de-mag

de—mag 1

Install and open Artivive to experience cover and poster in Augmented Reality. de—mag Content Management Beatriz Lopes Madalena Gameiro Layout Design Beatriz Lopes Madalena Gameiro Rodrigo Julião Cover and Poster Design Rodrigo Julião January 2021 Editorial Design, FBAUL 2

de-mag arises in a time of transition, from material to imaterial, to establish a language and expression fit of the modern magazine. de-mag uses resources, the paper it is printed on and the ink with which it tells its story, but those materials are used to their fullest, used and reused to create objects that are worthwhile and reusable. de-mag talks about dematerialization while being dematerialized itself, with, for example, augmented reality posters which bring even more flexibility of content to the publication. We wish to impart upon you, the reader, an idea of a future where objects can transcend their material selves and be safe, easier to access, and waste-free. We could not do this, however, without mentioning the risks inherent from full dematerialization, hence, de-mag shows both sides of the coin, a vision of the possible benefits and downsides of full dematerialization. de-mag is not a pre-formed opinion, we want you to think critically about the future you want, the way we can, collectively, change and shape that idea into reality, how we can be less wasteful, help the planet recover, and give more people access to goods than ever before, while also retaining our rights to privacy and unbiased information. 3

Contents Dematerialized 06Design Ownership 24 and Access Sustainability 38 Privacy 44 4

1. The Dematerialization of Design 4. The Subversive Power of Print + Analog in the Era 2. Future of Print: How Design Brought it of Digital Surveillance Back from the Dead 5. Tim Brown: Design 3. Dematerialization & the circular economy — A Pathway for Innovation — Circular Design Guide 1. Here’s how life could change in my 4. Think Tank: The End of Ownership city by the year 2030 5. Access vs Ownership: Really 2. Making Sustainability Tangible: From a Revolution? Ownership And Purchase to Access And Participation 6. Amy Cueva: The Case for Purpose- Driven Design 3. Rethinking Ownership: Making the Shift from Consumer to User 1. Dematerialization: Humanity’s Biggest Surprise | Andrew McAfee 2. Designers, Stop Designing for Yesterday’s Planet 3. Sustainable Graphic Design — Eric Benson 1. Is Privacy a Luxury? The new 4. Opinion | Has Privacy Become commoditization of privacy a Luxury Good? — Lauren Kaufman 2. What If: Privacy Becomes a Luxury Good? 3. How to design with privacy in mind — Martin Wiesemborski 5

The Dematerialization of Design A New Profile for Visual Communication Design Jorge Frascara This moment of change finds us facing interdisciplinary approach to edu- the need to redefine the objectives cation, research and practice in of design and its working methods. It visual communication design. is not by chance that I use the plural when referring to both objectives and Operational impact and cultural methods. We are no longer seeking impact universal truths, but an understand- ing of the plurality and complexity Every design project has an oper- of the issues we have to confront. ational objective: it is supposed to Some fundamental ideas that define affect the knowledge, the attitudes today’s design thinking are outlined or the behaviour of people in a given here, exploring a contemporary notion way. But any object deployed in the of design. public space, be it communicational or physical, has a cultural impact Design is not concerned with or side-effect. This cultural impact objects, but with the impact that affects the way people operate with those objects have on people other people as well as with things, and creates cultural consensus. More We have to stop thinking of design as has to be done to understand this the construction of graphics, prod- cultural impact so that designers can ucts, services, systems and envi- operate more responsibly in society. ronments, and think about those as means for people to act, to realize Partnership their wishes and satisfy their needs. It is the needs and the wishes of people If visual communication design is that we have to serve: the objects of concerned with affecting people, design must be seen only as means. then it should do this in an ethical This requires a better understanding way, that is, seeking partnership in of people, of society and of the eco- the process of change, instead of system. This necessity to extend the issuing messages in an authoritarian area of competence of the designer, way. Authoritarian communications from knowledge of form, technique, transform the receiver in an object - and manufacturing processes, to the instead of respecting him as a subject understanding of social, psycholog- - resulting in non-ethical communica- ical, cultural, economic and ecologi- tions. In ethical communications the cal factors that affect life in society, producer of a message connects with shows up a need to implement an the receiver in an interactive dialogue. 6

