Cliff Kuang

Cliff Kuang

Designer and journalist, author with Robert Fabricant of User Friendly (2019), a history of user-centred design from wartime cockpits to persuasive technology.

Who they are

Kuang's book traces how design moved from blaming users to designing around them, and how the same methods later produced persuasive and deceptive designs. His sharpest observation is that blaming the user is the most comforting explanation, because it means the least has to change.

Key papers

Kuang, C., with Fabricant, R. (2019). User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play. MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Key ideas

See Dark Patterns.

Sources

  1. Kuang and Fabricant (2019). Read in full by this publication, with a reliability audit.