Why do we need Non-human personas?
Non-human personas are a tool used in Life-Centered Design to create an emotional connection with nature and non-human entities. They are a way to understand the needs and perspectives of non-human actants, and they help you create designs that include these actants. Creating a non-human persona involves doing scientific & participatory/ immersive research, writing an emotional narrative, and communicating this narrative through various mediums. Why is this important? Let me give a few reasons why we make non-human personas:
Why do we need them in our design practices?
Appropriately done, non-human personas help us understand nature or non-nature in a way that goes beyond written papers and numbers of scientific research. Quantitative research is essential to understanding the planet's and humanity's state, but humans need help connecting with scientific data. With the use of abductive research in combination with non-human or non-user personas, we can create an emotional connection that helps us connect.
Although all the signs are clear that we as humans are screwing up the planet and ourselves, we keep on seeing sustainable solutions only through our human lens and what humanity needs and continue with business as usual. When we understand both the climate needs of the non-human actants in the world AND the human needs that affect the non-human actant, we can design holistically, which benefits all life forms.
If you want to create positive "impact" and "value" for the planet/ climate/ social justice with what you design, you need to understand who/ what you are impacting and what the benefits of your design are. Creating non-human or non-user personas helps you with this.
The personas are not new, but our design world needs more fun and exciting elements that invite you to go out in the real world to explore and understand life and other life forms. Non-human personas are a positive, actionable & fun way to address some of the world's biggest challenges.
As the world changes, our design work will change, which requires a new designer mindset. Non-human personas allow you to play with that new mindset.
We need non-human personas to open our eyes to the world beyond design and show emotionally how damaging we humans are to the environment and other humans.
In one of her articles, Monika Sznel says why we need them: "Mitigating the effects of climate change, dealing with water shortages, and securing future food crops are all in our greatest interest, aren't they? We, the design community, have failed to address these wicked problems earlier properly."
In the hands of designers, they are a valuable tool to design for a world where all life can live equally, where there is space for nature, humanity and an economy based on reciprocity.
The Non-human persona provides designers, companies and governments with insights into their negative & positive impact and helps create opportunities to become more sustainable & inclusive or even regenerative. They help them create a better experience for humans and nature.
author: Jeroen Spoelstra
visual: Jeroen Spoelstra
images: Tom Hegen & Stephanie Leblanc
