Automy? When NO gets ripped out

Alastair Somerville
1 min readAug 5, 2024

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Read for free https://acuity.design/automy-when-no-gets-ripped-out/

Word Autonomy printed out and the NO ripped out

Designing for Autonomy is critical to accessibility. Enabling people to do the thing they want, with the amount of assistance they choose. Personal intent and agency mixed together.

What can happen tho is that, in the rush to deliver frictionless usability, the ability to say No disappears.

Many products and services support Automy.

Autonomy with the NO ripped out.

Specifically, in engaging with the product or service, the person is drawn into a process without any exit apart from completion.

More broadly, in having no choice in whether to engage or not with the product or service at all. ‘Digital first’ civic systems suffer from a lack of meaningful autonomy for this reason.

Saying No matters.

Supporting that must be a part of any design process.

We all need to be able to say No.

Humane design must enable it.

Originally published at https://acuity.design on August 5, 2024.

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Alastair Somerville

Sensory Design Consultant, usability researcher and workshop facilitator. www.linkedin.com/in/alastair-somerville-b48b368 Twitter @acuity_design & @visceralUX