Society

Article — 2 October 2025 — 555 words

The forgotten purpose of agile — Empowered teams responding to change

The ideas behind agile tend to be squashed down to two words: “move fast”. But the Agile Manifesto says nothing about moving fast.

Article — 2 May 2025 — 1,271 words

Keeping it real in the age of artificial intelligence

Society — Technology

Amid technology-focused hype cycles, the job of human-centred practitioners is to remind everyone: the main reason people use technology is to enhance our connections with other humans in the real world.

Article — 9 April 2025 — 2,620 words

The pain in a name — Is information architecture right to call itself architecture?

Architecture — Information architecture — Technology — User experience

I have long felt uneasy about modern occupations associating themselves with high-status traditional professions. This has been brought into sharp focus for me since I started a role last year focusing heavily on information architecture, to the annoyance of my wife Alex, who is an actual architect.

Article — 4 February 2025 — 1,406 words

There’s no such thing as a technology problem

Business — Social science — Society — Technology — Web

Information has become the forgotten half in “information technology”. Tech companies are struggling because they aren’t focusing on the human problems they need to solve.

Article — 8 January 2024 — 754 words

Meeting up with Pulp in the years 2023 and 2024

Music

I went to just two concerts in 2023, and they were both of Pulp’s performances in Scotland.

Article — 19 August 2023 — 1,733 words

Britpop, braindance and broken politics — How 1990s optimism became passé

Culture — Music — Politics

Britpop has been having a moment again this summer, prompting investigations into why the scene fizzled out. The conventional explanations are unconvincing. Electronic music tells us why.

Article — 20 January 2023 — 1,220 words

The gradual death of AM radio takes with it a curious part of Britain’s psyche

Media — Society

1215 AM. Not quarter past midnight, but a radio frequency familiar to generations (although perhaps not any of the younger ones). Today it has stopped broadcasting. As AM radio slowly disappears, a bit of British folklore goes with it.

Article — 6 November 2022 — 1,179 words

One twit can make a service a dodo

Digital — Politics — Web

I have complicated feelings about the apparent imminent demise of Twitter in the hands of a reckless owner.

Article — 11 January 2022 — 877 words

Awooga! The metaverse was better 29 years ago

Media — Technology

What’s most surprising about the metaverse is just how lacking in ambition it is. This is a half-hearted rehash of a 30-year-old idea.

Article — 9 November 2021 — 1,032 words

Be usable, not consistent, not uniform

Design — User experience

Consistency is often seen as a slam-dunk argument in favour of an initiative. But if you don’t know what you want to a design to be consistent with — and why — then consistency risks confusing your users.

Article — 21 October 2021 — 1,758 words

Design approaches aren’t sufficient to be human-centred

Design — Social science — User experience

Many designers talk about user-centred design. But design approaches alone aren’t sufficient to ensure we are human-centred. Design approaches can be used carelessly — or even maliciously — to centre the designer and sideline the user.

Article — 2 July 2021 — 1,431 words

Pace layers in experience design — Stabilise innovation by understanding people’s needs

Design — Social science — Society — Technology — User experience

Innovation falls flat when it doesn’t respond to a human need. Use human-centred approaches to understand people’s fundamental motivations and needs. These are the stabilising forces for innovation.