I think most responses to his posts are missing that this is the most important part:
> In practice, the only thing that makes web experiences good is caring about the user experience — specifically, the experience of folks at the margins. Technologies come and go, but what always makes the difference is giving a toss about the user.
> In less vulgar terms, the struggle is to convince managers and tech leads that they need to start with user needs. Or as Public Digital puts it, "design for user needs, not organisational convenience"
This is the most important thing. The entire article series is making this point in great detail, and also being very angry at orgs (especially public services!) that don't get this.
I think this message does get a bit buried under invective against React. Surprise surprise, if you do start with user needs, then sometimes that does lead to you building a React-based SPA. I think from Alex's perspective working with organisations, looking at it from the other direction: for any given React SPA, it is unlikely that React was chosen because of user needs.
The problem is that this fundamental claim undermines the entirety of the argument. You can build a good web experience in React if you care about the user experience.
I don't find the argument to be undermined by this. From my perspective, his strong statements against React read as deliberately lacking in nuance just like the conventional wisdom of "just use React and don't think too hard about it". It's a deliberate overvorrection away from the status quo. There can be room for nuance once the default assumption has been shaken.
I get why people are offended or find it unhelpful. If you read through his Reckoning series, I hope you'll understand some of the righteous anger he has for organisations that fail to serve the user, even when public service is their explicit purpose.
Blaming it on React may not be the most effective strategy. Who knows. But I still find value in the message.
> In practice, the only thing that makes web experiences good is caring about the user experience — specifically, the experience of folks at the margins. Technologies come and go, but what always makes the difference is giving a toss about the user.
> In less vulgar terms, the struggle is to convince managers and tech leads that they need to start with user needs. Or as Public Digital puts it, "design for user needs, not organisational convenience"
This is the most important thing. The entire article series is making this point in great detail, and also being very angry at orgs (especially public services!) that don't get this.
I think this message does get a bit buried under invective against React. Surprise surprise, if you do start with user needs, then sometimes that does lead to you building a React-based SPA. I think from Alex's perspective working with organisations, looking at it from the other direction: for any given React SPA, it is unlikely that React was chosen because of user needs.