In July, 2019 I gave a talk to the design community at an IXDA Chicago event. The overall theme was Ethics in Design and I spoke on how designers are ill prepared for the looming climate crisis. I did this as a wake-up call to my local design industry and my goal was to spark thought amongst designers. And maybe a little inspired action.
Why did I feel compelled to standup and speak out? To be fair, I prefer doing over saying. I love designing, managing design teams and solving problems with my clients. And not so much speaking to design industry peeps. But this event brought me forward to talk about one thing—amongst other ethics talks on social channels and algorithms—and that was climate crisis. Truly what all ethics discussions should ladder up to in my humble opinion.
The image above represents the global temperatures in the past 200-ish years. It was created by Ed Hawkins at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading in the UK depicting temperatures almost 200 years ago to the most recent years on the right. I have it up as a background on my laptop & other devices as a reminder that our climate crisis is incredibly serious and not getting any better. And the release of this paper by these 2 fun chaps, David and Ian, puts forth the very real scenario that our society will collapse in 2050 because of climate crisis. I strongly urge you to read it if you haven’t.
2050, 30 years from now. I remember where I was when I read the above article—on the train commuting to work. I tended to spend my time back then head down, responding to emails, planning for the day—or if I was headed home for the night—with my family. Usually when I’ve read articles like this I’ve shrugged my shoulders and thought “what can I do?” and moved on.
Sometimes I’ve also had mini anxiety attacks. I think about the reality of what I’ve just read, of the climate changing and I’m paralyzed, “what can I do?” I say to myself. I eventually move on to yogic breathing and relax. Forget about the article and move on to other things. But this wasn’t my reaction this time. Why? Before we get into that, let’s go back 30 years.
30 years ago. I entered into design school. I had made a choice to do graphic design. It wasn’t called that of course back then, but I knew that I wanted to do more then just create art. I wanted to dig into process, I wanted to understand the reasons humans made the choices they did, and fundamentally “the why” of everything. I did get my degree in graphic design, which I still love, but I was also lucky to have professors that talked about design thinking before that was a wide-spread thing. Fortunate for me I received an invisible dual degree in design & design thinking, both sharing human-centered methodologies at their core.
After graduating, I spent the next 25+ years looking for a wide-range of design experiences. I went from designing for print to the early days of the internet, to designing for tv commercials, to entire digital ecosystems, products both physical and digital, with innovation work threaded throughout the years. All the time seeking out “the why”. For me I always want to know the source. I’m the person that asks a lot of questions in the room. I’m endlessly fascinated by what’s at the core.
And to be able to effectively do that I wanted I had to climb the design industry food chain, work on larger projects that encompass more and more. I got married and had 3 daughters so life happened & I wanted to make as much money as possible to support them. I’ve been lucky and have gained a ton of experience. And with those experiences I’ve met so many creative, passionate, intelligent designers. I’ve come to realize that we designers have 3 important mental muscles. Every designer with varying degrees of development has these. On our good days we Empathize, Synthesize, and Connect.
Let’s break those down a little bit. We Empathize – with users, consumers, people different then us. We think about the day to day of the people we’re designing for and we map their behaviors, so that the things we design are useful and resonate with them.
We Synthesize – we take disparate data, ideas, culture, technology and find insights that allow us to design in new ways. In some ways this is our most powerful trait, because the world is noisy with more data points then we can understand. And it needs people that can help connect the dots.
Which brings me to Connect. In this case, people. When we’re at our best, we can bring people with different backgrounds and strengths together to work on solving real problems. We often act as a hub for people on projects, because we think holistically and about design systems. And we can bring them together with common purpose.
At the core, the design industry have gotten extremely good at designing for myopic things that make the most money. We’ve designed for decades for high engagement for products, apps and systems that don’t serve the entire society at large and marginalize groups of people. Building brands that sell products that people don’t need. And when I think about those mental muscles we designers have, I think what a waste. We’ve misused our powers on all the wrong things, while the world burns. But also, within this industry that I love, we can use those same mental muscles to help the world escape.
Empathize. Synthesize. Connect. ESC muscles. A friend loves a good acronym, so that’s for him, but it’s also for all of us and in this case its apt. And this should be familiar for designers. We spend a lot of our time looking down at our keyboards both designing for screens and staring at them. We need to start looking up and out more. Help the world escape from its current situation of climate crisis.
Mike Monteiro another cranky old designer like me recently published a book Ruined By Design where he blames the state of the world on designers. I appreciate that he’s taking that responsibility on his back. I don’t agree with all of his points, but I do agree with one main perspective of his—I believe we can help fix it.
So when I read that scenario paper on the train about the world collapsing I felt different this time. I decided to make a choice to do something about it. But I also I knew that designers could all make a difference if they chose to. It’s a wake up call for our industry.
Climate crisis is the ultimate ethical issue. It will affect everyone on this planet regardless of culture or race or wealth. It will affect the poor and those without options or resources first. Kumi Naidoo and Jennifer Morgan of Amnesty International and Greenpeace respectively recently put out a joint opinion, saying “climate emergency is a human rights crisis.”
And perhaps most practically for designers, it will dominate design projects more and more in the coming years. Frankly we’re not prepared for climate crisis to be any part of our briefs. We’re ill prepared and late to the conversation. To solve for climate crisis will be the biggest project the world has ever seen. Because of my love for big ecosystem projects and this rock we live on, I for one want to work on it. We all should be working on it.
Maybe you’re sitting there thinking to yourself as you read this—“What can I really do? this all sounds so lofty and idealistic. I know the world’s a dumpster fire but I do the project my boss gives me. I need my paycheck. I need to eat.” I get it. So if you’re not ready to jump in and not sure what to do, you can work on building those ESC muscles. Training, if you will.
ESC Training:
Try out these ESC questions on any project you’re working on
Empathize
What aspect of human behavior can we learn from this project?
What utility does it have?
Who are we marginalizing?
Synthesize
What other experiences exist like this?
What’s the business model?
Where does it exist in a greater ecosystem?
Connect
Why should people give a shit?
Who can help us make it better?
How do we convince people its the right solution?
Questions like these challenge you and your thinking and help expand your reach. And they put utility and inclusiveness right in the middle of your design process. If you can’t answer these, then ask your manager or director if they can. If they can’t answer, then don’t quit your job. Learn what you can from the project, be a pro, and move forward. And these aren’t just questions, they’re a way of thinking differently. A mindset. For too long we as designers haven’t taken enough responsibility for the things we’ve designed and put out into the world. Once we ship something, we move onto the next project. The design industry has no agreed upon code of ethics. We’ve rejected licensing our industry. This all needs to stop. It’s time for the design industry to take that next critical step—of taking responsibility for everything we design.
I’ve made a choice that I’m going to do what I can to help solve climate crisis. I’m doing it because I sat in a red maple tree growing up for hours on end and dreamt about the world; and I want other kids growing up to have a similar opportunity. I’m doing it for my daughters who years ago sat on a home-made green box, built for recycling, and talked about plastics and garbage with me.
Climatologists, policymakers, even climate deniers can all benefit by the way we think as designers. It will be the largest challenge humans have ever faced. We’re smack in the anthropocene. It wasn’t started by us but we need to own it. And we designers can be the ones that make the difference. We have the ESC muscles, we have the strength as an industry. So let’s go fix it. Together. Because we’re running out of time.
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Resources
Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach
by David Spratt & Ian Dunlop
Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It
by Mike Monteiro
Putting people's fundamental rights at the core of climate solutions
by Kumi Naidoo and Jennifer Morgan