And in some ways, technological progress has made his job harder.

“Computational design—that is, the software and tools that we find on our phones and PCs—has enabled inequality to occur at a scale that we’re just beginning to understand,” says Maeda. “We have to start thinking more inclusively, so we aren’t optimizing all of humanity out of its relevance.”  

SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL-BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS

To reverse that trend, Automattic paid a visit to Detroit last May, so that Maeda and some of his colleagues could learn from the city’s entrepreneurs.

“Small-business owners in Detroit—those on the other side of the digital divide—aren’t dealing with the same problems as someone in their twenties who’s downing seven-dollar lattes at a WeWork,” says Maeda. “It’s a different world for them. So our goal isn’t simply to create empathy, per se; it’s to understand real people’s needs so we can design for ‘real’ people versus ‘technology’ people.”