January 7, 2026

Issue no.14: Software is culture

Figma

A hand reaches through a phone and shakes another hand on the other side.

From ordering delivery in a pinch, to finding genuine connection and meaning, software touches nearly every part of our lives.

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Illustrations by Erik Carter

With AI graduating from tool to teammate, we’ll be able to design software that’s better tuned to our needs. Here’s what that means for us not just as software builders, but as a culture.

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Design is culture

It’s easy to forget that the gestures that are now second nature to us—pinch-to-zoom, infinite scroll, tap-to-like, and beyond—were once new. To see where we’re headed, we present 10 iconic interactions from our recent past. Read on to understand their outsize impact on how an entire generation thinks and feels.

A woman’s outfit changes from basics to a brown puffer jacket and futuristic glasses.

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Language is culture

Last year, it seemed like every middle schooler in America was suddenly obsessed with saying “6-7.” Though its origins are unclear to anyone born before 1995, we know that it wouldn’t have gone viral without social media. We talked to linguist Adam Aleksic about the curious ways algorithms change how we speak, think, and relate.

Collage of slang words like “aura,” “67,” and “rizz,” each in a different typeface and texture.

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Chat, are we cooked? How language has become the new metric of virality

We sat down with linguist Adam Aleksic, author of “Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language,” to learn how algorithms shape not just how we talk, but how we think and relate.

Gaming is culture

Gone are the days of Pong. Powering a $184 billion industry, today’s video games are complex worlds with multiple game modes, compelling characters, and side quests. Yet players still navigate them with the humble game controller. Epic Games designer Aashrey Sharma unpacks how a few simple inputs have shaped a rich world of interfaces and what that can teach us about software more broadly.

Person sits on beanbag playing video games in a surreal, gridded meadow landscape, facing oversized pale spiders with his furniture and belongings scattered around.

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Press start: How controllers shaped video game design—and where interfaces may go next

Aashrey Sharma, a UX designer at Epic Games, shares what video game navigation can teach us about building the next generation of interfaces.

Food is culture

When entrepreneur Aaron Veale learned that a farmer goes out of business every week in British Columbia, he was seized by a sense of urgency. He knew he could make an app to connect local growers and restaurants, but recruiting a team to build an MVP would take time. So, he turned to Figma Make. Here’s how Aaron prompted his way to a working app in less than three weeks.

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a yellow numeral three overlaid on a dark green numeral three

Version control: One founder’s mission to save local farms with Figma Make

Factory farms and rising costs are putting British Columbia’s small growers out of business at an alarming rate. To fight back, entrepreneur Aaron Veale used Figma Make to build a marketplace app that helps farmers sell their produce—all in a matter of weeks.

Fabrication is culture

Once designer Kelsey Fairhurst got a taste of working with her hands, she couldn’t get enough. To perfect the process of making her “softline brutalist,” stainless steel flatware, she bounced between a studio in Brooklyn and a fabrication shop in Cleveland. Years of research have resulted in launching Forks Plus, a project Kelsey is bringing to life with Figma.