Fast Company

A CROWDSOURCED WAY TO REACH THOSE IN NEED

Designer Cervantes worked with major global aid organizations to turn lifesaving landmark-identification work into a fun way for anyone, anywhere, to pass the time.

If you heard an app described as “Tinder, but for humanitarian relief,” you’d probably think you were watching an episode of HBO’s satirical TV series Silicon Valley. But MapSwipe—a collaborative effort by Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), the American Red Cross, and other nonprofits—was pitched in just that way to Sadok Cervantes, the app’s lead product designer, by developers at MSF in March 2016. “My initial reaction was, ‘Not another app aboard the hype train, please!’” recalls Cervantes, whose free-lance design practice caters to humanitarian causes. “But I knew

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