Designing for Participation

Activism in the 60’s gets a lot of hype, and rightly so. Young activists often reference the Civil Right’s Movement as both their inspiration for getting involved in social justice work and the model they follow for their organization/activist efforts moving forward.  But there is a danger in “glamorizing” the movement and making a direct comparison to the challenges we face now to make social change. We are in a different political and cultural climate than in the ‘60’s and the challenges have become much more nuanced as our networks become increasingly globalized.

But last night, during SF Design Week’s Forces for Good: Design for Social Impact event, interaction designer Chris Block highlighted the less sexy component of the civil right’s movement that plays a critical role in some of the most successful digital and tech activism efforts today: data management.

Chris highlighted his volunteer work with Ushahidi, an open source project that allows users to crowd source crisis information to be sent via mobile. Specifically, Chris saw first hand after the earthquakes in Haiti last January, how information management is an opportunity for people to participate remotely, working to collect and analyze data, in this case, the texts from those on the ground reporting missing persons. But more importantly, he highlighted the transformation of that information into action, mapping the location of the missing people and sending these reports to key aid organization, harnessing a model that can be used for activist efforts moving forward. Chris offered these takeaways from his work for Haiti with Ushahidi (which are outlined in detail in his presentation "Crisis and Interaction Design")

•    Design for the “ladder of participation”
•    Design for listening
•    Design for data entry
•    Design for translation
•    Design for structured flexibility
•    Design for location
•    Design for Federation
•    Design for utilitarian beauty
•    Design for email
•    Design for yourself (meaning, what terrifies you and motivates you to get involved rather than what the media defines as a crisis scenario)

But what I found to be the most provocative point of his presentation was the importance of designing for and focusing on the core of the movement before working to activate a network of supporters. Chris emphasized that you can work together iteratively and independently while working collaboratively.  This is important because most movements stretch to garner momentum before they understand the needs of their core team and how to utilize their networks once they have the attention of the public.

I sat down with Chris after the event to chat about his work with Ushahidi and how sharing information and making it more transparent, translatable, and flexible can lead to real social action on the ground.