Discover how industrial product design and business can do less harm and more good through a new approach reconnecting design with the living world.
Course details
About the course
The industrial design industry shapes how we live, move, and consume, from the products in our homes to the systems that power entire economies. But it also carries immense responsibility. Every material extracted, product manufactured, and item discarded leaves an imprint on people, animals, and the environments that sustain them.
Life-centred Industrial Design expands the focus of traditional human-centred design to include all life—people, animals, and environments—as legitimate considerations for the design process. It challenges designers and businesses to create products and systems that not only reduce harm but also actively contribute to the health of the planet.
This short, self-paced course introduces you to the foundations of this emerging movement. Through real-world examples, reflective exercises, and practical tools, you’ll learn how to connect your design and business decisions to global sustainability goals and ecological balance.
You’ll explore how industrial design can evolve from extractive to regenerative practices, from circular materials and fair-labour supply chains to business models that value longevity, repair, and shared prosperity.
By the end of this course, you’ll see how design for people can also mean design for all life, and how your own practice can become a catalyst for positive planetary change.
Key learnings
Life-centred Design Fundamentals and Framework
Gain a deeper understanding of Life-centred Design through our unique framework that recognises all life (people, animals, environments).
See how it connects design and business to the Sustainable Development Goals, nurtures the circular and doughnut economies, aims to help stabilise the planetary boundaries, by reducing harm and regenerating ecosystems.
Practical strategies for Sustainable Product Design & Regenerative Business
Combine craft and strategy to support net-positive goals.
For Product Design: materials, manufacturing, usability, durability, and inclusive design that reduce waste and impact while improving longevity and experience.
For Business: suppliers, production methods, models, and metrics that move beyond “less harm”, aligned with circularity, fair labour, and regenerative sustainability goals.
Ecosystem Mapping to identify your projects’ real-world impacts on all life
Learn a core LCD capability: mapping who and what your project touches across the three life groups.
Reveal hidden dependencies and risks, surface opportunities for regeneration, and choose interventions that matter—on any project, with any team.
Personal Guidance
The Life Pixel
Print and make your own Life Pixel—a tangible mindfulness token to keep on your desk to remind you to design for all life and connect your work with the world around it.
Your Personal Growth Path
Map your personal roadmap for growth as a life-centred design professional, whether that’s reshaping your design process, influencing your team, or guiding strategy.
Coaching Call with Damien (Included with ‘Plus’)
Have a personal coaching call with Damien to refine your plan and identify your best next steps.
Who the course is for
Course Outline
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| Welcome | A warm welcome and introduction to the course. |
| About Life-centred Design | Discover what Life-centred Design is, why it’s needed, and how it expands human-centred design to include all life—people, animals, environments, and the planet. You’ll explore the LCD Lab’s framework and create your own Life Pixel—a make-it-yourself, hands-on reminder to design with care for the whole living system. |
| About Life-centred Industrial Design | Learn how industrial design connects to the health of the planet, from materials and manufacturing to distribution and waste. You’ll explore the two foundations of Life-centred Industrial Design:
See how these two layers work together to shift design and business from doing less harm to doing more good |
| Map an Industrial Ecosystem | Every project lives within a web of relationships. In this module, you’ll learn how to use Ecosystem Impact Mapping to visualise how your product and its lifecycle touch people, animals, environments, and planetary systems. It’s a way to uncover unseen impacts and to spot opportunities for positive change. |
| Map Your Path | Turn awareness into action. You’ll reflect on your role, envision your next step as a life-centred professional, and create your personal LCD Path—a roadmap for growth that aligns with your influence, values, and goals. You also have the option to include a personal coaching call with Damien to refine your plan and discuss your best next steps. |
| Forge Ahead | Bring everything together. Refine your plan, celebrate what you’ve learned, and get ready to take your first steps as a life-centred designer, leader, or innovator. You’ll also receive your Certificate of Completion. |
Enrolment Options
Life-centred Industrial Design Introduction
All you need to start becoming a life-centred industrial innovator
$59 AUD
Life-centred Digital Industrial Introduction ‘Plus’
Start becoming a life-centred industrial innovator + Coaching Call
‘PLUS’ ALSO INCLUDES:
$199 AUD
Meet your teacher, Damien Lutz
Founder of the Life-centred Design Lab
Author of The Life-Centred Design Guide, The Non-human Persona Guide, and Future Scouting
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 has taught life-centred design in Portugal, Italy, and Australia, and has produced three design guides, 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 course is best for anyone with some basic design or business knowledge, but all our welcome and will be inspired.
The minimum time to complete this course properly is about 4-5 hours, but the more you put in the more you will get out of it.
You can access the course material for the period stated in the “Course Details” panel, from your purchase date, while the product is online and supported. When this period ends, access ends unless otherwise stated.
Why not lifetime access?
- Learning works best when it gets finished
- Instead of lifetime access that turns valuable courses into a to-do list that often never gets started, a defined access period gives you the motivation and flexibility to learn at your own pace, revisit key ideas, apply them in real projects, and get real value by actually upskilling rather than collecting content.
- Do you really want ‘lifetime’ access, or do you need an experience that helps you focus, learn, and gain real skills while the content is at its most current and useful?
- Tech and the world are changing fast
- Design, sustainability, technology, platforms, partnerships, and business models change over time, so a defined access period lets us keep content relevant, update or retire material responsibly, and be clear about what we can realistically support.
- Keeping outdated courses online “for life” adds to digital clutter and waste, increasing storage, energy use, carbon emissions, and water consumption in data centres for content that may no longer be relevant or valuable.
Yes, you get a certificate! Once you complete all lessons, you’ll be emailed your certificate shortly after.
Yes, we also offer customised training for creating and using non-human personas as in-house training. Contact us for more details at in**@*********ed.design.
Unfortunately, there are no discounts for courses at this price.
