There are many thoughtful details in this experimental creative thinking tool from , but rather than write about those, I wanted to highlight how incredibly valuable (and rare) detailed design reports like this are: inkandswitch.com/capstone-manus.
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This report might look like a portfolio case study, but the goals are different. Case studies must focus on showing great work and communicating an approach; reports like this convey a system of ideas, their influences, and their consequences so that others can build on them.
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By documenting the chain of reasoning from past work to user research to design attributes, and by describing all the approaches they tried instead of just the final design, others can build on not just the interface design but the thinking behind it.
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In that sense this kind of report shares many goals with academic research publications—particularly design-based research (e.g. andymatuschak.org/files/papers/2), but with a practitioner's cultural values and priorities: more qualitative, more pragmatic, more willing to speculate.
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I wish there were so many more reports like this! What wonderful learning opportunities. A few other favorites in this style:
youtube.com/watch?v=UGCkVH (in video form!)
worrydream.com/LearnableProgr
My team at KA's been trying to write in this style, e.g.
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(One other great consequence of being culturally practitioner-centric: this lovely appendix on considerations around their prototype technology stack! inkandswitch.com/capstone-manus)
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In the sense that most academic publications have a similar tone and structure, I wonder if we’d see more of these reports if there was a generally accepted template to follow? (And if there were central journals to feature/publish them?)