When watching the videos in the Thirty Conversations on Design series, I loved the variety of responses to the question: “What problem should design solve next?.” The one response that I was instantly drawn to was Ze Frank’s. I love Ze’s work. He knows how to blend entertainment, technology, and community like no other. In his video response, Ze points out that there are several forms of design communication: one to many, one to one, many to many, and many to one. Many to one is the rarest form, and of course, Ze’s preferred form. He has done many online community projects that take one person’s problems or requests and empowers an entire community to respond. It effort and consideration that emerges from those projects is so inspiring and intimate. One of my favorite examples is featured in this youtube video. The backstory goes like this: a woman who moved to a new city for a demanding job felt overwhelmed and discouraged and asked Ze to help her feel calm in moments of stress. He wrote a song for her, sent it out to people online to record their own voices singing along, and then took those recording to make a chorus of support for one woman’s most vulnerable moments. That is inspired design.
Ze sums it up saying, “Not designing for the middle, but one very particular point. Maybe it wouldn’t work, but I think it would be inspiring to see all of those lenses focus their attention on a single thing that at a single glance might seem ordinary. I think it would help me pay more attention to the world I live in.”
This could make the world a better place… again.