User centered and environment centered design… why addressing needs means finding a business opportunity for sustainability
As Service Designers we’re constantly in search of users’ needs to address and solve.
One of the milestones of our multifaceted job is indeed to involve, meet and talk to users, listen to them and understand the bigger picture in which their problems are born.
But which bigger picture are we talking about here?
Working in the innovation field, I often find myself researching about the needs and problems of the most disparate markets and users, ranging from dog owners to wine enthusiasts.
What I have been able to understand, though, is that the common thread in analyzing and getting to know these different contexts is 99% of the time adopting a user centered design approach. And there’s nothing wrong with it, I’m a huge fan of fully stepping into the users’ shoes and taking in their world view. But, at the same time, I have to admit that this is not the (real) bigger picture.
I think user centered design methods have a major bias: the conception of user itself. With user centered design we engage and refer to people, and we listen from those that can speak to us and do it in a way that we’re able to understand and process.
But maybe we need to make a step further and reach a higher level of empathy and emotional intelligence in order to see the real bigger picture, one that takes into consideration and listens to non-human players too.
And that’s where environment-centered design comes into the picture.
I got to know about this new approach thanks to Monika Sznel, who wrote three very interesting articles, that I highly suggest, explaining what it is it all about:
Environment-centered design is an approach to product or service development that aims to make products or services environmentally, socially and economically sustainable by focusing on the needs, limitations and preferences of target human audience and non-human strategic stakeholders. It involves knowledge and design techniques developed at the intersection of human-centered design, usability, ecology, and sustainability science.
Monika also started to develop and share a series of “tools for environment-centered designers”, such as the Actant Mapping Canvas and the Non-Human Persona, in order to help the design community to make this important mindset shift.
Reflecting upon my personal experience I know it’s not an easy path we’re talking about. This approach not only means to gradually shift our point of view as designers, but also our clients’ and customers’ perspective, which might be a real challenge.
At the same time, I strongly believe in the creative & design community and in the power of the team. Even though as individuals we might feel overwhelmed, I am convinced that together we can support each other in making this shift of perspectives happen.
Switching to environmental-centered design and starting to adopt a more systematic approach means to consider non-human stakeholders just like human ones, it means to develop new tools to do research and understand needs of non-talking actants and it means to create new, inclusive business models that also take into account who doesn’t directly “pay” for and “use” the products and services that we, as designers, are developing.
For startups and companies leading innovation, always on the lookout for unique business models, adopting this holistic approach could really make the difference by diversifying their positioning on the market and making their business model really stand out — of course making it still sustainable in the economic, social and ecological sense.
Now I’d like to ask you to reflect upon your situation and your role as a designer. What are the small but impactful steps you’re undertaking to contribute to a change?
Let us know and feel free to contact us, we’d love to hear your opinions and start inspiring conversations with you!
Giulia
