Positive feedback loops are powerful tools. For designers aiming to create change at scale, they can be hard to resist.
A positive feedback loop occurs when an effect perpetuates and amplifies itself. Despite its name, it’s not always a good thing. When a microphone and speaker are caught in a positive feedback loop, they can quickly produce a deafening screech.
The appeal of positive feedback loops lies in their ability to achieve a lot with a little, and to do so rapidly.
Sometimes, they’re so effective that we overlook the need to build in a counterbalance — a negative feedback loop.
This design omission can lead to serious complications.
As long as they operate in a finite environment, unchecked positive feedback loops will eventually unravel both themselves and the systems to which they’re connected.
Take capitalism as an example. In many respects, it’s miraculous. In mere decades it’s lifted billions from poverty, but its lack of a break system seems poised to reverse much of the progress it’s enabled. If it continues to erode the political, environmental, material, and social foundations upon which it stands, a collapse seems inevitable.
So am I arguing that designers need to avoid positive feedback loops? Hardly!
In fact, I think they might be one of the best tools at our disposal for building a fantastic future in a timely manner.
What I am advocating for however is a more thoughtful approach to their implementation. Designers who make use of positive feedback loops must ensure that a strategy for reigning them in is woven into the fabric of their project. Ideally it should be set up in a way that kicks in automatically when the time is right.
And when is the time right to shut a positive feedback loop down?
We should aim to arrest the cycle just before it crosses the threshold from useful to destructive. Figuring out where that threshold lies, and how we’ll know we’re approaching it is a key part of the designer’s scope. If history is any indicator, it’s probably a good idea to err on the side of conservatism when it comes to our estimations.
Designable.blog 