Building Independence, One Design at a Time

Noam Platt, Founder and Executive Director, MakeGood

© MakeGood

Founded in 2021, MakeGood utilizes materials technology to drive inclusive innovation through adaptive design. At Formnext 2025 in Frankfurt, Germany, CHEManager managing editor Michael “Mike” Reubold, looking for 3D-printed objects to report about, ran into Noam Platt, the Founder and Executive Director of the New Orleans-based non-profit organization.

While most exhibitors of that trade show on additive manufacturing showed the usual showcase items for their 3D printers and materials, MakeGood had helpful tools for people with disabilities on display. In this interview, Noam discusses the start-up‘s mission to design for all using advanced digital tools, help people explore, understand, and improve their environments with the focus that everyone should be able to perform daily tasks with dignity and confidence.

CHEManager: Noam, what does MakeGood do and how did it start?

Noam Platt: MakeGood is a non-profit organization dedicated to reimagining how assistive technology is designed, built, and accessed. MakeGood brings together designers, clinicians, engineers, and people with disabilities to create custom, real-world solutions for mobility and accessibility challenges. The organization is led by a multidisciplinary team that includes disabled designers and fabricators whose lived experiences directly inform the work, ensuring solutions are both innovative and deeply practical.
Our approach is the belief that “need-knowers”, the people who live with specific challenges every day, should lead the design process. Rather than designing for people, MakeGood designs with them, translating lived experience into functional, personalized assistive devices. Beyond producing devices, we focus on offering design thinking classes, adaptive making workshops, and hands-on training that teach communities how to design and fabricate their own solutions.

What was the starting point and the motivations of MakeGood?