Rather than communicating things Public good to people, designers should commu- nicate with people about things, in a Much has been said about doing context of partnership. some voluntary work for public ser- vice. This is not the point. The public Agitation good must be the most important objective of design activity, and it Communications disturb, create should be sought with the best re- agitation. Good communication is, sources, being understood as an in- somehow, an invitation to act, or to vestment with high returns affecting reconsider perceptions or opinions. hidden dimensions of the economy. Without getting as far as political ag- We can think, for example, about itation, war or labour conflict, every the tax forms that are filled in by communication, when it is cognitive- 20 million people in Canada, and the ly interesting or emotionally strong, problems caused by form-filler errors, produces agitation. If there is no and their cost. We can think about agitation, then probably there is no the 300,000 dollars cost for spinal communication. cord injury in the first year of medi- cal attention, and about the 200,000 Accountability Canadians that sustain traffic injuries every year. There are 51 million work There is a need to develop a more ac- days lost to injuries in Canada every countable design practice, where the year. Much can be done about this in judgement of quality should not de- the area of communications, informa- pend on the coincidence of several tion improvement, public education subjectivities but where it could be and community programmes. based on actual measurable benefits, human, financial or other, that could Sustainability be expressed as the return of the design investment. Design projects Given the state of affairs today, in should be developed in such a way both environmental and cultural that, at least in some dimensions, terms, it is not possible to design their effect may be measured. With- anything without framing it within out attempting to reduce all design the notion of sustainability. The es- activity to only those dimensions calation of waste and the generally that can be measured, it is time to be irresponsible attitude of industry serious about design as investment, and governments toward the use of so that it is not seen as an unneces- toxic and damaging products and sary expenditure. processes is as bad to the physical environment as the promotion of vi- Relevance olence and selfishness by the enter- tainment industry is to the cultural Design has to be relevant so as to environment. Cultural and physical rise above fads and fashions and sustainability must become part of penetrate all dimensions of life every design project, and schools will with a view to improving it. There is have an important role to play in the design to make life possible, design education of the new generations of to make life easier and design to designers. make life better. Irrelevant design is a liability for the profession and Efficiency and democracy the environment. If we are looking at strengthening the position of These are the two poles between design among other human activities, which collective decisions take we will have to review the relevance place. Where to strike the balance, of design projects and foster work is a matter of judgement. If design in those areas where design could decisions, and other decisions that actually make a difference. affect us all, are to be collective deci- 7

sions, then more should be discussed The most important problem in de- about their nature, and about criteria sign is to decide which is the problem. for appropriate balances between If designers exclusively base their open discussion and decision mak- work on clients requests, they limit ing. Designers at the forefront of the themselves to the clients parame- profession are understanding design ters. This will normally exclude po- as the design of interaction between tentially interesting areas for design people and objects; now we have to action. Above and beyond prepar- develop a better understanding of ing students to react well to clients the interaction between people and requests, design education needs people. to develop their ability to identify Design is a problem oriented, problems that can be addressed by design action. The students should interdisciplinary activity be assisted in the development of an inquisitive ability to observe and There is a need to identify important analyse reality. They should be able problems and develop interdiscipli- to discover opportunities for design nary strategies to deal with them. It action that offer room for positive is not possible to continue just re- contributions to society. acting to clients requests for design interventions. It is necessary to con- “The mostsider the discovery and definition of physical and cultural problems as an important problemessential part of design. The nature of each problem might suggest the in design is tospectrum of disciplines required to understand it. This multidisciplinary decide which iswork should become interdiscipli- nary, somehow dissolving the fron- the problem.”tiers between disciplines. It should be clear, however, that interdiscipli- nary work requires disciplinary com- Form, materials and self- petence. expression vs. content and context Problem solving vs. problem reducing The major preoccupations of the avant-garde/fine-arts based de- We are used to hearing that design- sign education of the 1920s were ers are problem-solvers. To speak form, materials and self-expression. with precision, we do not necessarily Materials exploration was added by solve problems, we reduce them. If a design education to the self-ex- chair is uncomfortable, we design pression/form exploration approach one that is more comfortable. If there of the avant-garde fine artists. We are too many traffic collisions, we now realize that graphic design ed- design communication campaigns ucation today, eighty years later, is directed at reducing the number of very frequently concerned with the injuries. The types of problems we same issues, to the detriment of a normally deal with cannot be solved, formalized education in content and they can only be reduced. Some context, and the way in which these professionals will keep on using the should condition design action. We problem-solver slogan, but it is im- have now enough collective experi- portant to be clear about the real ence on form and materials; we need ambition of our actions. to transform self-expression into resourcefulness and inventiveness Reducing problems vs. identifying regarding the visual language in order problems to be able to speak the language of the public being addressed. We need 8

