Writing and elsewhere
Short essays on TikTok, long ones on Substack, longer videos on YouTube, and talks, a podcast and collaborations in between.
Essays
- social media is ours Our absolute reference point for media is the platform company. We measure everything, including the alternatives, against it, and we assume that is where the power sits.
- the log is replacing social mediawhy we hate bios, and what niche social media platforms are doing about it.
- Your Phone Can’t Read Your Mindon how we all fell for big tech propaganda
- Smart Meters are a Conspiracy TheoryInformation design, the climate crisis, and the need for a visible explanation
- The Interface Goes PublicInterface design used to be a private choice. Regulators are making it public — and someone has to translate between the two.
- Don't Call It Slop On Frankfurt, Cohen, Graeber, and why the mess in your feed deserves a word with a politics.
Everything else is on Substack, and the books behind it are on my reading list.
Elsewhere
- Lecture
UC Berkeley: taste, critical design and politics
A remote guest lecture in 2025 on why taste is never neutral: who gets to decide what good design looks like, and what that decision is really protecting.
- Talk
Every product contains a behavioural argument
J. Paul Neeley invited me to show how I audit products for hidden persuasion and redesign them so they still hit growth targets without manipulating anyone, using Omniana, a LifeOS designed around happiness, as the worked example.
See the post - Talk
UX Glasgow: designing for Gen Z
UX Glasgow had never invited a Gen Z speaker before. I used the slot to argue that social media literacy, not screen-time limits, is what my generation is missing, and showed how that research shapes my design work.
See the event - Podcast
Sluggish: reclaiming our digital lives
Why understanding your phone beats trying to control it, what leftist values look like when they reach a design file, and what ADHD-friendly tools could be if they weren't sold as productivity.
Listen - Interview
Surveillance and resistance, with Irma Besirevic
How smartphones choreograph what we do, where persuasion turns into coercion, and what tech built with communities rather than aimed at them could free up.
Read the interview - Writing
Catalyst: teaching teenagers to read their feeds
The short, accessible version of my research: how design education could change the way teenagers use social media, and why that matters more than taking their phones away.
Read the piece