Connects the Nordic concept of structured work rhythm to the dynamics of high-stakes decision-making depicted in Succession.
Applies calm technology principles to life-critical environments where information overload and poor interface design have documented consequences.
Documents the ways automated notetaker bots violate meeting etiquette and proposes design standards for AI call participants.
Uses beloved legacy products to argue that durability, repairability, and single-purpose design are virtues worth reviving.
Explores the neurological basis for why horizontal visual banding — as in wainscoting — creates psychological comfort and spatial orientation.
Critiques the trend of replacing physical room controls with iPad interfaces in hotels, and proposes calm alternatives.
Speed is a design choice. So is slowness. Notes on what gets built when you stop optimizing for immediate response.
Argues that touchscreen-only interfaces deprive users of the haptic and motor benefits of physical tools, with consequences for cognition and skill.
Designers work with materials — steel, wood, pixels, code. Attention is also a material. It is finite, it fatigues, and it can be wasted.
Identifies the deep structural problems — weight, social friction, limited use cases — that no current manufacturer has solved.
Investigates the biological effects of artificial light spectra and proposes design standards for healthier indoor lighting.
The kitchen is where most people have their most intimate relationships with technology. It is also where those relationships are least examined.
Applies calm technology principles to large language models, proposing engineering constraints that reduce AI anxiety and information overload.
Makes the case for physical controls and textured interfaces as cognitively and emotionally superior to flat, screen-only design.
When we create designs, we are defining what is possible — and what is discouraged. Design is policy made physical.
What we lose when screens become frictionless — and what it would mean to design surfaces that push back.
On how designed environments shape the senses and how material choices mediate the experience of well-being.
Reports on the reMarkable Paper Pro tablet receiving Calm Tech Certification for its focus-first, distraction-minimizing design.
A curated gift guide of products that embody calm technology principles — communicating through the periphery rather than demanding attention.
Announces the Calm Tech Institute's product certification program and its inaugural class of certified calm technology products.
Proposes a human-AI collaboration model for customer support that uses AI for speed while preserving human judgment for complex cases.
Returns to the blue light issue with updated research and specific product-design recommendations for reducing harm.
Argues that Apple's on-device, privacy-first AI model sets a better standard than cloud-dependent alternatives.
How our tools become extensions of cognition — and what that means for the way we design them.
Announces the launch of the Calm Tech Institute and its mission to certify products that genuinely respect human attention.
Argues that targeted internal documents — not grand strategy — are the most effective lever for shifting organizational behavior.
A manifesto for designing technology that earns attention rather than demanding it, as the foundation for a healthier digital future.
A holiday gift guide of products — timers, analog tools, ambient devices — that reduce digital friction rather than adding to it.
Argues that the VisionPro, despite its technical quality, faces the same structural adoption barriers that have blocked every prior AR/VR headset.
Proposes a three-part model for understanding how people respond to stimuli — impulsively, reflectively, or creatively — and how design should account for each.
Documents the process of turning a home into a calm, air-quality-aware environment using low-intervention sensor design.
Argues that structured rituals in meetings and creative work build the shared context that produces better ideas.
Applies the social norms of etiquette to voice assistants and notification systems, asking what it would mean for devices to have manners.
Introduces the concept of pass-through design — technology that facilitates human goals and then gets out of the way.
Offers a framework for distinguishing genuine technological shifts from hype-driven narratives that never materialize.
Argues that every design decision encodes values and constraints, making design a form of policy that shapes what users can and cannot do.
Makes the case for cybernetics as essential background for anyone designing adaptive, feedback-aware technology systems.
Identifies emerging design themes — simulated nature, adaptive lighting, and passive power — across new consumer products.
A roundup of CES 2023 products that demonstrate calm technology principles, with focus on ambient and sleep-oriented design.
Envisions what browsers designed around creator compensation and user privacy could look like as an alternative to the current model.
Synthesizes feedback from creators who received Grant for the Web funding on what worked, what didn't, and what's needed next.
Argues for user-controlled data infrastructure as a prerequisite for ethical technology platforms.
Makes the case for Puma Browser as a Web Monetization-enabled alternative for creators and privacy-conscious users.
Proposes using DAO governance to organize real-world shared dining experiences backed by NFT membership.
Announcement of a strategic role at Unlock Protocol to develop NFT-based membership and subscription models.
An update on the micropayments landscape examining which approaches have gained traction and what obstacles remain.
A practical guide to implementing Web Monetization via the Interledger Protocol to earn revenue without advertising.
A historical investigation into why micropayments — despite decades of promise — have consistently failed to take hold on the web.
Explores how decentralized finance tools could create patient-controlled health records and new models of medical funding.
Announcement of a Mozilla Foundation fellowship to research and prototype alternatives to ad-based web monetization.
Surveys the landscape of micropayments, cryptocurrency, and web monetization as alternatives to the advertising model.
Traces the underappreciated engineering work behind seamless device pairing as a case study in invisible good design.
Diagnoses the structural problems — gesture ambiguity, social friction, and inflated expectations — that have repeatedly stalled AR adoption.
Argues that science-fiction depictions of technology set false expectations that lead designers toward spectacle over usability.
Examines the gap in accountability when connected devices malfunction, and who bears the cost of that failure.
Proposes specific design interventions for non-places that give people a sense of orientation, identity, and belonging.
Applies Marc Augé's concept of non-places — airports, lobbies, transit hubs — to argue that design can restore meaning to transient spaces.
Explores how intentional sound design shapes user behavior and emotional response in ways visual interfaces cannot.
A practical checklist for product teams to audit whether their designs demand unnecessary attention from users.
Investigates how the prevalence of blue light in screens and interfaces disrupts sleep, mood, and attention.
Examines how technology designed to operate in the periphery enhances rather than diminishes what makes us human.
Announcement of a research fellowship at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center focused on internet and society.
Argues that the problem isn't human inability to adapt, but that technology is poorly designed for human attention and cognition.
Argues that we are living through a series of small, incremental technological singularities rather than one transformative moment.