I went through the 80,000 hours (https://80000hours.org) course and felt inspired to do work that matters (rather than just design some stuff for boring corporate companies). As a designer, what would be a pressing problem that I could work on and potentially even get compensated for the work in order to stick with it and pay the bills (so helping out a nonprofit with design might be fun, but it's not sustainable)
Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
1–10 of 49 posts
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#2Not sure about compensated but tools for the blind/deaf to allow them to experience the everyday design we take for granted
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#3Not sure about compensated but tools for the blind/deaf to allow them to experience the everyday design we take for granted
I came here to say "accessibility". It's a major weak point of a lot of software and technology.
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#4Content for school kids aged 5 to 9. There isn't much out there for them. Anything interactive and imaginative.
Take a look at the curriculum for ideas of what teachers want to teach, most schools have laptops, chromebooks or iPads.
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#5Healthcare user experience sucks. Last century kind of sucks. Find a job at Cerner or Epic who account for more than half of all hospital information systems and help clinicians avoid tragic errors, make faster and better decisions, understand health records more clearly, capture ideas/observations/memories.
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#6Not sure about compensated but tools for the blind/deaf to allow them to experience the everyday design we take for granted
Something about "graphic designer" and "blind" doesn't go together for me...
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#7Anything in the public sector, like utilities' and local governments' websites (cough DMV), websites for your local library system, websites for your local law enforcement and/or hospital, public schools. The usability of these sites tends to suck because they're subject to budget cuts, even though thousands of people have no choice but to depend upon them.
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#8Are you passionate enough to work for low pay or free? I would like to build some web apps to display information about pollution and climate change. If we made it good enough, it would be a great tool for everyone around the world to visualize the problem. Obviously I would not make any money - just something that needs to get done if we are to have any hope of convincing the public that we need climate change policy review.
What say you?
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#9Not sure about compensated but tools for the blind/deaf to allow them to experience the everyday design we take for granted
Something about "graphic designer" and "blind" doesn't go together for me...
Legally blind and professionally employed full-time designer here. :) (Granted - "blind" can be a spectrum of things; for example, extreme nearsightedness but still "seeing", vs truly blind.)
Seconding the major need for accessibility awareness, though. Even little things like increased font color contrast has major payoffs for the elderly and other buckets of populations.
Re: Ask HN: What pressing world problems should a graphic designer work on?
#10There's a general design problem of translating abstract massive problems (like world hunger) into something bite sized that people can relate to and act on (like feed one starving child). Vast problems like climate change, water shortages, human trafficking, drug abuse, systemic poverty, lifelong education, criminal justice. If you can help on this challenge, you can drive change and make a career for yourself.