I first heard about Malleable Software last year on Ink & Switch's blog. It's a simple idea — what if users could change their software?
I completely fell in love with the concept. It feels like the right to repair but for software.
But how do you actually make existing software "Malleable"?
It doesn't mean turning everything into an all-in-one. We've seen this experiment play out for long enough and it's not the answer. I don't want a Swiss Army knife to do every task.
It's more subtle than that. Most software is good at the thing it tries to do. That's the result of innovation and deep understanding of the problem domain. But the nature of software is it only really satisfies 80% of the needs of any given customer.
Covering that last 20% surfaces two major issues.
- Just because you want a feature, doesn't mean everyone else does.
- The more we open things up (like open source, marketplaces, or plugins) the more expertise you need to fix the problem yourself.
So what has changed?
For the first time, the tools we're using to build features are the same tools customers can use to do the same. We're speaking the same language at long last.
You don't need to learn to code. You don't need to learn the right vocabulary to build a custom app. You don't have to trawl through 750 marketplace widgets.
Now I'm not claiming Rough Features can replace your inbuilt features. They're lightweight. They'll get you from 80% to 85%.
But they’re a start at opening our tools up to our customers. Giving them the right to modify, even if it’s tightly controlled.
It's our first step towards Malleable Software, but it's the first of many.
— Jacob