Give nature and vulnerable humans a voice in design and decision-making and innovate for their needs as well as humans'
Course details
$349
AUD $199
No added taxes
Pay in full or in 4 interest-free payments
About the course
What are non-human personas?
Product designers and marketing people often create ‘user personas’—fictional character documents, based on interviews and contextual enquiry with real customers, that summarise different types of customers with similar needs.
Just like personas for human target users, non-human personas enable designers and decision-makers to keep the needs of more-than-human life in mind as they make design and business decisions.
But personas are not just a decision-making tool.
As a process, creating non-human personas connects designers and decision-makers with the more-than-human world by establishing empathy for more-than-human needs. And as the tool that is produced, the non-human persona helps perpetuate that empathy through innovation and decision-making projects.
What's included
At your own pace, you’ll learn how to:
- Create a non-human persona
- Create a multi-media persona (audio, video, etc.)
- Innovate regeneratively with non-human personas
By finishing the course, you’ll be able to:
- Represent the needs of all life in decision-making
- Connect design and business with nature and community
- Discover new business opportunities
- Help mitigate climate change and social injustice
What you will learn
What’s included:
- 9 Modules + 6 Instructional Videos
- Toolkit and Resources
- Certificate on Submitted Completion
- 12 Month Access
What you’ll need:
- An online whiteboard like Miro or Mural
- Approx. 5-6 hours to complete the course
Non-human Innovation Tools
The Lab’s kit of unique design tools for creating and innovating with non-human/non-user personas, to help you bring more life into your design and decision-making.
Instructional Videos
Step-by-step instructional videos for each tool with full examples of the tools at different stages of use.
Multi-media Tool Guide
Links to free online tools to create audio personas—sound samples, editing audio, creating voice-overs, etc.
Who the course is for
About the course project
Through instructional video lessons watched at your own pace, you will create a non-human persona to use to innovate a subject of your choice—whether it’s a design project, a website, a product, or even a human-made space like a park or city.
A non-human persona for trees
A non-human persona for Nature
An audio non-human persona for rivers
“By breaking the persona-creation process down into simple steps, the course is really generous in its provision of tools, templates and canvasses”
—Colin Jowell, Principal at Good Behaviour
“The approach brilliantly adopts language that marketers and service designers already use”
—Colin Jowell, Principal at Good Behaviour
Course Outline
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| Welcome 2 Lessons |
A warm welcome and introduction to the course. |
| About Non-human Personas 3 Lessons |
An introduction to non-human and non-user personas and their Indigenous history. |
| Prepare for your journey 2 Lessons (2 Activities) |
An introduction to the course’s non-human persona method and activities to set up your tools for your course project. |
| Immerse in their world 2 Lessons (2 Activities) |
How to research evidence-based information about non-humans and non-users and connect through empathy. |
| Create a Multi-media Non-human Persona 1 Lesson (1 Activity) |
Using your research to create an engaging multi-media persona for greater engagement and influence. |
| Innovate with Non-human Personas 4 Lessons (2 Activities) |
An introduction to innovating with non-human and non-user personas using regenerative strategies. |
| Introduce Non-human Personas to others 5 Lessons (2 Activities) |
An introduction to Non-human Persona Principles and strategies to introducing them to teams, clients, and students. |
| Summary and reflection 1 Lesson |
Reflecting on your journey and learnings, and what’s next. |
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
This course is for industrial and digital designers, creative professionals, product and business owners, futurists, and anyone else who wants to learn how to take action and start conversations about positively impacting the planet and society with design.
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 5-6 hours. The videos total about 1 hour of viewing, time spent on the 3 key activities is recommended 1 hour each. How much time you put in is up to you, 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.
The course teaches the key steps through tasks using the tools provided, with instructional videos. You will get to choose your subject and non-human or non-user to work with. Your subject may be a design project you are working on, a website, a product, or a human-made environment like a park or a city.
Yes! The course is completely online at at your own pace from any time zone.
To ensure the integrity of this course, certificates are only given to those who submit their work for review.
Step 1: Send me an email
Send an email to in**@*********ed.design to let me know you want to start the certification process. Include copies of (or links to) the following
-
- One non-human or non-user Persona
- One multi-media Persona
- Your innovation ideas for your course subject
- Any questions you have
Step 2: I will review your materials
Step 3: I’ll send you your certificate!
Please note: To receive your certificate with your correct name on completion of the course, please ensure your name is correct in your account.
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.
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.
Bring more empathy for life into your projects
At your own pace, learn how to:
- Create a non-human persona
- Create a multi-media persona
- Innovate regenratively with non-human personas
After the course, you’ll be able to:
- Represent the needs of all life in decision-making
- Connect design and business with nature and community
- Discover new business opportunities
- Help mitigate climate change and social injustice
Course includes:
- 9 modules/6 instruction videos
- Toolkit and resources
- Certificate
- 12 month access
$349
AUD $199
No added taxes
Pay in full or in 4 interest-free payments
