DeathlikeMorphology
Deathlike morphology, in software, refers to the overall "shape" or FormalProperties of a system that does not serve the needs of its inhabitants and cannot adapt to change. Such systems are likely to have a short life (or, unfortunately often, a long, miserable one).
The phrase "deathlike morphology" comes from ChristopherAlexander.
Deathlike morphology of an artifact is often accompanied by a kind of intellectual and aesthetic suicide on the part of its creators that stems from a deep loathing of what they are required to produce. As an example, I quote from Apple's marketing copy for the Big Sur operating system:
Windows have a lighter, more spacious appearance that makes them cleaner and easier to work with [...] Sheets in apps have been completely redesigned, removing borders and bezels to put the focus on your content. They automatically dim the background and scale into the center of the app. [...] New symbols in toolbars, sidebars, and controls bring clarity and consistency [...]
In other words, the computer—the physical machine—is an unfortunately necessary evil, an inconvenient footnote: something to be minimized, hidden, spread thin until translucent, and abstracted to within an inch of its life.
Remember when Apple made computers that were fun? When scrollbars were fat caterpillars of jellybean, and window bezels had the glow of brushed aluminum? When buttons looked like something you wanted to click on, rather than something merely "clickable"? Remember when handheld devices fit in your hand, and their interfaces were designed around the revolutionary concept of the opposable thumb? What the fuck happened?
Some might argue that new minimalistic designs are supposed to be more "efficient" in how they use space, but look how much dead space there is in this UI:
The irony is that increasing pixel densities of screens have merely begotten a parade of design aesthetics that waste more and more pixels—presumably so people keep paying for bigger, more expensive computers. If you actually go back to the Aqua designs of Mac OS 10.6 or so and count the pixels, you will be shocked at how space-efficient they actually are.
Let's do a quick MirrorOfTheSelfTest, shall we?
- Which of these images would you choose to represent yourself—you, the whole you, just as you are, everything that is good and bad about you?
- Which one makes you feel more like yourself?
- If you were to be reincarnated as an operating system, which one would you want to come back as?
And, having asked that question, we can ask: do we want to spend a big chunk of our waking hours interacting with things that don't make us feel like ourselves? That we don't feel an affinity for? That alienate us? That make us worry if there's something wrong with us?
These FormalProperties of abstract systems contribute to deathlike morphology.