What is Life-centred Design?
Quite simply, life-centred design expands human-centred design to include the needs of all life
Designing for all life
Life-centred design is an emerging design approach that expands human-centred design to also include consideration of sustainable, environmental, and social implications. It connects micro-level design (UX, product engineering, etc.) to global goals by increasing the stakeholders from just ‘user and business’ to ‘user, non-user, local and global communities, ecosystems, and planetary boundaries’.
Some of its supporting practices have been practised for decades but are still ‘emerging’ into mainstream design, while others are new and just finding their legs—circular design ↗, systems thinking ↗, and biomimicry ↗, to name a few.
Life-centred design’s wider view connects product and experience designers working at the micro-level with global environmental and social goals at the macro-level, such as those of the Doughnut Economy and UN Sustainability Goals.
Ecosystem View
Life-centred design also reconfigures today’s scope of the business value map to think of it more as an ecosystem.
More than human
The impacted lifeforms that ecosystem mapping identifies include plants, animals, and environments, expanding design considerations of needs to include the needs of all life.
Connecting design, business, and planetary health
Life-centred design’s wider stakeholder view connects product and experience designers working at the micro-level with global environmental and social goals at the macro-level, such as those of the Doughnut Economy and UN Sustainability Goals.
Honouring the Past, Designing for the Future
The rise of life-centred design is not a reinvention—it is a remembering. Indigenous and First Nations peoples have practised sustainability and systems thinking for generations, long before these concepts were formalised in Western discourse. The disconnect between today’s so-called “innovative” thinking and the traditional wisdom that has safeguarded ecosystems for centuries is one of many gaps that life-centred design seeks to bridge.
Life-centred design is not a one-size-fits-all solution, nor does it come without challenges—from unintended consequences to resistance from profit-driven industries. However, it is a powerful bridge between individual action and systemic change, allowing designers at every level—from product creators to business leaders—to contribute meaningfully within their sphere of influence.
