Designing for connection: Building community through product design

Lyssna
47:54
How do you design products that create genuine connections between users? Join Joe Formica, Lyssna's Design Advocate, for a live Q&A with Grace Ling, Co-founder of Design Buddies/CoCreate, a community of 150,000+ and education program helping designers grow in their careers. In this conversation, Joe and Grace will explore how community-building principles can transform product design.
Grace will share insights from growing one of the largest design communities from scratch, practical strategies for designing products that encourage collaboration, and approaches to creating experiences that feel social rather than transactional.
Whether you're a designer, product manager, community builder, or anyone interested in human-centered design, this session will provide valuable perspectives on creating digital products that build bridges between people. Come prepared with your questions about community dynamics, social product features, and designing for authentic human connection.
Speakers
Grace Ling
Product/UX Designer @ Electronic Arts, Founder of Design Buddies
Grace Ling is the Co-founder of Design Buddies/CoCreate, a community of 150,000+ and education program helping designers grow in their careers. She is a designer, illustrator, founder, content creator, and competitive runner. She is also the co-host of the popular podcast How Creators Make Money. Grace draws and creates content about design and life. Grace travels the world to speak at conferences and host events. She is based in San Francisco and Los Angeles but has been to 40+ countries around the world.
https://designbuddies.community https://discord.gg/designbuddies https://designbuddies.substack.com/ https://www.instagram.com/irungracepace https://open.spotify.com/show/7mEgAOJmanfSRkaiJWszf8?si=084fd12e7e6e435d
Joe Formica
Senior Designer, Researcher, and Design Advocate @ Lyssna
Joe is the Design Advocate at Lyssna, where he leads workshops, creates educational content, and inspires designers to design great products, With over 10 years of UX and education experience, Joe has taught thousands through hands-on, project-based courses that make learning fun and practical.

Designing for connection: Building community through product design
47:54