Here’s something I’ve been thinking about recently, of course with a community mindset.
All too often we design for what sells. Or to benefit the few. We forget to design for the margins and those who need things the most.
Business is obsessed with traction and growth, so they end up working with people they feel will give them that. This ends up being people with existing experience and those with an already existing following. When really community should be catering to the new people, the ones without a voice and those that haven’t been seen.
Design From the Margins (DFM), a design process that centers the most impacted and marginalized users from ideation to production, pushes the notion that not only is this something that can and must be done, but also that it is highly beneficial for all users and companies. For this to happen, consumer interest conversations need to be framed outside the “biggest use case” scenarios and United States and European Union-centrisms and refocused on the cases often left in the margins: the decentered cases.
Source: Design From the Margins | Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs 5
How can we design community from the margins?
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