Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
If you can design an app, you can design a community
Summary
What if we applied our experience design and research skills to a new domain: designing communities? Historically, UX hasn’t paid attention to community as a solution space. And yet… at a business level: products, brands and creators build community to deepen their bonds with users and customers. At an organisation level: the best teams are modelled on communities. At a personal level: community brings meaning to our world, in our neighbourhoods and our personal interests. In this session, we’ll explore what's involved in creating and sustaining healthy communities. We’ll draw on the wealth of knowledge in fields as diverse as economics, network theory, social work and the design of cities, and on case studies of community efforts like Burning Man, Parkrun and Meetups. At the end, you'll have a good idea of how you might apply your skills to creating communities, whether in your organization, your brand, or your life outside of work. We'll introduce our toolkit, and show you how you could get involved in our project. Finally...let’s acknowledge that many people in UX are demoralised about their work right now. They’re in roles that underutilise their skills, they’re feeling undervalued, or are working on products they don’t love. Using your skills to build community might be just the change you need.
Key Insights
-
•
Your UX research and design skills can be effectively transposed to designing communities.
-
•
Community is best defined by the feeling of belonging it creates, rather than size or formality.
-
•
Community building often involves intentionally introducing friction to foster safety and reflection, contrary to typical UX goals.
-
•
Scaling communities differs from products; propagation and chapter models work better than mass scale.
-
•
Dunbar's number (~150) suggests communities are healthiest and most sustainable at smaller, manageable sizes.
-
•
Community design is akin to gardening — working with natural human social needs rather than mechanical design.
-
•
Ethical considerations in community design are heightened; misuse can cause serious emotional harm.
-
•
Metrics like repeat attendance and reciprocal acts of generosity matter more than vanity metrics like group size.
-
•
Succession planning and clear roles are crucial to sustain communities beyond the initial enthusiasm phase.
-
•
Many commercial community efforts risk becoming extractive; authentic community building requires non-extractive motives.
Notable Quotes
"If you can design an app, you can design a community."
"Community is a thing that fosters a sense of belonging and wanting to identify with it."
"We often introduce friction deliberately in community building to make it safe and meaningful."
"Scaling communities is about propagation, not just growing as big as possible."
"Dunbar's number explains why groups around 150 people work best as communities."
"Designing community is more like gardening than building a machine."
"The ethics in community design are critical — emotional damage can be severe if mishandled."
"Vanity metrics like membership numbers don’t tell you if the community is healthy."
"Early enthusiasm fades; succession planning is key to keeping communities alive."
"Extractive, commercially-driven communities aren’t really communities in the pure sense."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Carbon is just the starting point for what can be imagined. We're hired for our expertise to adapt, not just follow directions."
Mitchell BernsteinOrganizing Chaos: How IBM is Defining Design Systems with Sketch for an Ever-Changing AI Landscape
September 29, 2021
"Propose new IC roles like a design problem: identify the need, gather research, and try it as an experiment with retrospectives."
Catt Small Micah Bennett Brian Carr Jessica HarlleeWhat's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles
February 22, 2024
"There are many ways to compensate people, but it is not your choice—it is theirs."
Victor UdoewaRadical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes
March 9, 2022
"Gesture is not computer and smartphone gestures, but spontaneous movements people make with hands and arms."
Dane DeSutter Stephanie ScopelitisWhat co-speech gestures reveal about users’ thinking during interviews
June 30, 2023
"Root cause analysis helps identify not just what is happening, but why it's happening, especially when more people have access to data."
Jen Cardello Dr. Shadi Janansefat Alex WrightCurating insight: Strategies for integrating knowledge across research functions
March 11, 2025
"Having DPMs report separately from design managers creates a therapist-like safe space for designers to share issues."
Brennan HartichCommunicating and Establishing DesignOps as a New Function
November 7, 2018
"Agentic systems don’t just respond; they decide which tools to use, analyze results, think between tool calls, and can do multiple things simultaneously."
Luke WroblewskiDesigning AI Applications
March 5, 2026
"Focus groups reveal subconscious behaviors and non-verbal cues that individual interviews might miss."
Taiye Akin-AkinyosoyeAmplifying voices and enhancing user research through group interviews
March 12, 2025
"Customers can answer what the researcher wants to hear in surveys, making attitude only 28% predictive of real behavior."
Ricardo MartinsUnlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
March 12, 2025
