The quiet standardisation of everyday software

Interfaces across unrelated products are converging. That is partly craft, partly consolidation.

Open five applications built by five companies and the differences are increasingly cosmetic. Shared component libraries and a small number of design systems have made a certain look into a default.

There is a real benefit: users learn one set of habits and carry it everywhere. There is also a cost, and it is harder to see — when everything behaves the same way, it is difficult for anything to behave better.

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