as well to concentrate on formaliz- them, while considering that every ing and codifying the problems of object placed in the public space has content and context, learning and an operational and a cultural impact teaching how to transform them into that the designer must evaluate. conscious elements of the design process. “Designers have Debate vs. conversation moved from a Debate and conversation are two concern withmodes of communication. The first is characterized by opposition, and objects to athe hiding of differences within each position. It is centred on winning or concern withlosing. The second is centred on un- derstanding, it admits plurality of people. Theviews and it ends without winners or losers. In all processes of team- design of anwork, it is far more efficient to use the conversation model to organize the object is only aprocess of working together. means to meet a Living history need that affectsThese preoccupations are the result of conversations with colleagues, people. “personal reflections and informa- tion collected from readings. This series of questions makes us wonder In the field of education, we have about the possible preoccupations changed from designing teaching that William Morris, M ller-Brockmann aids to designing teaching situations. or Peter Behrens could have had in The success of a learning experience their times. Thinking this way, these cannot be trusted to the design of a historical people stop being the sim- teaching aid. The whole activity has ple image we have of them, due to to be planned so that the teaching the reduction to which they have aid contributes its best to the ex- been subjected through historical perience. Many details enter this writings; they become more real and terrain, but certainly the teachers intriguing.In the study of history it actions, the student’s actions and is important once in a while to take the environment in which the inter- a look at the present. In part, to no- vention occurs, all contribute to the tice how difficult it is to understand learning event and must be seen as the past, and in part to see how its part of the design problem. This con- knowledge can help us see our time. tribution is not only intellectual, but From the design of objects to also emotional. We know that people learn better when they want to learn. the design of situations and We should think not only in cognitive activities: the dematerialization terms when designing teaching aids, of design but also in motivational terms. The material should both motivate the Designers have moved from a con- teacher to teach and the student to cern with objects to a concern with learn. people. The design of an object is only a means to meet a need that Something similar affects the work- affects people. We have to under- ing environment. We have moved stand people s needs and wishes, from the design of workstations to and create the objects that meet the design of work. Despite all we 9

know today about ergonomics, there This is an excerpt from the book Design is no possibility of inventing and de- and the Social Sciences People-centered signing the perfect chair on which a design: complexities and uncertainties, person could sit for eight hours a day, Taylor & Francis Publishing House, Lon- five days a week, without becoming don 2001. physically fatigued in one way or another. It would be wiser to design a work pattern which, including the design of furniture and tools, would be centred on the design of the ac- tivities to be performed. All this of course, defines design problems as interdisciplinary problems. Conclusions The implications of the above are One and Three many. The graphic design field has Chairs, Joseph been extended partly because of Kosuth, 1965 changes in the specifics of the field that result from the new technolo- gies, and partly due to changes in our understanding of the interdisci- plinary nature of our discipline. The recognition of the interdiscipli- nary character of design leads us to conceive educational programmes with multiple options. In addition to the traditional disciplinary pro- gramme in design, at the University of Alberta students can select different pathways, that include 40 to 45% of their content in other fields. These are Computing Science, Business & Marketing, and Social Sciences (stu- dents in Industrial Design can also combine engineering in their pro- gramme). In the graduate programme, the na- ture of the student’s thesis project defines the supervisory team. The twentieth century, which be- gan showing the designer as master of applied arts, ended showing the profession as covering a field that includes art and science, as well as technology, administration and human sciences. We cannot expect less from people that constantly conceive and build the information, the objects and the spaces that sur- round us, contributing so strongly to the quality of our lives. 10

