Life at a human scale

by | Mar 9, 2024 | Blog

Thomas Klaffke put out a great edition of his Creative Destruction newsletter today. It explored how different aspects of our lives would look if we returned to using a human/nature scale as the guiding framework for designing them.

He touched on things like businesses, cities, schedules, the internet, progress, and communities.

I wondered what it would mean when applied to a website.

To me, a website designed with a human scale in mind would include:

  • Pictures AND words
  • Simple, clear language
  • Demonstrated empathy
  • Lots of whitespace
  • Enough information to connect
  • Not so much information as to overwhelm
  • Probably no pop-ups
  • A clear “end” (of the page, of the navigation)
  • An obvious starting point (a “Start here” page or post)
  • An ability to find one’s way back to the start
  • A way to send a message or join a list
  • Something you can do
  • A date (that proves it’s still active)

I like this idea a lot. And I think we would benefit from more “human scale” experiences in our modern lives.

Scaling down,
James