Selected writing
I use 20 years of design, technology and product experience to enable socially responsible early-stage startups and fast-growing scale-ups to minimise waste, grow, and make a positive difference. I write and speaks regularly about design, digital technology, and social systems to explore and bring to attention how those domains interact and amplify one another.
Since my first essay, Do computers hinder creativity? written almost 20 years ago and turned into a talk for Ux Australia, writing about design and it's place in the world has become a critical practice to my development as a designer and communicator of design.
Featured writing
We can't help but put ourselves in the centre
We’ve persistently fail to recognise that our species isn’t ruler of all, but in fact dependant on all.
Design is faith first, then fact
To engage in a Design process requires a belief that the process will provide the answer. Testimony is not enough. One needs to experience it.
People not proxies
We’re running out of ways to explain to people why they should care about other people. Maybe we need to try something different?
When did software lose its softness?
Does software provide a way for anyone to customise the way they interact with the services and tools we make?
Digital exclusion is social exclusion
What role do software designers in the deepening and widening of social exclusion?
The problem with being problem solvers
What happens when the default world view becomes one where there is a solution to every problem? Might there be another way?
Software wants to disrupt everything but itself
The relationship between software and regulation is broken, but software is more likely to be able to fix it. It’s just… it doesn’t want to.
Faith in technology
Whether we know it or not, we all believe in something and many of us think that Technology will save us.
Somewhere between saviour and selfish
What do men gain by embracing gender equality? What do men lose by perpetuating historical views of masculinity?
We, the endangered
What role do software designers in the deepening and widening of social exclusion?
Other writing
I've has written literally hundreds of essays on design, some of which no longer reflect my views. I will, in time, upload them here but if you're looking for a particular essay, please contact me and I'll do my best to dig it up for you.
Always was, always will be
I have lived and worked my whole life on Gadigal (Sydney) and Wurundjeri (Melbourne) land, in Australia. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I do my work and I pay my respects to elders past & present. I acknowledge the sorrow of the stolen generations and the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I support the Uluru Statement of the Heart and I also recognise the resilience, strength and pride of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Through my work, I aim to help as much as I can to empower and help them thrive.
© Matt Shanks 2010-2024
This site does not use cookies or tracking codes like google analytics and tries to limit hi-res imagery and javascript where possible to ensure as sustainable online presence as possible. All writing and opinions are my own and do not represent the views of the client or companies I work with (although I expect that we're pretty aligned on values anyway).