Story In Progress
This story is in progress because I like to create in the open. If anything seems unfinished or doesn’t flow it’s probably not quite finished yet.
Intro
Part 2 of the One Quest Story is all about the exploration I did around my digital identity. What is a digital identity? How do digital Identities currently work? What could be improved with the current systems? These are the types of questions I was really curious about. Asking them really helped me figure out how I wanted to shift my digital experience to something completely new and very exciting with One Quest.
If you haven’t read part 1 of the story, you might want to start here, and you can explore all sections of the story here.
Discovery: Shifting Mental Models
Why do I want my own digital identity and system when there’s already so many?
Honestly when I say shifting mental models, I mean it! For the past 9 years I’ve been heavily invested in my digital experience and crafting it in to something beautiful that I love using and that matches my values and vibe. During that time I was almost exclusively focused on using Google’s system of digital experiences. In many ways it still matches so many of the things I value. It’s simple and streamlined with one account that can access so many core digital tools and experiences. And although they’re certainly not without flaws, Google experiences are genuinely quite polished overall (especially over the last few years).
But back in December 2023 I started exploring alternative options and learning much more about the open source community and the possibilities of open technology and digital experiences. Things like the Fediverse (which I had an account since 2022 but didn’t use much), Fairphone, and others. I started questioning if Google really was the best solution for me and so many people in the world. I was asking why so much tech had to be based around one group’s vision of what tech could be? Why were there so few types of experiences out there with any real differences? Why couldn’t I create a phone (pocket computer) to match my needs in both hardware and software? And what if I could swap things out depending on my needs? What if technology could truly adapt and evolve with us as we grow as individuals and society? Why do companies continue to pump out new devices every year, when they’re really quite polished and mature now? Why not instead explore how to enhance and improve them as needs arise and but hold on to the main components longer? Couldn’t there be systems like this?
I was curious about the privacy aspect of it all as well, but ultimately that didn’t really vibe with me much and I realized it’s because I don’t want to own and control everything about my digital life. I don’t want to manage all the technical details and configurations or learn about how it all works together. I would rather let experts take care of those things (at least for now).
But as I continued thinking about it I had an epiphany moment where I realized the reason it mattered to me to make this change now.
For me it really came down to the fact that I wanted something much more personal and customizable. Something that really speaks to me and speaks loudly to others about who I am. I felt I was lacking the magic that technology promises and I knew that if I could personalize it and create something with it for myself that I could feel that magic again. And I was right! More on this to come….
How is One Quest my personal digital identity?
Its an identity that’s not tied to an outside company or brand, but that’s totally personalized and created by me. Just like I can make an identity on a social media platform or with a big corporation and they’ll assign their identifier, handle, or brand to it, I flipped the script and made a digital identity all my own. It uses my domain, my identifier and instead of being tied to one platform, brand or company, One Quest is all me. This is just the beginning and I have so many incredible ideas of how I think the digital world can better represent individuals and be personalized for who they are and who they’ll become. A flexible and customizable system that’s not tied to somebody else’s vision of what my digital experience or presence needs to look like, feel like, or how it has to function. SO stoked for this journey!! 🔥👑✨
Here’s some of the notes I took while exploring, including some of the domain names I looked at before deciding on onequest.me as “the one”. I was genuinely curious about one.quest, but since it was $2,000/year that was a definite no. 😂 I think onequest.me worked out better anyway for the vibe I want.
It’s so satisfying to have a digital identity, brand and presence that’s fully customizable by me. One that accurately represents who I am, what I value, the aesthetics I like and that will be flexible to come with me throughout my life. It’s not tied to someone else’s vision of how a digital experience needs to look and feel. It’s something built for me and an extension of who I am in the digital realms. I feel that as technology continues to evolve and grow, people are going to continue to want to personalize and customize their experience more deeply. This is my way of exploring how that might happen in a future where tech is more open to all.
Discovery: Social Media
Why is One Quest more than just a design portfolio?