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Future of Print: How Design Brought it Back from the Dead Jessica Ruscello at Blurb, Inc. For content and design, we’re cur- 3. 54% are more likely to take action rently sitting at a similar precipice. after seeing an ad in a printed The revolution only began when con- newspaper or magazine than tent and design migrated to the web, if they saw the same ad online. and we’re in the thick of it now as we watch the resurgence of print. Print The New Print isn’t dead, digital didn’t kill it, and the hybrid we have now has a greater But how, after a 20-year push toward power to stand the test of time than all things digital, is print doing so well? digital content or print content on It comes down to Design’s response. their own ever did. The New Print succeeds when: It’s true that 2017 saw a continued decline in magazine and book sales, 1. There’s a complementary print- with Condé Nast, Hearst, and major digital relationship. booksellers like Barnes and Noble reporting low numbers across bread- When Bloomberg (both print and dig- and-butter publications and chan- ital) went through its redesign a cou- nels. But as Ruth Jamieson, author ple of years ago, it was the first pub- of Print is Dead. Long Live Print, lication of its scale and circulation to points out, “Fewer magazines may be marry its print and digital in a way that being bought in total, but the num- articulated this new relationship: Print ber of titles on offer has never been and digital as a unified reader/user greater.” Furthermore, according to experience with design and content a global study from 2017, reading best suited to the distinct mediums. habits came down decidedly in favor It’s no longer about creating print and of print. digital experiences that mirror each other for brands, it’s about creating 1. 71% believe reading news in two experiences that work symbiot- a printed newspaper provides a ically well together. deep understanding of the story. We’re also seeing digital brands cre- 2. 73% believe reading a printed ating print pieces to create real-world magazine is more enjoyable than advantages, and major publishing reading a magazine on an elec- houses launch new publications for tronic device. the first time in years. HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines have added The 12

Magnolia Journal to their home-im- The tactility of print design will provement empire, and the content always give it a sensory advantage. is richer and deeper than what could There’s the feel of the pages, the exist on social media. It connects heft of the publication, the smell of show moments or brand relation- ink and paper. But we’re talking more ships to customers in a way that only than that: We’re talking design that print advertising next to deep-dive can’t be contained by pre-made CSS branded content could. or site grids—dynamic design that breaks the confines of scrolling and In a surprising turn, major online retail- “the fold”. In short: Print design does ers returned to their roots in print to things that web design can’t do in make a difference this past holiday terms of beauty, provocation, inno- season with a 23% response in growth vation, and variation. Without hav- over 2016. Even Sears printed its ing to worry about being responsive, iconic Christmas catalog, which had print designers can do new things been non-existent. Advertisers and with the static pages that can’t be content creators have always needed coded for mobile. Niche publications to stand out, and it now easier to do can push social, cultural, and political that in a physical mailbox than an boundaries with both content AND email one. design, relying on tailored audiences and a loyal following. Digital printing We’re talking has made new formats available for smaller publications, so books and design that can’t magazines created for fewer than 5,000 copies can get fresh shapes be contained by and formats. Finally, designers who want big changes can push bounda- pre-made CSS ries with print layouts without need- ing coding experts to make it happen or site grids— on a screen. The transfer of idea to printed page is a much more ancient dynamic design process that doesn’t require a digital middleman, so print publications can that breaks experiment and vary what they do from month to month without having the confines of to worry about site architecture. scrolling and “the 3. There’s evolving understand- ing of the way people consume fold”. content. In the old days of print media, books But these print pieces don’t exist in were the LP albums and magazines a vacuum: The catalogs are tied to an were the EPs. Tapes and CDs were entire ecosystem that includes online extensions of that economy—still ordering, social media campaigns and album dependent, with lower prices in-store sales and events. Retailers for copies of Singles. Web content found the most success by integrat- came to life about the time as MP3s. ing the analog and digital worlds into There’s a new hierarchy emerging with one compelling, cohesive campaign. mobile in the mix. Now, mobile con- Video media and events may be new tent is as ephemeral and fast mov- and cutting edge, but what’ surprising ing as Spotify. Designers adapt to is that print pieces are considered these differences faster than anyone that, too. else. Studies show that people get their “news” from mobile devices, but 2. There’s outstanding, innovative their leisure reading is still predomi- design. nately print-based. Digital spaces are 13

