HUMAN FIRST
Technology should serve the person using it.
01PEOPLE ARE WORTH DESIGNING FOR
TECHNOLOGYSHOULD HELP.
Barkly Labs builds software, AI, hardware, creative technology, research systems, and infrastructure around the people who have to use them.
The Barkly Standard exists to make that approach explicit: understand the human, build the system, test it with reality, document what happened, and improve.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
HUMAN-CENTERED
EXPERIMENTAL
HUMAN-CENTERED
EXPERIMENTAL
UNDERSTAND / DESIGN / BUILD / TEST / DOCUMENT / IMPROVE
PEOPLE ARE WORTHDESIGNING FOR.
Technology should make human life more possible, not more difficult.
The Barkly Standard is the design language underneath Barkly Labs.
It asks a simple question before technical capability, architecture, optimization, or novelty:what does this system mean for the person using it?
That means accessibility, understanding, autonomy, privacy, safety, creativity, and human participation are considered as part of engineering rather than treated as things to add afterward.
Technology can be powerful without becoming hostile to the people it is supposed to help.
Build the system around the human.
HUMAN FIRST.ALWAYS.
UNDERSTANDABLE
People should be able to understand what a system is doing.
ACCESSIBLE
Accessibility belongs in the design process from the beginning.
OPEN
Whenever practical, share the knowledge, tools, and experiments.
EXPERIMENTAL
Prototype, test, document what happened, and improve.
RESPECTFUL
Protect human autonomy, privacy, creativity, and choice.
HOW WEBUILD.
UNDERSTAND
Start by understanding the people, context, constraints, and actual problem.
DESIGN
Design systems around human needs rather than forcing humans to adapt to the system.
BUILD
Turn ideas into working prototypes that people can actually interact with.
TEST
Observe what works, what fails, what is confusing, and what creates unnecessary friction.
DOCUMENT
Make the reasoning, architecture, experiments, and lessons understandable to others.
IMPROVE
Use what was learned to change the system and repeat the process.
SUPPORT THE WORK.KEEP THE HUMAN.
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These percentages are an illustrative planning model, not a promise of exact spending. Actual allocations depend on the funding source, project requirements, organizational needs, and applicable restrictions. Public reporting should explain how funded work was actually used.
01BUILD
30%RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Support the experiments that turn questions into working systems while keeping people at the center of the process.
- → CYN-X intelligent systems
- → Barkly Docs & developer infrastructure
- → PawBoard / experimental computing
- → Human-centered interface research
- → Prototyping, testing, and iteration
02SPACE
25%THE PHYSICAL LAB
Create a real Barkly Labs environment where software, hardware, research, creativity, and community work can exist together.
- → Rent, utilities, and facility costs
- → Workbenches and safe build areas
- → Networking and local computing
- → Storage and workshop organization
- → Accessible human-centered workspace design
03EQUIPMENT
15%HARDWARE & COMPUTING
Give the lab the physical tools required to investigate computing beyond the screen.
- → Development boards and embedded systems
- → AI / GPU / NPU / accelerator hardware
- → Test equipment and electronics tools
- → Reclaimed-device experimentation
- → Servers and local compute
04COMMUNITY
15%OUTREACH & EDUCATION
Turn laboratory work into things people can understand, learn from, participate in, remix, and build upon.
- → Open documentation and tutorials
- → Community workshops
- → Builder and creator programs
- → Educational demonstrations
- → Public research notes and releases
05SHARE
10%OPEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Keep Barkly technology, repositories, documentation, websites, and services available and maintainable.
- → Hosting and domains
- → Open-source infrastructure
- → CI / testing systems
- → Documentation publishing
- → Backups and project continuity
06SUSTAIN
5%OPERATIONS
Support the boring-but-important infrastructure that allows the work to continue responsibly.
- → Accounting and organizational services
- → Insurance and compliance
- → Administrative tools
- → Basic supplies
- → Planning and reporting
ONE LAB.MANY SYSTEMS.
HUMAN-CENTERED INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
Local AI, personality systems, tools, vision, interfaces, and experiments exploring how intelligent computers can work with people.
MAKE SOFTWARE UNDERSTANDABLE
Static project analysis that turns complex repositories into structured, human-oriented documentation and system knowledge.
EXPERIMENTAL COMPUTING HARDWARE
A computing platform exploring how reclaimed mobile hardware and modern accelerators can become flexible, open computer systems.
TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE CAN PARTICIPATE IN
Workshops, educational material, open experiments, community projects, and resources for builders, artists, engineers, and curious humans.
07
FROM ADESKTO ALABORATORY.
Barkly Labs is currently being built through software, experiments, documentation, and hardware prototypes. A dedicated physical environment would allow those systems to exist together.
The goal is not a polished corporate office. It is a working laboratory: benches, computers, electronics, local infrastructure, research space, documentation stations, creative space, and room for people to experiment.
- SPACE
- WORKSHOP + RESEARCH
- COMPUTE
- LOCAL / EDGE / AI
- HARDWARE
- BUILD / TEST / REPAIR
- PEOPLE
- LEARN / COLLABORATE
THE LAB SHOULDOPEN OUTWARD.
DOCUMENTATION
Make systems understandable through public documentation, architecture notes, experiments, tutorials, and project history.
PARTICIPATION
Create practical ways for builders, artists, engineers, students, creators, and curious people to participate.
EXPERIMENTS
Share prototypes and research while making it clear what is experimental, incomplete, proven, or still being learned.
KNOWLEDGE
Turn individual experiments into knowledge that other people can question, modify, reuse, and build upon.
POWER WITHRESPONSIBILITY.
Capability is not the same thing as responsibility.
Barkly Labs treats responsible technology as part of the engineering process.
Privacy, security, consent, accessibility, transparency, human oversight, responsible AI, data minimization, creator ownership, and human autonomy should be considered while systems are being designed.
The question is not only:
“Can we build it?”
It is also:
“Should we build it this way?”
SHOW THEWORK.
Barkly Labs wants its work to be understandable, including the parts that are unfinished.
Documentation is part of accountability. When appropriate, the lab should publish project goals, architecture, milestones, experiments, research outputs, and explanations of what changed.
If something is experimental, say so.
If something failed, document it.
If something worked, share what was learned.
PEOPLE ARE WORTHDESIGNING FOR.
Barkly Labs is being built one experiment at a time. The Standard gives that work a foundation: understand people, build useful systems, document what happens, share what can be shared, and keep improving.