Scrappy

Summary

Scrappy reimagines software creation as a home-made craft: a canvas-based tool where anyone — no app store or developer accounts required — can build “Scrapps” that solve small, personal needs for themselves and their friends. You drag and drop UI elements onto an infinite canvas, attach simple JavaScript behaviors, and in a few minutes you’ve got a live, sharable, collaborative app.

At its heart is a belief that computers should work for people, not the other way around. The creators imagine a future where computing — like cooking or word processing — is available to everyone: where you can solve your own small, unique problems with small, unique apps, not just rely on mass-market software built by expert programmers, and share home-made tools with family and friends. Scrappy would let anyone with basic computer literacy make a simple app — and learn from there.

Scrappy is a step toward that vision. Each Scrapp is a live, persistent world — easily shared, remixed, and adapted — closer to familiar productivity tools than finely tuned developer environments. It’s part of a broader movement toward “small computing,” giving people the agency to craft software that matters to them.

We believe computers should work for people, and dream of a future where computing, like cooking or word processing, is available to everyone. Where you can solve your own small, unique problems with small, unique apps. Where you don’t just rely on mass-market apps made by expert programmers. Where you share home-made little apps with family and friends. Scrappy is our contribution to this dream. John Chang & Pontus Granström

Key concepts

• Personal & social apps Scrapps are designed to be made by and shared with friends, family, or small groups — no publishing or storefront required. The vision is to move away from mass-market, industrially-produced software toward more personal, even disposable tools that are tailored for and easily adapted to specific social contexts.
• Software creation as everyday craft Scrappy treats app-making like cooking or writing: an accessible skill anyone can learn to solve personal problems. It’s built on the belief that computers should work for people, and imagines a future where anyone can make small, unique apps for their own needs — and share them as naturally as recipes or documents.
• Live & collaborative Every Scrapp is multiplayer by default: live state is persisted, synced, and editable in real time while others use the app. Scrappy apps are “little shared worlds” that invite collaboration, conversation, and co-creation.
• Home-made software ethos Inspired by HyperCard and “small computing” principles, Scrappy puts tool-making into the hands of end users — to empower, express, and personalize. It’s a counterpoint to “there’s an app for that” thinking, encouraging people to make their own tools instead of relying solely on pre-made, mass-market software.
• Everyday problems, personal solutions Scrappy empowers people to tackle small but meaningful problems in their daily lives without waiting for a commercial app to appear. A professional can streamline work routines; a teacher can create interactive lessons; a hobbyist can whip up a tool for friends; even seasoned programmers can quickly build fun side projects without the usual setup headaches.

Scrappy shows that software doesn’t have to be mass-market or enterprise-grade. It can be personal, simple, and social—crafted for tiny problems by you, for you and your circle. It’s a vision of computing as a homemade craft, fostering creative agency and redistributing the means of software production.

This idea was originally published by John Chang and Pontus Granström as Scrappy. A follow-up essay by John Chang, Web development sucks, expands on the background, concept, connections to existing discussions and related movements, and outlines possible future directions. The prototype can be explored at scrappy.jrcpl.us.