designed to be efficient and inform- ative, whereas print is for discov- ering new things, deep dives, and encounters with the beautiful and interesting. The most successful print work acknowledges that the divide between reader intentions when arriving in both spaces is only getting wider. Print knows it’s print, knows why the reader came, and behaves accordingly. These print pieces act like vinyl, which hit a 30-year high last year. The Bottom Line As with music, content media is undergoing its own irreversible meta- morphosis—and it’s driven by design. As music became easier and less expensive to distribute and access in the form of MP3s, new markets grew, hungry for more independent content. New bands could build a fol- lowing with digital music that brought them to shows where people bought their album on vinyl—bypassing tra- ditional distribution outlets. Revenue streams were re-directed, but the core hunger for the good stuff was still there. The first things to change may have been more fleeting print forms like magazines, but they’re the beginning of the print-digital hybrid. Print books are next. While branded content makes it harder to tell the difference between articles and advertising, we’ll continue to see content and campaigns straddle the print and digital divide, harmonizing both worlds instead of dividing them, and carrying us into a new print era. 14

Design vs Crisis, Nikodem Pręgowski, 2016 15

Dematerialization — A Pathway for Innovation Daniel Burrus STF The ability to make products and watches, among other wearable dig- Smartwatch, features smaller is called demateri- ital devices, are the current example Copo. alization. Dematerialization is a key of how computers have shrunk and strategy for innovation and improving ultimately become more integrated in what we utilize in business and soci- our lives because of how easily they ety. Technology is ever-changing can be worn and ignored until needed. and constantly improving. The abil- They are lighter, more portable, more ity to reduce the amount of material economical (in terms of the materials it takes to build the physical things it takes to produce them), and softer that accomplish digital tasks is rev- in environmental impact.Prior to the olutionary and, likewise, growing as abundance of wearable technology, fast as the industries they serve a tablets and smartphones slowly put purpose in. laptops and desktop computers to A Perfect Dematerialization shame, as even the most portable Example laptops used to be several inches thick and weigh six or seven pounds. Wearable technology — which in The market for a smaller, stream- recent years has increased in speed lined personal computing device and memory while becoming one of brought us the iPad and the Microsoft the smallest computer devices in Surface; however, today, wearable our lives — is a perfect example of devices use a fraction of the material how quickly dematerialization has and accomplish far more than their improved modern technology. Smart ancestors — and cost far less. Plus, your main personal computer — the computer you use the most — had become your smartphone, which was something portable, multipurpose, and a device that supplied you with far more beneficial features than any computer you have used in the past. Transformation A different example associated with wearable technology and smart devices is the progression of recorded music. Decades ago, record players 16

