Today’s applications provide closed systems that can not be modified or extended to suit the needs of the user. Settings, plugins, modding, and even open-source don’t fully address these limitations. Worse, they create sharp cliffs between a worker’s power and skill required for tailoring.
The solution is malleable software—a philosophy of software as resuasable, configurable tools that offer a “gentle slope” to tailoring. Malleable software leads to powerful systems that can be adapted to the specific environment of the user with varying degrees of skill.
Read Malleable software - Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps from Ink & Switch.
See also:
- One of my favorite examples is that Emacs is the ultimate editor building material
- While this is akin to one of one software, I like that the authors insist that community and collaboration are important to malleable software
- As a counterpoint, applications are almost perfect for commercialization and that makes popularization of malleable software more of a cultural innovation than a technological one