Another piece of this journey that was fun to explore was thinking a lot about all the different types of content that we share digitally and the platforms we do it on. Why are they all separate? Why do I need one account for this and another for that? What if I just want to share content no matter the type and connect it to my digital identity for anyone, anywhere to find. That way, if I want to share some words, I can. If I want to record a video, I can. And anyone can come to one spot to see everything related to my identity. Unfortunately we’re not that close to this future, but many of the pieces are in place for a radical shift in technology and our digital identities.
Over the last few years I’ve been removing myself from all the “popular” bug tech social media platforms. I didn’t realize how powerfully this would connect to what I’m exploring and building with One Quest, but it has. I wasn’t intending to build One Quest until the end of last year, but I knew that as part of my value of minimalism, I wasn’t enjoying having different accounts and profiles fragmented across the internet. Why would someone need to follow me in multiple spots to get the full picture of who I am and what I’m creating/sharing? And why would I post content in so many different areas? It’s a lot to coordinate and keep up with! No wonder people are sometimes burnt out with tech! I want our experiences with tech to be a beautiful and meaningful experience for as many people possible. I don’t know if what I’m building now is the answer for everyone, or if it’s even gonna work for anyone. But it feels so much better for me, and so I’m starting there. More on this to come…
Discovery: Defining Constraints
I believe that every design project or really any quality system needs to have a solid understanding of both possibilities and constraints. Just like a solid brand need to know not only who they are, but who they aren’t. Both pieces contribute to a much more clear picture than one can give on it’s own.
It was really fun to define the constraints and possibilities for this project. Some things were obvious because of how deeply I value them. Things like:
- Needs to be mobile first cuz I love designing for mobile devices and love using them!
- Needs to be fully editable on mobile Android devices so that I can easily design the experience no matter when inspiration strikes
- Needs to be built with open source tools that can connect to other open platforms like the Fediverse
Side note: I did actually design some of this experience while riding a train in Spain and I was able to do it all on my Android device (and no, it wasn’t a foldable). I’m not talking just writing articles, but editing the styles and structure of things. I love it!
Because of these constraints I was able to find WordPress and have really enjoyed using their visual editor, Gutenberg. The first time I used WordPress back in 2015 I was not a fan, so I was very hesitant. And, to be honest there was a lot of mental shifting I needed to do to understand how to use the tool in the ways I needed. But after lots of experimentation and creativity, I’m really surprised with how much I’ve been able to build. Up until a few days ago I had built almost the entire experience using my Android tablet and phone (pocket computer 😉). I just started testing out a new mechanical keyboard on my Linux computer and that’s been a fun experiment. But I still plan to primarily design and create everything in my digital domain on Android.
Discovery: Testing Possibilities
How have I decided on some solutions over others?
As part of this process I’ve been exploring lots of different tech and I’ve learned a ton about the open source community, alternative app stores, and even explored alternative mobile operating systems. I installed LineageOS on one of my old Android phones and installed something called Magisk too. It really pushed me into challenging territory cuz I had to do it all in the terminal. I’m suuuuuper rusty at using that and have really basic developer knowledge. I’m very impressed with myself that I actually succeeded though.
More on that later, but for now I wanted to talk about some of the alternate apps and experiences I tried out. One of the best parts about being in this really exploratory phase is that I’ve been able to relive some very nostalgic memories. Back in college I was in a similar phase of exploring so much new tech and there was a vibrancy like no other. That’s cuz it was the beginning of the social media boom and smartphones were becoming more mainstream. It felt like so much incredibly cool stuff was happening. I mean wild stuff. Like when both Facebook and Mozilla started working on their own mobile operating systems! Man, what a time to be living. In a lot of ways I feel like we’re entering a similar era in tech yet again, and if so, I’m very excited.
So all that nostalgia definitely helped push me forward and kept the momentum strong when difficult challenges came up that blocked me.
One specific platform I explored as a side project to this one was a personally branded Nextcloud. It was a lot of fun, but for now I put that experiment on pause cuz of some limitations with Nextcloud customization and personalization. More details on this coming later.
Outro
I hope you’re starting to get a sense for what One Quest is and how I created it. I’m sure there’s things I’ve missed or need to improve. I’m very interested to hear from you about any gaps you see in the story, or things that you think might help in crafting more of the One Quest experience.