When Swiping Supplants Scissors: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens — and how Designers Can Help The history of technology is full of innovators who got their start creating with their hands.…
I recently (and finally!) got to talk at length with author Cory Doctorow, who famously coined the perfect term for when technology platforms and products rapidly decline in…
Here’s Why We Think It’s Amazing I’m incredibly excited to award Calm Tech certification to reMarkable Paper Pro, an innovative paper tablet with a color display. I recently completed the…
I’m excited to announce that the Calm Tech Institute (CTI) just announced the launch of Calm Tech Certified™, a certification program designed to help companies create products that…
Centaur Solutions For Customer Support: Amplifying AI Efficiency with Human Empathy When customer service systems are poorly planned, people can get trapped in automation loops. This results in experie…
Our “Smart” Devices Still Have a Blue Light Problem — But There Are Solutions Many appliances often glow bright blue at night. I recently spent the night at a friend’s house.…
Meet me at CES 2024! I’m helping launch the latest product from mui Lab, an award-winning creator of home devices based on Calm Technology principles. I’ve been advising…
Monsieur Hulot encounters a massive office culture in Jacques Tatit’s 1967 film Playtime Amber Case is author of Calm Technology and a Research Director at the Metagovernance Project. A…
Sometimes we need to tell our devices what to do. Illustration by the author. If you’re lucky, you awake in the morning to an overeager puppy who bounds onto…
Inside the Very Human Origin of the Term “Artificial Intelligence” — And Its Seven Decade Boom/Bust Cycle With so much growing interest and fear around AI, it may be helpful…
Windows are the ultimate pass-through technologies. The best example of a technology interface is one you rarely notice — even if it’s powerfully enhancing your reading experience of these words…
In my new book, The Perfect Fit: Creative Work in the Global Shoe Industry (University of Chicago Press, 2022) I study the work of repair and maintenance necessary…
Introduction This is is a multilingual comic that serves as a meditation on the infrastructures of COVID-19, care, and time. In the spirit of the multilingual spaces I…
In the film Doctor Dolittle (1967), the title character yearns to “Talk to the Animals,” as the song goes, to understand their mysterious and often vexing ways. It…
A live performance of Oliver Bown’s Zamyatin system with clarinetist François Houle This blog post comes out of a discussion with Ritwik Banerji about the ‘hidden’ role of…
Sydney Yeager INSIGHT · STRATEGY · INNOVATION Innovation powered by empathic insights and data-driven decision-making. As a digital anthropologist, I synergize qualitative and quantita…
This browser does not support HTML5 audio Listen to an audio recording of this post read by Zhou Zhou “You win the lottery! You are a millionaire! You…
Sometimes it only takes a “spark,” a “simple, focused intervention,” a “single stroke of genius,” or “the single prick of a needle” to release the flows and create…
A degree in sociocultural anthropology may not be the most obvious background for a food stylist, yet it was a love for hands-on, detailed fieldwork that led me…
Suzana Jovicic Credits: Thomas Sobottka It is Friday night in a youth centre on the outskirts of Vienna; the lights are dim, and loud local Rap music is…
The ability to communicate is often taken-for-granted and imperceptible, despite being vital to everyday life. It defines our social performances as family members, professionals, and neighbors. Moreo…
Eigentlich ein perfektes Haus. O.W. Ungers, der ein Haus ohne Eigenschaften bauen wollte und dabei scheiterte, hätte hier sein Vorbild gefunden. (Foto: genova 2020)
(Foto: genova 2020)
Ein Schokokuss aus Waschbeton. Danke dafür. (Foto: genova 2019)