Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It
by Mike Monteiro
My rating: ★★★★★
Ok, I’d like to start by acknowledging that I know that this is my third “closing chapter” and all 3 of them have 5 star reviews. Whatever. Don’t care.
When I picked up this book from my library branch I thought it was rather appropriate that a book called “Ruined by Design” was tattered to begin with. I don’t remember how I came across it, but I’m glad it. If you’ve asked me about 6-7 years ago if I’d be reading or thinking about ethics, I would’ve probably laughed and said “no”. Not because I was unethical, but because I was naïve enough to think that thinking/discussing about ethics was a) boring and b) a privilege for white people with spare time and deep pockets.
But here we are. The world is a complete mess and I understand better that what the concepts I already explored in my head were actually included in ethics/moral judgements, and talking about them helped polished or find cracks in reasoning.
The timing of this book couldn’t be better either. I’ve been struggling to see my place/impact in the company I work for, with the art I produce, and with my existence in the world. It definitely helped seeing some opportunities and/or spark new dreams. 🙂
Favourite quotes
Monteiro, Mike. Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It. Mule Design, 2019.
We need to fear the consequences of our work more than we love the cleverness of our ideas.
(Monteiro 20)
The current generation of designers have spent their careers learning how to work faster and faster and faster. While there’s certainly something to be said for speed, excessive speed tends to blur one’s purpose.
(Monteiro 31)
I’m all for protecting free speech. Let’s start by amplifying the voices of those who’ve been silenced, not protecting the voices of those who’ve silenced them.
(Monteiro 34)
Uber set out to build a tool that democratized access to cars. It ended up building a tool that further impoverished the poor. The service model was fine, but the financial model it used for growth could only ever be as ethical as the people who strove to benefit the most.
(Monteiro 44)
Pro tip: if your boss asks you to do something and says, “It’s not technically illegal,” it’s probably unethical.
(Monteiro 57)
Creativity can’t be the cornerstone of a design foundation anymore. We need to teach students the responsibilities of their craft, and it needs to be done at the foundational level. We need to value the consequences of our actions more than the cleverness of our ideas.
(Monteiro 61)
“We’ve built a thing. It looks like shit. Make it not look like shit.” It’s a bit like asking someone to turn a folding chair into a mid-century lounge chair. I can duct tape a pillow to the seat, but the actual opportunity to design any comfort into that chair is long past.
(Monteiro 68)
There’s no quicker way to destroy someone’s confidence than teaching them what they’re saying isn’t as important as what you’re saying.
(Monteiro 79)
You were not hired to get approval or to be graded or to have your work pinned to the company fridge. Too often, designers present their work as if the goal is to get someone to like it, as if our job is to make someone happy. (Ask yourself how many times you’ve ended a presentation with “Do you like it?”) That’s not the job. You were hired to solve problems. Your work should be evaluated on how well it solves those problems (without creating new ones.)
(Monteiro 107)
Obviously, making money is important in most endeavours. When it’s the primary reason for doing something, I begin to worry. First of all, money-making opportunities change with the wind. You don’t want to get into a months–or years– long relationship with someone based on where the wind is currently blowing. Secondly, and most importantly, when people’s main driver is financial, that means the health of the people using the product and the products effects on society are by definition secondary.
(Monteiro 113)
The goal of feedback isn’t to find out if people like what you made. We already discussed that. “I like it” isn’t good feedback. It’s shitty feedback. It contains zero information. “This right here is broken” is good feedback. It tells you there is a problem. You can explore that further. Ask the person how it’s broken. Keep digging until you get the root of what the problem is, and then fix it.
(Monteiro 117–118)
Twitter’s never taken a step against harassment. They’ve taken steps to stop bad public relations. That is very different. They care about their brand, not the people using their service.
(Monteiro 123)
Facebook can identify your grandmother in a photo of thirty people, shot in the dark, with your uncle standing in front of her, wearing a Blake Bortles jersey. They have some pretty smart people designing some pretty sophisticated software. They could easily make the elimination of private gun sales automated and effective. If they wanted to. When someone asks you to take on a chore they could more easily do themselves, it’s generally because they don’t really want to do it.
(Monteiro 135)
To design is to influence.
The important work won’t get done at the pixel level. A pixel is just a point of proof in the stage of execution. It’s the period at the end of the sentence. That sentence though? That’s the important thing. To design is to influence people. To design is to build new connections in people’s minds. To design is to build relationships where there previously weren’t any.
(Monteiro 142)
There comes a time when despite our best efforts, despite the persuasion, the fighting, and the best of all possible efforts of good people, things cannot be saved. The foundation is broken. Those in charge are rotten. The effort it would take to fix something, even if everyone could decide on how to fix it, wouldn’t be worth the time and investment. Or worst, a product is so inherently broken, evil, and run by unethical people that its very onerous existence only serves to further toxify society.
(Monteiro 164)
There’s a dark side of communities as well. That dark side is insulation. When the reason for community changes from “keeping those inside safe” to “keeping those outside, out” we lose perspective. We stagnate, and we stop introducing new ideas.
(Monteiro 173)
(…) In that essay, she detailed the many many incidents of harassment she encountered at the company and how her human resources department refused to do anything about them. Your human resources department does not work for you. They work for your employer. Their job is to protect them, not you.
(Monteiro 189)
What I hear when designers complain about regulation is that they don’t understand what the job is. They don’t see themselves as “making a thing that people can use,” but rather believing that for some insane reason, companies and organizations owe them time, budgets, and resources to make some fucking art. (…) Design is the solution to a problem, but that problem is never your self-esteem.
(Monteiro 201)
