Imagining a Canvas for Social Architecture

What I’m thinking about this weekend…

For most of us most of time, we simply accept the design of things around us. We have to live this way. Could you imagine providing input on the design of everything around you? Well, you have some input as consumer. You buy a well-designed chair or coffee mug. Maybe you even become super loyal to that product and brand? Think about loyalists of Apple and Dyson. Buyers of Apple devices and Dyson vacuums stay into those products because of the superiority of engineering and design.

So, your voice is your dollar and your ambassadorship of those products (you now know where my loyalties lie).

We don’t really get to have this level of influence in the design of things like our towns and cities. Okay, maybe we do by voting for a commissioner or signing a petition to not have a Walmart built in the neighborhood. But that Walmart was scoped out long before you signed a petition. Someone, somewhere in the city developed a master plan for expansion that contemplated big box stores and enormous parking lots.

That development was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Peter Levine, investor at Andreessen Horowitz, wrote a fascinating statement of why he invested in a company called Figma. Figma is an open canvas for collaboration in the design of software. Essentially, all the graphic artist, content creators, coders, engineers, and customers can see and engage in every design element in one place.

Sounds like chaos.

For some.

But for those truly committed to creating really great products and experiences …. you start with design. Then, you open the doors and let everyone into the canvas. Levine calls this “open design”.

In the social problem solving world, you might call this inclusive community engagement.

We haven’t figured out the best ways to do social architecture in a way that the inclusive community collaborators would find equitable and just.

Maybe the challenge is that cities or community coalitions are not design-led. Maybe there needs to be a Figma for social problems?

I’m with Levine. This needs to be the decade of design. To foster new opportunities, community, and positive behaviors, we need a new operating system if we are going to solve immensely bigger challenges that a well-designed software application for buying things.