There was a time when, in the world of design, we only talked about User-Centered Design. In the process of designing any product or service, we excluded the impacts that these have on other people who may not be users or clients. In an attempt to create more sustainable designs and consider more people in the design process, we later became loyal to the Human-Centered Design perspective. While this is not bad at all, it presents some problems: human beings are not the only ones inhabiting planet Earth, and our activities impact many other species. This has led to the emergence of a new, broader perspective: Life-Centered Design (Design centered on life or more-than-human design).
Businesses like Minimalism are already trying to implement Life-Centered Design. This approach allows any brand to transform its relationship with its environment to create a true positive impact. Thus, brands can become truly sustainable over time.
Sustainability beyond human-centered design
A narrow focus on humans has led us to design solutions that are comfortable for us but don’t take other living beings into account. Nor do they consider future generations. Our survival as a species depends on our relationship with other living beings and ecosystems.
One example of a Life-Centered Design project is Bee Home, by SPACE10. As we know, the service that bees provide as pollinators is vital for preserving our ecosystems and preventing health issues and complications with crops. However, bees are in danger of extinction due to our activities. Bee Home is a project that aims to empower people to support these tiny pollinators in their local environments.
Another example of Life-Centered Design is all the work being done to protect the Mar Menor in the Region of Murcia. This ecosystem has been degrading for years due to factors like agricultural and tourism models in the region. And of course, it’s not just the seahorses that are affected: tourism and agri-food businesses themselves are becoming unsustainable and are receiving these negative impacts. As well as the many people who live or vacation around the Mar Menor, who have many memories and experiences of the place.
To protect the Mar Menor, a Popular Legislative Initiative (“ILP” in Spanish) was launched to grant legal personality to the Mar Menor. That is, to make the ecosystem a legal subject and facilitate its protection under the law. The proposal also includes the creation of Mar Menor Embassies, entities designed to give a voice to all the stakeholders involved in the ecosystem. This includes both humans and our businesses. This more-than-human design proposal is discussed by Brava, architecture and research studio.
In line with all of this, the company Earthrise talks about a new legal trend: granting legal rights to nature.
Life-centered design: An integrative perspective for sustainability and positive impact
When you dive into research about approaches and methodologies for sustainable design and positive impact, you find yourself in an immense sea. When talking about Circular Design, people usually think about focusing on material flows and how to make products last longer. When talking about Accessible and Inclusive Design, you might think about products for people with disabilities, though it goes far beyond that. When we talk about Sustainable Digital Design, people often look surprised: a sustainable website? But isn’t a website immaterial? We discussed this in previous stories.
The truth is that, when talking about Sustainability and positive impact, we cannot focus on just one of these approaches. We must take all of them into account, and more. In the process of unifying all these perspectives (circular, inclusive and accessible, sustainable digital…), at Monnou we encountered the concept of Life-Centered Design. We felt that it encapsulated everything we were thinking and doing very well.
On the other hand, the Life-Centered Design approach considers everything from macro aspects (global goals like the SDGs) to the meso perspective (local territories and businesses) and even the micro vision (the product and service being offered). This is also how we see it in our methodology Creative Regeneration.
The life-centered design perspective in Monnou’s methodology
The Creative Regeneration methodology that we have developed at Monnou takes into account, like Life-Centered Design, everything from the global aspects (macro) to the details (micro). In the phase we call EXPLORA (macro), we focus on the global and territorial context of the brand. In the ACTIVA phase (meso), we align the brand’s purpose and strategies with this context. Here, we define the value proposition and design strategies with a positive impact. In the IMPULSA phase (micro), we shape the products, services, and brand identities, always aligned with the strategy.
In our methodology, we always strive to empathize not only with other human beings who are customers or users but also with other non-human living beings. However, connecting with the needs and interests of other living beings is not easy. To help with this, activities in nature, like those we conducted during Bio Lab, are invaluable. During this weekend retreat, we were able to connect more deeply with the natural environment and learn from nature.
The shift from Human-Centered to Life-Centered design is already happening in many organizations. It is a new opportunity to innovate in ways that can generate positive impact and prosperity for all people and the planet.