Building software that respects your attention.
A short documentary about A/B testing, algorithmic optimization, and the small act of ignoring both. In 2009, a Google designer quit over forty-one shades of blue. The machine was making his decisions — and it was often right. About what it means to make something by hand in a world that can tell you, with a number, exactly what would have worked better.
A short documentary about music formats, streaming, and the quiet thing that disappeared when your library became endless. Oh, and a musician (me!) trying to work out whether the music changed, or I did.
The internet you grew up on isn't dying. A commercial veneer glued on top of it is. A visual essay about the protocols, federations, and quiet machinery underneath everything you actually use — and why the boring parts are the parts that survive.
Communication technologies have been reshaping the human body in a slow migration down the arm. They've run out of body. Now they're reshaping the message. A visual essay about the cost of every medium we've ever built — and what happens when the next one doesn't need your body at all.
I started a blog for shorter writing and project updates, and a newsletter to tie it all together. The visual essays aren't going anywhere, but not everything needs animation and a month of research. Just a thought and a place to put it.
This watch costs twelve dollars. It weighs twenty-one grams. It has told time the same way since 1989. A visual essay about the objects that came alive, the labor they externalized onto you, and the peace of a thing that does what it does and then shuts up.
A visual essay on Current, an RSS reader for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Why it exists, how it thinks about reading, and the design decisions behind it.
You're reading this in a feed reader, which means you probably care about RSS. I'm building one. An RSS reader for iPhone, iPad, and Mac called Current, focused on calm and clarity instead of inbox anxiety. It's in beta. Email rss@terrygodier.com with your Apple ID email and I'll get you a guaranteed slot in the TestFlight. You're exactly who this is for.
An RSS reader built around calm and clarity is now in beta. Here's how to get in.
Why listening to smart people doesn't make you more thoughtful. You're not bad at remembering podcasts. Podcasts are bad at being remembered.
Why RSS readers look like email clients, and what that's doing to us.