kryobot (Page 17)

The messiest state

From Alexander Obenauer's Lab Notes 35:

"It isn’t good enough for our systems to be capable of beautifully perfect organizations; we will find their messiest allowable state at some point."

I love that term: The "messiest allowable state".

Thinking about the perfect user journey is often a joy – even if we throw in fixes for common pitfalls. It's just so easy to be wrapped up in imagining how everything clicks together and how the user will just flow through the experience that we have layed out for them.

Reality is often different. We are dealing with humans after all: We're in a rush. Not reading carefully. Just wanting work to be over. Thinking about the "messiest allowable state" for our systems accounts for that in a way that is so much more evokative to me then simply calling it "edge cases". It puts the actual humans who interact with the machine back at the center – with all the messiness that comes with that.

Sterile Art

Translated from the german newspaper Die Zeit:

"(...) In fact, we should be living in a golden age for wild, rebellious, and subversive art. Finally, there are conventions, linguistic regulations, prohibition signs, the right morality and customs, that can be violated - and as bearers of the moral of progress, a Justemilieu, a public of the righteous and well-intentioned, who are also willingly provoked. It really couldn't be any better!"

But, spoiler: It's not happening.

Very good article that perfectly sums up the current cultural enviroment, in my opinion.

Sparrow Solitaire for Playdate

I'm still very much in love with my Playdate – even though I don't use it much at the moment. After the initial joy of getting and exploring a new game every week and seeing who can get the highes scores in Whitewater Wipeout (great game!), things have quiet down in recent weeks.

BUT: I want to spend more time with this cute device. And the final release of Sparrow Solitaire seems like a great excuse to do just that.

Armoury

In the armoury of Haut-Koenigsbourg.

Citizen Sleeper

I just finished playing Citizen Sleeper. Wow - what a game! A masterclass in delivering great punches with so little fanfare: After all, it’s „just“ a text adventure, with some dice mechanics and a bit of RPG progression thrown in. On paper there is not much of a game here. But, whoof… nothing could be further from the truth.

So much of the game comes to live in your mind: When the amazing art, the great writing, the perfectly tuned soundtrack and the interplay of mechanics and story effortlessly click into place to manifest as real tension, anxiety, hope, belonging… It’s enthralling.