Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps

This month, we’ll dive into the essay Malleable Software, published by the Ink & Switch lab.

Link for the article: https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/malleable-software/?ref=sidebar.

The text challenges the traditional model of software as a closed, commercial product. Instead of forcing people to adapt their workflows to rigid tools, it envisions a future of malleable software — tools that can be reshaped, adapted, and truly owned by their users.

But this conversation goes beyond technology. It’s about agency, culture, and digital literacy. On one hand, malleable software only makes sense when users have the knowledge and conditions to truly appropriate technology.

On the other hand, we face an industry where commercial logic still dominates — where “user experience” often functions more as a business justification than as a cultural foundation.

As designers, researchers, and makers, the challenge is to ask: what changes when the user is no longer just a consumer, but also an author of the tools they use?

Join us to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and collectively explore this future (or maybe present) of digital experience.