Proposition: All design is hostile design, otherwise it would just be engineering, fully determined by functional considerations.
The only thing that changes is the target of the hostility.
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Nope. Not wanting to use something ugly *is* a functional consideration. A tool nobody wants to pick up doesn't work.
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I mean hostile design in the sense of anti-homeless spikes. Where free design variables are used against some class of people rather than just left free.
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A design can be benevolent, trying to uplift the user in addition to providing essential functionality. Domains that intersect a lot with art (architecture, literature) are good examples.
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Game design is building a maze that people want to figure out how to traverse even if they think they want it easy
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This assertion seems tenuous based on semantics alone.
There's a "howness" to everything made. Thoughts to actions span informal to formal, unmindful to mindful. Design & engineering & other practices apply socially transmitted *skills* of various intentions & all media contain biases inherent to their inherent social construction.








