narrowdesign.com
Design / Prototype / Code
This portfolio is a glimpse at the way I design and prototype in code. Design something familiar, program it to do something unexpected, make sure people feel something.
Experiments
Solo-Devs and Risk-Takers (An Artistic Exploration of Experimental Tools)
Interesting observation is that “solo-dev” seems to be the new indie.
...In this case, I think it’s great when things get brought back to the basics… Work by just one person counts as something. It brings value to the table in ways that work by large teams never will because it’s the unique voice, perspective, and intention of just one person that you are experiencing when you are playing their game. Experimentation can thrive here.
...It is particularly interesting when you look at the tool space. Tools outside of the mainstream, made by just one person, a group of friends, or a small team… all asking “what if”, and then exploring how their tool can empower creation in an idealistically creative way.
Re: Looseleaf Demo
Primer
Enhanced Data
Immersive data visualization experiments powered by Three.js + Svelte + SvelteKit.
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughs.
andrewtrousdale.com
Andrew Trousdale is a researcher and designer. His initiatives and projects bridge positive psychology, human-computer interaction, and the creative arts.
No more forever projects
The half-life of obligation is short; the half-life of guilt is long. Promises never saved one of my side projects, but they clogged many nights and weekends with the gunk of regret. Something had to change.
My friend Jamie Wilkinson once told me about a decision he’d made. No more forever projects, he said. From now on, every project is one-time-only. Treat beginnings like endings: celebrate them, document them, let someone else pick up where you leave off. If the project’s worth repeating, there’s nothing to say you can’t still be the standard-bearer. But at least it’s a choice. By ending well, you give yourself the freedom to begin again.
These days, all my projects start as experiments. No forceful promises, no forever projects. Gravity seeps into the things that stick around.
Untitled (White Light Grid Series-H)
The entire box is suspended from the ceiling by only four evenly spaced monofilaments, so that it seems to float with no physical connection to the wall or to a power source. Behind the wall (which must be purpose-built and is quite thin) is a cabinet containing four Tesla coils. The coils emit a high-frequency energy that passes through the wall and lights the tubes. The energy pulses a bit, making the tubes flicker at times both vertically and horizontally. The Tesla coils make a crackling static sound that is mostly muffled by the barrier wall, while the neon tubes emit a low hum that is audible close to the work. The work is elegant and slightly menacing, evoking something of a mad scientist's experiment.
AJDVIV
HyperScope
HyperScope 1.0 provides enhanced power and efficiency to your internet browser in a simple, easy-to-use format. HyperScope 1.0 is enabled when browsing webpages tagged for this purpose. The simplest form of HyperScope browsing offers these value-added features:
- Zoom buttons for zooming in and out of structure
- automatic numbering of each object for easy reference
- jumping by number
- custom view settings
- use of the numbers and custom view settings inside URL links
All designed to provide unified access into a "living" repository of documents, email and other dialog records, intelligence collections, briefings, source code, workflow, etc.
Tinkering with hyperlinks
I made a teeny software sketch.
Each of the “web pages” (they’re just pretend) has the standard avatar bar across the top, like Google Docs or Figma. The more people there are at the destination, the bigger the hyperlink halo.
ALSO: when you hover over the link, you appear in that avatar bar too, peeping. Everyone in the room can tell you’re looking in!
Hyperlinks should look different if it’s busy at the other end. Like: maybe they should be noisy, or glow, or have a yellow halo that gets bigger and bigger
THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF "UN-CURATING"
DOUBLE CURATION → leads to ENCOURAGED LIMITATIONS → leads to HOMOGENEITY → leads to EVEN MORE INCREASED CONFORMITY PRESSURE → leads to REDUCED EXPERIMENTATION → leads to IMPERSONAL SPACES which we are gaslit to believe are the result of HYPER-SPECIFIC (i.e. HYPER-PERSONAL) ‘CURATION’ → leads to LIMITED EMOTIONAL CONNECTION.
WE ARE ONLY MOVING TOWARDS EACH OTHER
Stray Thoughts on “Old Masters and Young Geniuses”
The experiment of living
How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?
The Value of a Personal Site
A personal site offers a dedicated place to experiment across the entire tech-stack; not a deliverable for a client that is handed over and then never touched by me again. A personal site is a place to try out that new API, see what can be done with CSS, truly discover what the Web can be.
Aesthetically motivated curiosity
It seems that the first and most imaginative use of practically every material was, before quite modern times, in making something decorative. People are experimentally minded when looking for decorative effects, but they can’t experiment with the established techniques on which their livelihood depends.
/
It is of basic significance for human history that, from the cave paintings on, almost all inorganic materials and treatments of them to modify their structure appear first in decorative objects rather than in tools or weapons necessary for survival. Aesthetically motivated curiosity, or perhaps just play, seems to have been the most important stimulus to discovery.