On Co.Design this week, writer Katharine Schwab asks just that question and comes up with Are.na, a site created by a group of artists and designers “intent on creating a space that they could use to incubate ideas over time.” With no advertising, no tracking, and no algorithms dictating what you see, ethical design and healthy consumption are among the guiding principles of Are.na (full disclosure, I edit Are.na’s blog). Visually, argues Schwab, that ethos manifests itself in the site’s design: a serene space for gathering research, connecting ideas, and encouraging slower, deeper engagement than quick clicks and toss-away “likes.”
As the site’s designer, Chris Sherron, puts it in the article, “I think a lot of current social networks don’t put enough trust in the user to think for themselves and in a way they overdo it in terms of the style, the colors, the language… designers and artists who are the early adopters of the internet and the ones that set the trends–they’re seeing this and thinking, it doesn’t feel quite right. We want to make sure that we’re not taking people’s intelligence for granted.”