INTERVIEW BY JONATHAN OPENSHAW
Our design allowed us to create this reputation system, creating connections across social barriers. Good design gives people confidence – it’s as simple as that. These insights have probably come to their greatest fruition through Airbnb.org, our non-profit arm that focuses on initiatives such as rehousing refugees. Here, we’re adding in a whole load of extra variables that could potentially undermine trust. Yet what
JO: In many ways it feels like the world has never been more divided, with people entrenching around ever more incompatible world views. But given the right system, you’re saying that a natural generosity can exist between people?
we’ve seen is that people are very willing
JG: We’ve found ourselves in a swirl of
to help each other given the right system. I
misinformation and a pandemic of loneliness.
absolutely don’t think Airbnb.org would have
Our little bubbles follow accounts that
been possible without our years of experience
reinforce our ideologies and conveniently
in designing for trust – Airbnb acted as the
position them against the ‘other’. I’d posit the
trampoline that made this next level possible.
quickest way to reconcile incompatible world
"GOOD DESIGN GIVES PEOPLE CONFIDENCE – IT’S AS SIMPLE AS THAT."
views is to seek understanding between those holding them. I bet what opposing sides would realize is that we’re all more the same than we are different – after all, only 0.1% of our genome differs from anyone else’s. I think underneath the surface of any discord is the knowledge that we have to work together to get by. We have to learn to work together better because the challenges we face need large-scale cooperation. By the end of the century, some estimate we’ll need more than two Earths to sustain ourselves. That’s how fast we’re burning through resources, and we’re already in 2022. We’re really running out of time to figure these things out. So instead of the internet dredging deep crevasses of distrust, what if we intentionally redesign these systems to bridge understanding with one another? What if we use design to expand our worldviews, rather than bind them in place? airbnb.com | samara.com
HOW TO DESIGN HUMAN CONNECTION
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