Folk Interfaces
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Folk Interfaces
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Re: Folk Interfaces
#2On the etymology of "folk", saying that it the word comes from Old English folc is true, although a vast over-simplification. A lot of languages share this word.
This is actually an ancient word, you can trace it back to proto-Germanic "fulka", and further to Proto-Indo-European "plh-gos" (presumably pronounced something like phulgos or pholgos, close enough to folk).
Re: Folk Interfaces
#3> No matter how much well-intentioned user research these companies invest in, they'll never be able to produce software that fully meets the needs of individual users and culturally distant communities.
Domain experts being able to solve their own problems sounds is a worthwhile objective for software tools but innovation in this space has been surprisingly sparce.
I've been searching for other examples of end-user programmmable tools beyond spreadsheets for inspiration. Anyone have suggestions of some other places these kinds of "folk interfaces" show up?
Re: Folk Interfaces
#4On the etymology of "folk", saying that it the word comes from Old English folc is true, although a vast over-simplification. A lot of languages share this word. This is actually an ancient word, you can trace it back to proto-Germanic "fulka", and further to Proto-Indo-European "plh-gos" (presumably pronounced something like phulgos or pholgos, close enough to folk).
If you want its direct ancestor, then it's perfectly true. The etymology further back than that would be irrelevant, and also unattested.
Re: Folk Interfaces
#5> No matter how much well-intentioned user research these companies invest in, they'll never be able to produce software that fully meets the needs of individual users and culturally distant communities. Domain experts being able to solve their own problems sounds is a worthwhile objective for software tools but innovation in this space has been surprisingly sparce. I've been searching for other examples of end-user…
MS Access databases.
Re: Folk Interfaces
#6> No matter how much well-intentioned user research these companies invest in, they'll never be able to produce software that fully meets the needs of individual users and culturally distant communities. Domain experts being able to solve their own problems sounds is a worthwhile objective for software tools but innovation in this space has been surprisingly sparce. I've been searching for other examples of end-user…
The entire Low Code / No Code and RPA / IPA markets exist for this. Airtable, App Smith, etc are a modern, web-based take on Access.
The more generic a tool is, the more creative people get with it. For example, emailing a file or note to yourself is a folk interface. Using a Facebook group to role play is a folk interface.
Nothing has come close to matching spreadsheets though.
Re: Folk Interfaces
#7Some random folk practices I've come across:
* Blocking, stacking and pulling creep camps in DOTA. Unintended behaviours that became core game mechanics.
* Comments in the tag section of Tumblr posts, to avoid the comments appearing in a reblog ("Why do people use tags on tumblr instead of comments?" [1])
* The appropriation of switching MOSFETs such as the IRF510, designed for low frequencies, in homebrew amateur radio QRP power amplifiers. "In talking to International Rectifier, they were floored to find out QRPers were using them at 7MHz or higher." [2]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/nu4vpa/w...
[2] http://www.iw3sgt.it/IW3SGT_PRJ/IW3SGT_AMP_LF/ClassDEF1.pdf
Re: Folk Interfaces
#8Another article in a similar vein, that I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday: https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app/
Re: Folk Interfaces
#9Some random folk practices I've come across: * Blocking, stacking and pulling creep camps in DOTA. Unintended behaviours that became core game mechanics. * Comments in the tag section of Tumblr posts, to avoid the comments appearing in a reblog ("Why do people use tags on tumblr instead of comments?" [1]) * The appropriation of switching MOSFETs such as the IRF510, designed for low frequencies, in homebrew amateur ra…
Twitter's "retweet" and "hashtag" were both folk innovations that became product features. People used to write 'RT @user "comment"' to retweet.
Re: Folk Interfaces
#10> No matter how much well-intentioned user research these companies invest in, they'll never be able to produce software that fully meets the needs of individual users and culturally distant communities. Domain experts being able to solve their own problems sounds is a worthwhile objective for software tools but innovation in this space has been surprisingly sparce. I've been searching for other examples of end-user…
Visual programming tools, such as Grasshopper 3d, have created a microworld of custom-made plugins and user interfaces, mostly to generate 2d and 3d geometry, but often used to achieve other programming feats.
There are even explicit plugins that let users create UI components to control and visualize program inputs and outputs.