By Louise Cooper, Senior Service Designer

In an age of Brexit and Trump, bridging divided communities might seem like a far fetched dream. But at Historypin, we believe it’s possible and we’re doing something about it.

We started pondering this question six months ago: how might we show people that there’s much more we have in common than divides us?

And since then, we’ve been trying to answer this question by working through a human-centred innovation process of:

discovery – who are we designing for and what do they need,

concept generation – what idea can meet that need, and

rapid design prototyping – how can we make that idea better and better.

One thing stood out during discovery and concept generation that drove our winning concept, and it’s something that Dave Isay of Storycorps puts nicely; “It’s impossible not to love someone whose stories you’ve heard”.

The notion that connecting with new people through sharing personal, meaningful stories is a force for building understanding, empathy and respect for one another. Which brings us to the idea that we’re now rapidly prototyping – getting a bunch of people together for a one-off, 60 minute, eye-opening event where we hear and tell stories that join the dots of what we have in common.

We’re half way through a series of 12+ experience prototyping events across the UK and USA and we’re inviting people to actively co-create these storytelling events with us.

We wouldn’t be able to do this without the support we have from the Big Lottery Fund, the Institute for Museum and Library Services Heritage Lottery Fund and Knight Foundation. Here’s a big shout out to them – and stay tuned for more in coming issues of this newsletter. We’d also love for you to follow us @historypin