stop changing GUIs
please leave shit the fuck alone
— https://packmates.org/@noxypaws/115600632953728511
What if every application exposed an API? The application may come with a vendor-provided GUI, but an API empowers you to create the GUI that works for you, not against you. Applications from MEGACORP try to account for most things they think people want to do…this approach is largely hit and miss.
As consumers/users, we only have two options. 1) deal with it or 2) move on. The hidden third option is to be so annoyed by said application that you make your own, and the cycle continues.
I'm a bit of a design snob. If an application is the bees knees and everyone loves it, I won't use it if I think the design is poor. Obviously I make do with what's available but I won't be happy about it. I use MailMate not because it's won design awards, but because it's the least offensive stylistically and it does its job well; show me my emails.
Sometimes my issues are with design systems and the way things have always been done. Refer back to organizations designing for the masses. Decent email clients will give you the same two-/three-pane view modes and call it a day. What if I want an accordion view? Click on an email and its contents expand below it. Click the subject again and the accordion slides out of view. Even if I were to build my own email client (something I've attempted off/on for years), there would be feature requests I don't care about. Again, refer to the cycle continuing.
(sketch of an email application, with some ideas)
At the end of the day, the only differentiation of email clients boils down to 1) do you know/trust the creator, 2) does the design of the feature set fit your workflow, 3) can you use on all your devices?
Modern computing is ~40 years old as of 2025. The industry is starting to buckle under the weight of behemoth walled gardens. The fervor and hubris of glorified chatbots is threatening to end in a disaster much worse than the dotcom boom. Why are (the royal) we not thinking and doing different? Billion dollar valuations, acquisitions left and right, super intelligent (allegedly) developers building the future and…this is it? Okay.
I don't pretend to be the savior of computing. The ideas and thoughts within this newsletter going forward are intended to spark conversation and hopefully, action. The concept of bringing your own interface to every application appeals greatly to me, a chronic customizer of compromised constructs in my day (I'm talking about Windows XP, the pull of alliteration was too strong). User choice is amazing. The creativity and ingenuity of the internet proves this regularly. Believe it!
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