Donald Norman called for contributors on the PhD in design website at the end of 2020 who would participate in a very large (re)evaluation of design pedagogy world wide. Thanks in no small part to Norman’s influence as an attractor, two hundred people offered their service. Norman et al have now launched a website and a call for essays.

The effort is already being critiqued for its reliance on Human Centered Design (HCD) principals. HCD is thought to reinforce the anthrocentrism that has given rise to Global Climate Change and the looming geo-scale catastrophes that will lead to mass extinctions. A set of design practices that de-centers and de-privileges humans in favor of sustainable ecologies would be preferred by the critics.

I wonder how a human designer can detour a participatory design practice which would center non-human species’ needs. It seems crucial to develop and evolve these practices if we hope to sustain life (all life) on the planet together.

I still have to read through the website to see if this initiative affords the possiblity of a Post-Human Centered Design in the sense that Katherine Hayles brought forward in her book How We Became Post-Human

https://www.futureofdesigneducation.org/