Many of us who work in office jobs in front of a screen rather than with people have this urge to do good. To make a difference and to leave a mark.
I have it as well. I want to make a difference. I want to leave a dent. Not so that people will remember me, although that is nice too, but I want to leave a dent through actually making people’s lives better. I want to make people stop and think, to challenge perceptions and, through the things I work on I want to change things.
A wile back I fell over a quote related to this matter and posted it. It goes like this:
These things [technology] can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that. But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light – that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.
Steve Jobs in an interview with Wired, 2006 on new technologies and their potential to make life easier
There are a number of ways in which we can make a difference and leave our mark. It doesn’t have to be ground breaking or a big thing. The work we do in UX and design, though it may not save people’s lives on a daily basis, good UX and design will make people’s lives easier by making their experiences online more straightforward, less stressful and frustrating. It can be the little thing like ensuring that a log in process works smoothly, that online banking is organised well and is intuitive. That people generally find the information they are after, or perhaps by providing them with a product like e.g. Pinterest that I know is becoming some people’s happy place online. And if we want to do some tangible good we can help charities and help spreading important messages like in these two brilliant sites:
The girl effect
Slavery footprint
There is a lot that we can do and as the quote says, the things we do don’t have to change the world to be important. However, if you are one of those people who truly want to do that and don’t see any reason why it can’t be done, then you might be right.
…the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
– Apple in their ‘Think different‘ campaign
Tomorrow – Day 045 | Current progress
Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/sandramonica/3502380586
