We watch first. Then we build.
Fieldwork for workflows — we embed with your team, prototype three fix approaches, watch which one sticks, and scale only what the team adopts on its own.
We sit with your operations lead on a Tuesday afternoon and watch the duplicate-data-entry happen with our own eyes. then build the thing that makes it stop.
Selected Archives
View all casesSam Tailor
Digitizing analog measurement systems without losing the tactile craft of bespoke tailoring.
Fairfield House
Mapping community interactions to build a transparent, automated resource distribution network.
Avialta
Re-architecting complex data pipelines based on observable human cognitive load limits.
Havenlijn
Observing dockside handover rituals before rebuilding the dispatch layer around them.
Northgate Clinic
Reducing triage cognitive load by mapping every interruption a nurse absorbs per shift.
Escola Nova
Turning teacher workarounds into the specification for an automated reporting system.
Ferralta
Documenting shop-floor tacit knowledge and encoding it into a maintenance workflow.
Civic Ledger
Tracing paper trails through three departments to design an honest digital seam.
Watch. Map.
Build. Hand off.
Explore our methodologyThe friction of 'seamless' interfaces.
In our recent observations of educational contexts, and also of ai use in workplaces, we have observed the unbearable ligthness of digital being. We found that automating to entirely remove "friction" often removes key moments of human feedback and tactile negagement. This this then means less and less information really sticks.
We have seen that deliberately building human 'friction' into process both improves outputs, as well as helping the people involved connect to and learn from what is happening. The goal isn't to build a seamless system, but a system with intentional seams.
