What we learn from a library approach to digital wayfinding
A practical reading of a question that rarely gets a straightforward answer.
What changed
Good design is often visible only in its absence: a door that opens the right way, a form that asks only what it needs.
The context matters because a library approach to digital wayfinding sits inside a larger system. A decision that looks local often has consequences three rooms away.
“A design is a promise about how something will age.”
What the numbers miss
A well-designed object teaches its use. A badly designed one requires a manual that nobody keeps.
A small constraint can be useful. Limited time or money forces a clearer decision about what the work is actually for.
What comes next
Materials carry politics. What something is made of determines who can fix it and where it goes when it breaks.
The people who inherit this work will need more than a manual. They will need the reasons behind the decisions and the freedom to change them.
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.