A review by happy_stomach
Design for Real Life by Eric A. Meyer, Sara Wachter-Boettcher

3.0

It's hard to argue against compassionate design, but this book doesn't sit entirely well with me. It seems to ignore **why** we need more compassion in design. It's not only because technology touches so many lives, all of those heartbeats, but because so much technology has led us to believe that giving away our most intimate information is OK and without consequence. It also seems that the case for compassionate design is easier to make, that stress cases are easier to identify, when talking about very targeted experiences like a period-tracking app or a government office website. Designing for stress cases for more general-use technology, say a browser or smart home technology like Alexa, seems infinitely harder and not addressed by the authors.