LCD Weekly Issue - 019 -Sustainable UX

May 20

🏔️ Words from the mountains

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of hosting the first LCD Talk. Thorsten Jonas kicked off this new series of monthly talks by sharing his knowledge about Sustainable UX design with us.Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of hosting the first LCD Talk. Thorsten Jonas kicked off this new series of monthly talks by sharing his knowledge about Sustainable UX design with us.

Here are five takeaways from our conversation.

Going with the flow and getting lost in the forest is essential. This allows you to discover new things and gain critical insights for our sustainable future. I believe this is something both Jonas and I learned when we had our burnouts.
In our sustainability bubble, we often assume the entire design world is aware of climate change and social justice challenges. However, most designers are unaware of the impact. This is why the mission of Thorsten's Sustainable UX network is so crucial to make sustainability a default in the design and product-building process, inspiring a collective shift in our industry.
Sustainable UX moves away from human/user-centeredness and includes the planet and invisible communities, just like Life-Centered Design does. Many digital products UX designers design are connected to the real world, and with your design decisions, you can positively impact the planet and people.
We are creating a lot of new technology, making our work more efficient and easier, claiming that it saves us time to do other things besides work. But instead of slowing down our lives, we use it to produce and do even more.
Change can start with seemingly small design decisions. Thorsten explained that even choosing to have a package you ordered online delivered to a central pick-up point in a neighbourhood instead of your doorstep can significantly reduce pollution. As a UX designer, you can change the default setting in the online shop from delivery to collect at a pick-up point instead of delivery to the front door. With small incentives, you can change people's behaviour to a more sustainable one.

I loved chatting with Thorsten and sharing some of our stories besides the design work. We both suffered from burnout but turned what we learned from this unpleasant period into something positive for ourselves and the world around us.

If you’d like to watch the talk with Thorsten, send us an e-mail.

Next up will be my good friend Daniel Wirtz on June 19, and we will talk about Facilitation.

🐅 LCD in the Wild - The Slowdown

The Slowdown is a culture-forward media company that believes the greatest luxury is time.

In a world addicted to speed, there has to be a counterbalance to the hyper-streamlined, quick-hit, dopamine-driven culture that's so pervasive online and off. Stories well told and carefully crafted have the power to slow people down, encourage more excellent reflection and awareness, and foster community. The mission of The Slowdown is to make meaning and create impact through nuanced, in-depth storytelling.

One of their initiatives is the Time Sensitive Podcast. In their words, the podcast exists out of candid, revealing, long-form interviews with curious and courageous people about their lives and work through the lens of time. Host Spencer Bailey speaks with leading minds on how they think about time broadly and how specific moments in time have shaped who they are today.

🪄 Inspiration- Imperfect design for a better future

In his inspiring and though-provoking article for Branch Magazine, Thorsten writes about how seeking perfection creates injustice by default.

”We always take from somebody else by seeking perfection for somebody or something. Perfection is not an absolute state. It is just one perspective in a complex, bigger system. The perfect solution always negatively impacts other elements/players in the system.”

🔥 Hot in the School - Non-Human Persona Workshop Live! (in person, real life, no screens jaja)

Join us in Westerpark, Amsterdam, on June 11 for an afternoon of nature, design and Non-Human Personas!

During this active, imaginative, and immersive activity, you will start by giving nature a voice in the park by creating a Non-Human Persona. Then, we will collectively design a small prototype, a creation that will inspire park-goers to connect with nature and embrace sustainable actions.

Rest assured, we will provide all the necessary workshop materials. All you need to bring is your imagination!

As a family designer family, feel free to bring your kids or babies. Nature is fun for everyone!

Get your ticket here!

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Until next Monday!

Have a great week!

👋 Marce

Jeroen Spoelstra

I am a passionate designer and mountain biker focusing on bringing people forward using a human centered approach. As a designer you could call what I do Social Design, but nowadays there are hundreds of different design names. So for me I am a designer and try to be humble to the world. I like solving issues together with other people in co-design and I love helping people reach there goals.

I find inspiration in mountain biking, traveling and in my current home the Spanish Pyrenees. I use sports, traveling and being outside to get inspired for my work as a designer.

Design to me is constantly shitifing between making meaningful products to creating impactful and real solutions/ approaches/ business that can make a difference.

The Design profession shouldn’t solely be reserved for the designer (in developed world), but for everyone! I design for impact and help people bring out their little designer in himself or herself. I am not saying everyone should become a designer, but I do think people can use a little bit of design to help themselves forward in their personal/ professional life.

https://www.unbeatenstudio.com