Ephemeral Design Manifesto

Purpose

In a world where software must evolve or perish, we embrace a principle often overlooked:
The value of things that are designed to disappear.

Ephemeral Design is a mindset that encourages developers to build systems with impermanence in mind—favoring modularity, replaceability, and minimal long-term baggage.

Principles

Favor deletion over preservation.
Removing outdated or unused components should feel natural—not painful.
Design with a clear exit strategy.
Temporary features and experiments should always come with a built-in plan for removal or replacement.
Ephemeral Design Manifesto
Keep experimental or low-confidence components loosely coupled to reduce unintended dependencies.
Be honest about what might disappear.
Make it clear—by convention, structure, or documentation—which parts are meant to be transient.
Optimize for change, not permanence.
Code should support the present, not fossilize the past.

Practice Hints

Modularize everything: small parts are easier to remove or replace.
Isolate experimental features from the core domain logic.
Document the lifespan of components, especially if temporary.
Avoid over-engineering for uncertain features.
Use structure or conventions to indicate ephemerality (e.g., separate directories, metadata, flags)—but balance clarity with elegance.