computing you can hold
[TI-13] webstones, mobile apps, and intimate handheld computing experiences
assorted hands from my webstone workshops
A person's hand can tell you so much about them. Perhaps it's only natural because they are our instruments for creation.
Maybe that's why there's something so intimate about designing a computing experience that unfolds in someone's hand. Designing a mobile app and handheld devices should, therefore, be an act of love.
Unfortunately, it doesn't feel that way for many, if not most, of our everyday mobile experiences. Most apps feel like they've been designed to check off requirements and not for people to use. Some even feel like they actively work against what you want, to hold you against your will. Others simply feel like they want your money (or your data to sell for money).
Our devices are trapped in platforms that allow for little experimentation, with companies spending millions lobbying against modifying or repairing devices and open payments.
Between making a mobile app and webstones (and the experiences that these stones should lead you to), handheld computer experiences have been a bit of an obsession recently.
Hosting these workshops has shown me all the different ways we hold our phones and conceptualize how they talk to other things. We each have a personal relationship with our devices, from the unique way we hold them to how we choose the wallpaper and font to the way we arrange our apps.
And in a world where we're always expecting more from our phones, watching people make something for their phones is a strange and humanizing experience. In these workshops, these phones feel like their own individuals. One participant in the webstones workshop created a notch in the stone to cradle their phone’s corner, and L created a pillow for their phone to go to sleep (do not disturb mode).
There's a tenderness to introducing clay in this way, activating our hands as the creative tools they are and in a way that "gives back" to the devices that do so much for us. These creations feel intimate in the way that a handheld computing experience should. They introduce a new possibility, a new branch to unfold in our relationship with our devices.
It feels impossible to imagine this kind of relationship with our devices when our narrative with mobile technology is fraught with tales of exploitation, from endless hours of scrolling to apps that won't let you do the thing you want and need to do1.
But when these mobile experiences go well, there is so much potential for magic. I see it in the sparks of joy and wonder when people tap their phones to my webstone and see the prompt for my website pop up on their screens. I've seen it in the yelps of wonder and the excited chatter when people start imagining their own webstone possibilities at these workshops.
I'm excited for a future of handheld computing that feels like this, shaped by people's hopes, filled with play, and open to possibilities.
I talk about the relationship between our hands and our devices because I'm interested in the texture of computing. And by that I mean, what does it feel like to interact with a computer, with our mobile devices? What emotions are prickled and what kinds of memories arise? How does the digital environment hold your hopes and make space to achieve your desires? Does it feel fun to use? Does it make your body resonate like it does when you see a star shoot across the sky, when you hear the crash of waves standing at the edge of a beach, when you feel the warmth of the day fall to cool night as the last rays of sun set over the horizon?
A handheld digital experience should be as intimate as it feels to hold someone's hand. You must support the phone's full weight with your body, and it must support the full weight of your generous attention. It's not a one-way extraction, but rather an exchange—a kind of barter. In return for your labor, it must deliver something, an experience, a tool, a place—one worthy of your concentrated gaze.
This is the bargain that must be upheld each time we interact with the computers in our hands. This is the contract we must remember in our everyday digital experiences. This is the deal we made.
an alien-like plaster mold of my hand holding a phone
So when does a mobile experience uphold its end of the bargain?
It feels fast. It feels sturdy and trustworthy.
It feels expressive and personal. It feels warm, reassuring, and accepting, like an old friend, the kind you can pick up a conversation with even after several years apart.
It should feel playfully magical. It should feel inviting and full of possibility, like a dance circle that calls you in.
It makes it feel like it's okay to be yourself. It should feel like a collaboration, a communion, like the moment you touch hands with someone you love for the first time—the moment you feel their heartbeat meld with yours.
When have you felt this way with a mobile experience? What else should they feel like? Please share your inspirations with me.
Latest News
"minute faces": I made a clock that allows you to become with the unique face of every second of the day for Taper 12: check it out or learn more on my website
I've been hosting workshops for making your own webstone, lately at madsci (thanks zain!) and at stanford (thanks kelsey!! reply if you'd like to join the next one and i'll make sure to send the link to you when it gets organized.
I released some sneak previews of Gather, the mobile client for collecting & cultivating data collections. It's available now for my sponsors (any tier). Support my indie work if you can 🧡
I gave a talk at Gray Area about my practice and the Internet: recording here
This dispatch was sent to 770 inboxes. My writing is independently funded and made free and possible, in large part, through the support of the community. Consider sharing this with a friend and tipping me if you have the means and want to see this work continue!
Thank you to the 24 people who supported my independent work with a monthly sponsorship last month and especially to Jasmine for their generous sponsorship.
otherwise, known simply as "bad software"
I would love to attend your next workshop on making webstones! So cool! :o
aw so honored to support you!! ❣️