Placemaking in Digital Spaces
One of the single most important things I think about as a technical product manager is community. At the core, what I do is facilitate the development of communities. It doesn’t matter what company I’m at or what sector I’m in.
Every discussion is focused around the question, does this action move the community towards their desired goal?
My philosophies on developing communities come from the lessons taught to me as an architecture student at Tuskegee University on placemaking.
What is Placemaking?
Placemaking is a term used in architecture and city planning. Although the interpretation is malleable a definition I like is “Placemaking is the process of looking at public spaces from a holistic perspective, with the goal of amplifying the presence of a location in a way that is relevant to its unique characteristics and promoting increased human interaction.”
Although to date it has been used in the physical experience context, I feel the key principles can also be applied to digital spaces and the role digital spaces play in increasing human interaction.
Sociability
A question I love on sociability is, do people bring their friends and relatives to see the place or do they point to one of its features with pride? Sociability is focused on an enhanced sense of community when they are in space. This is what they Xbox vs Playstation wars are about. Users of the respective consoles feel so strongly about the community than talk about any other community that is almost blasphemy. Many users have strong relationships with people across the digital community that they have never met in real life. If you ask users why Xbox? or why Playstation? they can tell you with pride and attachment.
Uses and Activities
Although this seems like a no-brainer in the physical environment, designers can get carried away in design intent and messaging before asking why are people using the space? Placemaking philosophy attempts to put the horse before the carriage. In technology, this is not focusing on how it works but why they enter the space, to begin with, and why they will return. Spotify leads the audio streaming market by understanding that users find identity and meaning through music and by creating a space that allows them to discover themselves at unlimited range with a low financial cost. This is why users subscribe and return.
Access and Linkages
In the context of public spaces, access and linkages ask questions about how people both visually and visually get from one place to the next. In technology, we can commonly think of this in terms of ecosystems. For example, Facebook’s ecosystem with Instagram, WhatsApp, Occulus create links to varying digital worlds and communities. AirBnB’s story features a market penetration strategy that involved a duel post feature with craigslist creating access from an old community to a new community. Applying placemaking philosophy to digital communities forces us to ask tough questions about how we’re creating access and developing connections.
Comfort and Image
The difference between the vibe you get in Oxford Street, London, and Las Vegas, Nevada is as clear as day. This is because the place makers have made intentional decisions about how they want people to feel and interact. Similarly, the difference between community interaction on Reddit and community interaction on Twitter is an international process. Questions in comfort and image challenge us to ask us what are the deliberate things we’re doing to make a community feel safe?
I’m increasingly becoming community-focused as I analyze collaboration and human interaction more through the scope of Hackathons and related events. At the core, people are social and seek great digital places that share the qualities as great physical places. If you want to learn more about placemaking, here is a good start.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think? What are the attributes that make great digital communities?