When I claim that online harassment happens by design I am often met with raised eyebrows. I am not saying that it’s the intent of designers to encourage harassment, but I am saying that it’s what the resulting design is doing. It certainly is doing little to prevent...
Like millions of others I have used Mailchimp for many years to send out e-mail updates to subscribers. Their freemium business model and quirky monkey mascot have contributed to them growing into the Internet’s largest platform for company newsletters. Yesterday, out of the blue and without explanation, users of...
Your impact on people and planet When I tell people I am writing a book about ethics in digital design many assume that it is a book about dark patterns. While there undoubtedly will be overlap I am more interested in the negative impact even well-intended design may have on...
Thank you to everyone who attended my talk on the topic of ethics in design at EuroIA. I am hugely thankful for the opportunity. I am seeing more and more digital solutions that contribute to negative impact, putting people and planet in harm’s way, without any clear sense of...
I love data and I love the Internet. Because I love people. So much good stuff happens as we have access to more knowledge and more people to interact with around the globe. When we use data to enhance our artefacts we also make them easier to find, easier to...
A practical guide to digital design with a conscience » Preview the worksheets [https://axbom.com/misusability/#worksheets] Update November 2019. This book is still in progress in various draft forms and will likely morph into something new. I am currently researching power structures and influence in the digital age. The...
On August 8 I launched dickpiclocator.com [http://dickpiclocator.com/], a service that invites you to upload an unsolicited dick pic and find out the exact location where the picture was taken. As I start writing this, 31 hours later, 932 images have been uploaded — an average of 30 pics...
As I was telling someone how Hugh Jackman would have loved to do another movie as Wolverine teaming up with the Avengers they exclaimed: “But Wolverine isn’t Marvel!” This set me off drawing up a map of the different film property rights when it comes to Marvel. » Jump straight...
In reports coming out about how the unsubscription service unroll.me has been selling your data to Uber, it has become glaringly clear that not only are they selling your data (which truly should not surprise you a great deal) but they are also storing copies of your e-mail in...
