Hasta La Ideas

Although some people might doubt the wisdom of crowds, Greater Good Studio is putting the future of their Chicago transportation app in the hands of the masses. Their plans for a crowd-funded and crowd-designed transportation app integrates bus and train and uses real-time arrival data for both, but the real fun is where you come in.

By donating to their Kickstarter campaign, citizens from around the world can participate in shaping the future of their Chicago transportation app. For $25, the project’s “Urban Scouts” are sent out in their respective cities with research or design assignments—their notes, stories and insights will appear on the DesigningChicago.com website and will shape the vision and execution of the final app. For $300, Chicago citizens can become an “Urban Icon” by participating in two hands-on workshops that involve ordinary people in the brainstorming and prototyping stages of the app.

As Massimo Vignelli, an advisory board member for the project, notes in the video below: the role of design is to respond to needs over wants. Although sometimes its hard to distinguish between the two, the city of Chicago is in great hands with Greater Good Studio.

(more…)