Ash Growney
Ash Growney is a UX designer and researcher who’s work focuses largely on narrative and introspection related interfaces, as well as questioning the status quo within UX design.
"I felt obligated to work towards change in how many interfaces within various services have problematic designs, that don't meet the user needs of people they are meant to be designed for, due to profit orientations driving designs or discriminatory design operating through standardisation. Additionally I feel there is an inherent issue with oversaturated, repeated template-like structure of web2 online experiences . I don’t think it encourages an intentional or reflective participation of the user.”
Fungal Forest Digital Garden.
For my Final Major Project I looked at how standardisation within design can lead to problematic outcomes - such as overextended attention, discriminatory design and techno-solutionist products that don’t necessarily meet user needs.
Stemming from my interests in fungi and digital gardens, I decided to explore how I could apply fungal teachings to creating online interfaces that reject standardisation in some capacity.
The prototype has two main features: Reflection: Users are asked to reflect on patterns or behaviours they notice online, within themselves or the collective. They are then posed with the choice if they want to nurture and grow those ideas, or if they want to “compost” them, let them degenerate. They can additionally “regenerate” thoughts through “emptying” their compost. Social: Users are asked to select people whom they wish to “collectively scroll” with. They traverse a forest pane collectively with a toggle interaction. They can only go a certain direction if all users choose to traverse that way. This increases receptivity and curiosity towards the interests of their existing social connections. Additionally users can “plant” content they find within social or private “gardens” (archiving content).
Blurring the lines between web1 vs web2 interfaces (topographic in relation to digital archiving but linear in relation to social interaction), Growney's website prototype leans into emergent trends around non-linear brainstorming tools, as well as acknowledging a lack of genuine community cultivated within platform capitalist "infinite scroll" social media platforms.