Foreword

I’VE SPENT MY entire adult life surrounded by people who create digital experiences—from the era of desktop software to the birth and blossoming of modern websites all the way to today’s social networks and mobile apps. Two billion people now have some kind of access to internet technologies, and almost all of them are spending more and more time with their thumbs flicking across their phones. And the technology they’re using has a real impact on their lives. They don’t use an app to “share photos”; they use it to maintain a relationship with distant family. They don’t need to do “online banking”; they need to lend a friend money to help them out of a jam. Nobody wants to learn a complicated set of privacy controls; they just want to be able to express themselves without antagonizing bosses or in-laws.

For all the advancements we’ve made, these more human problems are still hard to solve. Most of the bugs that people in tech talk about fixing are mundane—a few pixels out of alignment, or a search form that’s slow to produce results. Far fewer of our conversations start with, How is this new feature supposed to make someone feel? or, Are we thinking of how people’s personal lives can be complicated and change over time? or, What happens if our app is used by someone who’s extremely vulnerable, either economically or politically?

These are the kinds of questions that Eric and Sara raise, and begin to answer, in Design for Real Life. They are worthy questions, and difficult ones, so we need guides to teach us how to think about issues that go far beyond the buttons on our screens. In a time when people creating technology have promised to transform and disrupt nearly every aspect of our lives, and when the people who succeed in tech have become some of the wealthiest and most powerful people who have ever lived, the need for a humane perspective couldn’t be more urgent.

All of us who create technology have a wonderful, challenging obligation to ensure that our work makes lives better for everyone it touches. Design for Real Life gives you the tools to start making sure the technology you create is as kind and humane as your intentions.

—Anil Dash