Different ways individuals and organisations are expanding human-centred design to consider the planet and social justice — Life-centred design is an emerging design thinking that expands human-centred product design to be more sustainable, regenerative, environmental, and fair. As life-centred design is still emerging, however, approaches vary and go by different names—planet-centred design, planet-centric design, conscious design, 21st-century design, environmental design, circular design, DesignX, respectful design, and humanity-driven…

How learnings from interspecies design make non-human personas more effective in protecting and engaging animals — Just like user personas, non-human personas represent key stakeholders in design—the animals and environments impacted by human creations. With only a few years in design conversation, however, non-human personas are still very much developing. How do we ensure they fulfil their purpose in protecting non-human’s from human’s creations?

Tools to represent the animals, environments, and invisible humans impacted by design — Life-centred design expands human-centred design to consider the impacts on the planet and all the people along the supply chain and product lifecycle. This wider view of the entire product lifecycle also expands our idea of who the stakeholders are. As a designer familiar with user personas and profiles, you…

Use the Life-centred Purpose tool to align your product, project, team, or business with global goals and define achievable actions — Using life-centred design thinking, you can expand your design project’s value by aligning it with global goals and brainstorming ways to support and contribute to a sustainable, regenerative, and socially-just future. Design projects and businesses often aim for the biggest market, but these may not be the best in terms…

Align your project, team, and business with global goals to create more regenerative and socially just products Life-centred design is a regenerative and globally-inclusive framework synching responsible businesses and designers with global goals to design physical and digital products and services that re-nourish the planet and foster fair and…

A list of resources for further learning about life-centred design. About the guide Life-centred design aligns responsible businesses and designers with global goals to design physical and digital products and services that re-nourish the planet and foster fair and diverse ways of being. Life-centred design is still emerging, however, so awareness of it…

A process diagram for designing regenerative and ethical products — As shared in my earlier article, life-centred design enables product designers and businesses of physical and digital products to consider the impacts of their products on all people, all non-humans, and all planet. As this is an emerging practice, approaches vary, from planet-centric design, 21st-century design, to environmental design (and…

An introduction to 10 design practices that work together to make human-centred design more sustainable, regenerative, and fair — Today’s linear consumer system of ‘take, make, and throw-away’ is immensely inefficient and wasteful, devastating to the environment, and a major contributor to climate change. Unfortunately, decades of human-centred design have contributed significantly to today’s wicked problems due to its focus on satisfying just the target-user needs and business profits…

A help sheet for Bruce Mau’s inspiring design book “MC24: 24 Principles for Massive Change” — At this time of rising awareness and great world challenges, there are many voices rising from the design world calling for the expansion of human-centred design to include the environment, entire product lifecycle (from material extraction to product discard and breakdown), and the people impacted by that lifecycle.