Jesmond Allen
@jesmonda.bsky.social
Human-Centred Designer. Mum. Sporadic knitter. Co-author 'Smashing UX Design' book. Not a suburb of Newcastle.
and I think the main issue with the behaviour of frontier AI labs and assertive billionaires is they believe they can choose for everyone. But the wonder and brilliance of humanity is we are all different: some people are good at some things, some are good at others, that's what makes us amazing
We're so deep in ostrich head in sand territory. This is a whole of government response needed. This isn't the responsibility of one department either to own Net Zero or to deal with mitigations for climate change. It is impacting EVERYTHING.
Bender@djbthirteen.bsky.social · last mo.It's utterly bizarre that the Government's reaction to the heatwave is to chat about obviously inadequate measures (bans on disposible BBQs?) rather than running the world's biggest victory lap over Net Zero.
Presumably if you select “Middle English”, your doctor immediately offers you bloodletting and a poultice made from frog blood
Someone had just emailed me on a Friday night to ask if I have any thoughts to share on AI in digital govt and I think my answer is that we should focus on making basic services work for everyone and stop worrying about AI
Any incoming minister for AI should be tasked with replacing a load-bearing spreadsheet from a critical service, to give them the insights into why no one has done it yet. The ministerial equivalent of breaking a horse.
In a break from my usual Funding service posts, I’ve written about my other portfolio. And one of my favourite things, Portals! The portal trap cathydutton.co.uk/posts/the-po...
The portal trap
No one likes portals, one-stop shops, single front doors or gateways, so why are they the go-to solution for so many large organisations?
cathydutton.co.uk
A short blog post I want everyone with expertise to read www.muledesign.com/blog/curse-o....
Lift This Curse (from your communication) — Mule Design
Common sense isn't common. Assuming your audience knows more than they do can wreck your ability to communicate. Don't blame ignorant people before examining your own biases for the curse of knowledge...
muledesign.com
I'm in the grip of about 10000 massive deadlines, so I've obviously spent this morning writing a newsletter about a topic that is completely and utterly tangential buttondown.com/justenoughin...
The Sports Car Theory of LLM Adoption
If LLMs make decision makers feel stupid, maybe they'll stop using them?
buttondown.com
Listening to Starmer, and wondering why (for the nth time) no govt has pressed for regulating algorithmic recs and "infinite scroll". Says they are taking "world-leading action" on gaming and video-streaming services and that they will "have to adapt their approach as technology changes".
Regulating children is not the same thing as regulating social media platforms. Seems very important to distinguish between the two. However, social media platforms tend to be run by powerful billionaires, so easier to go after the kids instead.
Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 3mo agoAs govt is going to ban social media for kids, then they should also: - invest in youth clubs and social spaces where young people are welcome - put some actual money into libraries - mandate that secondary schools supply offline learning resources - implement effective regulation
Sign up for our next HCD in health network online talk 🎉 www.onehealthtech.com/events-1/oht...
OHT Better HealthTech by Design: Better Together: Clinicians + Designers in the NHS | One HealthTech
onehealthtech.com
a new post, the first in a two-parter, on the epistemology of design mikegallagher.org/posts/the-lo...
Mike Gallagher: The logic of conjecture
On the epistemplogy of design and the importance of making things to think through problems
mikegallagher.org
The deadline to apply for student loans is on Friday. The Student Finance England website is down for maintenance 😬 #greattiming
A characteristically inspiring talk yesterday from @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social at #CampDigital encouraging us all to recognise the power we have, particularly when used collectively. Join the Society of Hopeful Technologists if you’re down with that. buttondown.com/society-of-h...
I'm currently working on an AI safety review and the extent to which "tech bro makes car, the wheels fall off" is an extended metaphor for the last decade is not to be under-estimated
David Roberts@volts.wtf · 5mo ago🤣
The time between fossil fuel crises is just going to keep shrinking, until there's no discrete single "crisis" - just one unbroken prolonged state of global suffering due to fossil fuel unreliability The best time to ditch fossil fuels was 30 years ago. The second best time is now
See also: sketching and wireframing by hand for early stage prototypes
Sarah Hörst@planetdr.bsky.social · 6mo agoA brilliant grad student in the group I did my postdoc in wrote all his papers by hand on yellow legal pads. When I asked them about it they said the slower writing process matched their thinking speed better.
I really don’t know how you square the “social value” part of public procurement bids with the stuff this prick regularly spouts. Is this why we had to give them the contracts without a competitive process?
Mary Anne Franks@maryannefranks.bsky.social · 6mo agoPalantir CEO promises that his technology will reduce educated women's economic and political power newrepublic.com/post/207693/...
It is extremely difficult to construct a practical case against this position. Net Zero is now as much about patriotism as it is about climate change.
Farrukh@implausibleblog.bsky.social · 6mo agoPresident Macron making the case for renewables in light of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, "Everything we do to move towards transition is also about reducing our dependence and therefore our exposure to geopolitical risks"
This is not a shitpost, I'm serious. Adding things is so easy that any computer can do it. Determining whether it improves the whole (and leaving the whole intact when removing the excess) is purely human, because it requires a point of view.
Vibe coding broke people's brains because they had a bad understanding of the software design process. The pop culture model goes something like this: start out with a sketch and then render that same idea in progressively finer detail. So when tools could "skip" to high detail, people went WOW.
This is a good principle for design in general: When users tell you there's a problem, they are usually right. When users tell you how to fix it, they are usually wrong. (bonus: if you replace "user" with "stakeholder" this still applies)
Robin-Yann Storm@rystorm.com · 7mo agoOf course you shouldn't just do what players ask you to, but if they continually ask for something then there is obviously a problem or a need somewhere that is unaddressed, and it is up to you as a designer to find that need and address it properly. That's basic design principles!
Reminder that the Call for Sessions for September's @sdingov.bsky.social event is open: govservicedesign.net/call-sessions Conference theme: Democratising Design: sdingov.net/democratisin...
Call for Sessions
Our SDinGov call for sessions is now open
govservicedesign.net
If you know enough to say if it's true, you know too much to tell if it's clear (credit: @cjforms.bsky.social)
Erika Hall@erikahall.bsky.social · 7mo agoI'm once again seeing experts call people stupid for not understanding something those experts themselves know very well. This has become my bat signal for the Curse of Knowledge.
If the rumours are true and the kids and social media consultation opens today, here are two things I think should be banned from social media: 1) AI bots 2) recommendations algorithms that optimise for time on site Firm regulation of both of these things is possible and auditable
New post: Can we use 'test and learn' methods in the NHS? What would it take to do so? Long but important! I think this is one of the biiggest delivery questions facing the UK government. medium.com/@jamestplunk...
Can Test & Learn methods save the NHS?
On the challenge of using these methods here
medium.com
