Planet Centric Design - How hard can it be?
“This is a call out to all designers. The time has come for us to unite in our role and align on our responsibility as creators of the future”
Think about it, being a designer is one of the most mind blowing jobs you can possibly have. We create the future. No matter what kind of designer you are, your daily actions and decisions change the world we live in. They will directly define what kind of future we inherit.
In fact, this goes far beyond the role of the designer. The human species itself is a highly creative and industrious animal, since the day we began walking this earth we have altered and adapted everything in it to better suit our needs and desires for our own gain. You could say as a species, we have done well.
For close to 27 years I have worked with some of the biggest companies in the world to design products, services and experiences that help them to become even bigger and more successful, take more market share and sell more stuff to their customers. I’ve had some success, you could say that I’ve done well, looking at my CV.
So why on Earth do I feel like I have failed? The answer I think is in the question, key word — Earth.
Open up any news app today and it won’t be hard to find multiple articles on the environmental fallout from our incredibly successful capitalist model. A model which has fuelled consumerism to a point where it’s now consuming us. I’ll spare you the doom and gloom stories in this article, but for a more inspiring angle, watch David Attenborough’s Blue Planet and you’ll get my point.
But, let’s get back to Designers. I’ve always been a true believer in Human Centred Design as a methodology (I still am) to create solutions that answer to the needs of the user. It really does fucking work. Think about the desirability first, get that right before looking at feasibility and viability. If people need it bad enough, we’ll find a way to make it happen and for sure it will make a ton of money.

For the last 30 years this model has been a powerful and compelling framework for the human centred, empathic designer. But the more I look at it today in 2018, the more I see it as a product of a capitalist society that is creating desires people did not even know they had, in order to sell them more fucking stuff. I feel like I’ve been cheated.
But let’s look on the bright side. Much like the internal combustion engine, the invention of plastic, the industrialisation of agriculture and food production, this model for designers is just part of that interconnected web of human development that has made us who we are today, and helped us achieve things we would have deemed impossible even 20 years ago. Just another brilliant human mistake:-)
So this is a call out to all designers. The time has come for us to unite in our role and align on our responsibility as creators of the future. The game is changing and the world needs our leadership more than ever.
It’s clear we need to consider a much bigger picture, but let’s not get paralysed by the complexity of the topic. We don’t need to fully work it out before we begin. We don’t need to sweat over the development of the “mother of all frameworks”. We just need to start doing, start prototyping, start experimenting, start believing.
We need to look a little harder at every design decision we make, and ask ourselves how do my designs impact the heath and wellbeing of this planet? You don’t need to be an expert, just knowing what you know as a responsible citizen of this planet is enough. What do YOU think is the right thing to do? Have the confidence as a designer and a human being to make the right decision for our future. Do it!
I like to keep things simple, so looking at the earlier Venn diagram above, maybe a first step is just to evolve to the one below. For me at least, even this small change helps me as a designer in my everyday.
I hope it helps you too.
