Learn the foundations of circular, inclusive, and regenerative design for products and business
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About the course
Learn how to expand your human-centred design by redesigning a product of your choice to be more sustainable, regenerative, and inclusive by learning the foundations of:
“I enjoyed the activities and deep dive into product design and material life cycles, considering the impacts on the natural world”
Rebecca Dawson, Sustainability and Adaptation Worker
Course Details
AUD $950
NO ADDED TAXES
7 interactive sessions to expand your design powers
Week 1—Map your ecosystem
After learning the scope, principles, and tools of life-centred design, you’ll dive straight into active learning by zooming out from your design subject to map the greater ecosystem it belongs to and see the people, animals, and planet it impacts.
Week 2—Do Less Harm
Learn circular, sustainable, and inclusive design strategies to optimise your design subject’s durability and usability to reduce what it takes and who it might exclude.
Week 3—Give All Life A Voice
Create personas for the vulnerable people, animals, and environments your subject impacts, including creating multi-media versions for engaging and influencing shareholders.
Week 4—Do More Good
Use your non-human and non-user personas to innovate your subject’s product and business to shift from just taking from the planet to caretaking that which it takes from.
Week 5—Align with world
Align your project with related United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and innovate ways to support them
Week 6—Give the future a voice NEW
Apply futures thinking to explore unseen consequences of your innovations and set metrics to protect the needs of future humans, animals, and environments.
Week 7—Forge ahead
Presentation night! After compiling your innovations into a cohesive life-centred redesign, you’ll share your presentation with the group before reflecting on your learnings together on how to take them further into the world.
“My goal was new tools for service portfolio – I got that but feel I learned so much more… A lot of inspiration for changing my business”
Manuela Risch, Product Discovery and Innovation Consultant
For designers, product and business owners, and innovators
This course spans design and business innovation, and how they are co-dependant, so it is suited for both designers and business decision-makers, of all ages and experience levels.
Industrial designers, urban designers, architects, service designers, researchers
The design strategies include systems thinking and behavioural design to help designers zoom out to see the bigger picture and innovate solutions from new business models, non-human/non-user needs, and enable supportive user/citizen behaviour
Product owners, Business Owners, Decision-makers
The innovation strategies include exploring new business models based on giving back to the systems they take from and collaborating with others to shift from being just takers to becoming inspiring caretakers
Sustainability and Adaptation workers
Enhance your sustainability, regenerative, and/or climate change adaptation work with our framework that provides creative ways for supporting ESG commitments and regenerative business innovations.
Digital Designers
While this course doesn’t go into sustainable digital design, Digital Designers who want to become more generalists and understand how their work connects to global issues will also benefit from this course.
“Nice company with the course participants! Nice atmosphere”
Laura Tahvanainen, RDI specialist and Service Designer
Past student’s work
“I have learned how to integrate more life into the Design Thinking process to create products that not only benefit individual users but also support a world worth living in.”
Manuela Risch, Product Discovery and Innovation Consultant
“I enjoyed the creative process and it inspires me to do more… and helps me with science communication ideas.”
Rebecca Dawson, Sustainability and Adaptation Worker
“Thank you so much for the great course Damien! My recommendation to everyone 10/10 “
Laura Tahvanainen, RDI specialist and Service Designer
Meet your teacher
Damien Lutz
Founder of the Life-centred Design Lab, and author of The Life-Centred Design Guide, The Non-human Persona Guide, and Future Scouting, Damien Lutz has taught life-centred design in Portugal, Italy, and Australia.
After over a decade in UX/UI Design & Research, Damien began scouting the fringes of design to develop ways to fully realise design as a superpower for good. He produced his three design books, along with two online hubs, various toolkits, courses, and workshops to empower designers and decision-makers to be more sustainable, regenerative, inclusive, and future-skilled.
Join Damien to learn new ways to design a thriving existence for all life.
FAQs
The weekly classes are 2.5-3 hours, over 7 weeks, with 1-3 hrs of homework each week. How much time you put in is up to you, but the more you put in the more you will get out of it.
The course is best for anyone with some basic design or business knowledge, but all our welcome and will be inspired.
This course spans design and business innovation, and how they are co-dependant, so it is suited for both designers and business decision-makers, of all ages and experience levels.
Industrial designers, urban designers, architects, service designers, researchers—The design strategies include systems thinking and behavioural design to help designers zoom out to see the bigger picture and innovate solutions from new business models, non-human/non-user needs, and enable supportive user/citizen behaviour
Product owners, Business Owners, Decision-makers—The innovation strategies include exploring new business models based on giving back to the systems they take from and collaborating with others to shift from being just takers to becoming inspiring caretakers
Digital Designers—While this course doesn’t go into sustainable digital design, Digital Designers who want to become more generalists and understand how their work connects to global issues will also benefit from this course.
Each week, you will learn a new life-centred design tool and way of thinking, that you’ll apply to a subject of your choice.
Each lesson includes homework, which everyone presents back at each following class for group feedback and discussion.
By the end of the course, you will have redesigned your subject and have prepared a presentation which you’ll present at the final lesson to also receive feedback.
Before the course starts, you’ll choose a product to redesign as your design subject for the course.
You’re welcome to redesign any type of product, but learning life-centred design can be easier if you start with products that are:
- Fairly simple with a few parts and different materials, but not too many and not too complex
- Have some packaging you can redesign
- Are common and used by many
- Could be reusable but are thrown away after one use (like cleaning products in spray bottles)
Examples:
- Common furniture like mattresses, a set of table and chairs, etc.
- Multi-pack of underwear
- Pack of disposable shavers
- Gift box of luxury chocolates
- Bottle of wine
- Bags or luggage
- Products in disposable spray bottles
I’ll also have options as back up.
Yes! The course is completely online, based on the Sydney, Australia Timezone, so as long as you can make that time, you can attend from anywhere in the world.
Yes! You will be automatically sent a certificate to the email in your account after you have completed all course lessons and have shared your completed persona in the community.
The course instructor is the Sydney-based designer, researcher, and writer, Damien Lutz, founder of lifecentred.design and futurescouting.com.au, and author The Life-centred Design Guide, The Non-human Persona Guide, and Future Scouting.
Damien created the first framework for life-centred design and published the first guide on life-centred and non-human persona design based on project work, interviews with other practitioners and experts, and research.
The Life-centred Design Lab is committed to providing equitable access for designers around the world by offering scholarships at our own discretion.
Yes, we also offer customised training for life-centred design and non-human personas. Contact us for more details or email at info@lifecentred.design.
If you cancel up to 2 weeks prior to the course starting, we can offer a 100% refund.
If you cancel within 2 weeks of the course starting, we can offer a 50% refund.
If you cancel after the course starts, unfortunately, we can not offer any refund.
Course Details
AUD $950
NO ADDED TAXES
