’t be creative. A few days ago, flicking through my notes, I found the sketc...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
A couple of good design articles I recently read. Transforming the world: by design “Look at landfill sites,” says Pepijn Zurburg, co-founder of Dutch nonprofit What Design Can Do. “At one point, someone designed all that trash that’s in them. Everything that we made eventually ends up being a problem for us. Pepijn Zurburg and Richard van der Laken started a one-day conference, inviting experts to talk about how purpose drives design. Their inspiration: redesign everything. Read Tran...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Of the few articles I read the past couple of months, the most memorable are about smartphones use and the ways modern tech can make us miserable. The smartphone kids are not all right So it’s not until 2010–2011 that you have this thing in your pocket, which is not a digital Swiss Army knife that you pull out when you need something. It is now a portal that millions—millions—of companies now can use to get to you, as a child. Without your parents’ permission or knowledge, they can ...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
After a failed verbal reasoning test, I wrote an email reasoning why I firmly believe that these tests exclude perfectly good professionals. Hi [recruiter’s name], As I failed the Product Design / Verbal Reasoning test, I don’t expect the recruiting process to continue. I would like to offer you my feedback and opinion on the experience, as [company name] might find it useful in the future. It was the first time I had been asked to perform such a test. My experience was negative, although...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
One of the things I missed most of our life in Cambridge is growing vegetables and flowers. Having a garden is a lot of work, but it’s highly rewarding. Simone and I have been busy preparing for spring during the last few weekends. We’ve found the mint we planted years ago, moved it to the other side of the garden, and are watching it thrive. From seeds, we planted: the romanesco variety of courgettes, which is sweeter and tastier chives chillies plum tomatoes parsley rocket salad red let...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
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 ar...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Ana explains perfectly my gripe with the concept of content creation. 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 d...| Design & other obsessions by Silvia Maggi
Technology no longer excites me. To be precise, I’m not able to feel enthusiastic about new technology anymore. Might be because I’m getting older.| silviamaggi.co.uk
A post where I track the progress of my reading activity since the beginning of 2023.| silviamaggi.co.uk
