What a library approach to digital wayfinding gets right
A practical reading of a question that rarely gets a straightforward answer.
The short version
The most useful interface is the one that makes the next step obvious without making the current one feel stupid.
Look past the launch and the language of transformation, and a simpler question appears: who is doing the work when the attention has moved on?
“If it cannot be repaired, it was not finished.”
What it means in practice
Materials carry politics. What something is made of determines who can fix it and where it goes when it breaks.
Scale changes the problem. A solution that works for ten people can fail at a hundred if the support structure never grows with it.
What to watch next
A well-designed object teaches its use. A badly designed one requires a manual that nobody keeps.
What to watch next is not a forecast but a question: does the change make the ordinary version of Design easier to sustain?
For now, a library approach to digital wayfinding remains a work in progress. That is not a disappointment; it is the normal condition of anything still alive.