How design can help reach Gen Z on social

Need to Know is a new platform started by agency Human After All which aims to help Gen Z find careers they care about. Here Danny Miller explains the power of using social media as an editorial canvas for news, facts, and advice

“Young people don’t seek out news or have loyalty to news media brands in the way previous generations have done,” says Danny Miller, co-founder and CEO of design agency Human After All, which partners with those making a positive difference in the world. “Instead, news finds them – in places where they already are, which right now are spaces like TikTok and Instagram. News is naturally more digestible there – shorter form and immediate.”

For Miller this fits in with the ways a younger, socially native demographic has grown up consuming information, and it’s one of the reasons he and his team set up Need to Know, a platform that aims to help young people find careers they can care about, which officially launched in September.

“Our entry point is news media on Instagram – it’s looking at what’s happening in the world and saying ‘if this moves you, if you’re engaged by this, then here are things you might want to do in your life that can bring you close to it’,” explains Miller. “So the gap we hope to fill is in being something that young people can discover themselves, trust, care about, respect, and then translate that engagement into positive career outcomes for them.”

Top and above: Need to Know website detail