Designing Technology For Good

Matt DeMartino makes the case for a holistic, human-centred design approach, rather than targeting specific user groups

There are countless examples of businesses and not-for-profit organisations using technology and design to address social welfare concerns. Research and innovation has created better online access to education, health and financial resources, and more essential physical needs like clean water, housing and transportation, giving many people opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have.

Designing for social impact, however, doesn’t always have to be an altruistic exercise or take shape as a massive-scale initiative. Considering social impact can be as simple as designing with inclusivity in mind, where awareness of edge-case user groups help create a product that’s better for everyone. By contrast, designing a product to maximise ROI by doubling-down on your largest user-groups may exclude edge-case users and create social impact only for those with access. But it’s those overlooked users who ultimately help make a more innovative and impactful product, and who help designers and technologists mitigate unforeseen risk or cost.

How do creatives ensure that the things they build and ship don’t ultimately come with a greater negative social impact than a beneficial one? At what cost to some social good platforms (or any new technology, for that matter) come?