Thegoodsideof.us
Noticing small acts of kindness
Project: Senior Thesis, Otis College of Art & Design
Role: Co-Creator & Designer
Scope: Concept Development, Visual Identity, Web Design, Community Engagement
Additional Credits: Micah Rich, Designer & Web Developer · Nicole Week, Designer
Thegoodsideof.us was a participatory website built around a simple idea: small acts of kindness are happening all around us, and noticing them can inspire more of them.
For our senior thesis, two fellow designers and I wanted to create something people could actively participate in rather than simply observe. We developed the concept, identity, and experience for an online community where people could share small good deeds they witnessed or took part in.
As the community grew, we extended the project beyond the website through a collective event and our senior exhibition, bringing the online activity into the physical world.
Sharing stories of everyday good
Members could post good deeds they had done, witnessed, or experienced, creating a growing collection of everyday acts of kindness. By making these small moments visible, the site invited people to notice the good happening around them—and perhaps inspire a little more of it.
Taking the community offline
Once people were participating online, we wanted to create an opportunity to do something together in person. For Flower Hour, we gathered members of the community to hand out flowers to strangers around our Los Angeles neighborhood—a collective version of the small, everyday gestures the project was created to celebrate.
Making the good visible
For our senior exhibition, we set up a physical extension of the project on campus, with computer stations where visitors could explore and join the community and a map documenting where the good deeds had taken place.