and in-home audio systems were Ask yourself, What the only means to listen to recorded would we want to music. Eventually, car radios came make smaller? along, where you could hear music What would add while you travel. Soon after, the emer- value by making it gence of cassette tapes and com- smaller? pact discs brought the creation of portable CD and tape players, and the early ’90s saw the dematerialization of bulky sound systems down to mini-boomboxes to bring outside while you played basketball. Steve Jobs and the iPod yet again Take a look at just revolutionized and dematerialized about everything recorded music players by allowing you have related you to have thousands of songs in your pocket, though even those were clunky when they emerged. to your productsAs streaming services displaced CD sales, smartphones and wireless and your services,headphones yet again made listening to music at the gym or on a bicycle and alwaysride even simpler, though you’d often have to strap the smartphone to your consider thebicep. Finally, wearable technology now allows the same streaming tech- pros and consnology paired with wireless head- phones, making listening to music of what you cananywhere while doing nearly anything completely possible. dematerialize. Whatever your company has, you can make it smaller — that is, if you want to. On the other hand, we don’t necessarily want to make everything smaller, and dematerialization doesn’t necessarily mean miniaturization. For example, we have the capacity to make our cars much, much smaller, but we may not necessarily want that for all models. Smart cars and some fully electric vehicles can benefit; however, a Ford F250 becoming the size of a Chevy Volt will take away from the hauling capabilities. So how do you make something lighter without shrinking it com- pletely? Dematerialize components of it, as seen in the newer models of Ford’s GT500. Its components have been dematerialized and are now lighter, making it faster than the Dodge Demon in a quarter mile, while not needing as heavy of an engine. Same size car, faster than ever before. 17

The Subversive Power of Print + Analog in the Era of Digital Surveillance Madeleine Morley, AIGA Eye on Design and invisible ink for a number of years now, as part of her own artistic practise and for a hacking course that she teaches design students at the Willem de Kooning Academy. “At first, invisible ink and secret writing seemed like a magical and very tac- tile way to engage students with the difficult subject of online surveillance and the often frustratingly impene- trable complexities,” says Wu. Amy Suo Wu, I recently received a postcard from Her research into the field of analog A Cookbook of a designer based in the Netherlands steganography—the art of hiding Invisible Writing, named Amy Suo Wu. It seemed innoc- messages within a seemingly 2019. uous at first, a simple piece of card- ordinary piece of communication, board with a series of bold graph- and the extraction of their secrets— ics on the front and a handwritten focuses on developing secure and address. Peering closer, I noticed a accessible communication methods tiny URL directing me to a location on in a time of pervasive corporate and Google maps. When I cut holes into governmental spying. This month, the card as I’d been instructed to by Wu’s released the culmination of her an email from Wu, and then placed research in the form of a chunky, the postcard over my screen, a secret spiral-bound book peppered with message appeared. It was visible illustrations. A Cookbook of Invisible through the card’s holes, made from Writing, published with Onomatopee letters on the digital map. This post- press, contains numerous recipes card was no ordinary missive at all, but for secret communication, including actually what’s known as a Cardan nine recipes for invisible ink. As well grille—a centuries-old technique for as being a form of instructional writing secret messages—one that manual, the book contains essays Wu has updated to suit our digital on colonial histories and modern- times. Wu has been researching the day applications of surveillance potential of analogue forms of secret technologies, as well as case studies, communication like the Cardan grille puzzles, and a few hidden messages of its own. Together, they attest to the subversive potential of pre-digital spy methods. 18

to circumvent stringent censorship measures and publish more freely in the government-restricted Chinese media landscape.” Spread of A “Obsolete analog techniques such as Several of Wu’s own design projects, Cookbook of the Cardan grille on paper could be which are documented in the book, Invisible Writing. tactically used to subvert surveillance have tapped into the subversive and evade censored contexts pre- potential of DIY, tactile ephemera, cisely because most of our commu- such as her 2017 Thunderclap “walk- nication is digital,” says Wu. “Paper is ing zine”. For the piece, Wu embed- not ‘smart’—it doesn’t send informa- ded subversive content into QR codes tion back and forth to servers around woven onto fashion accessories. This the world, and thus it cannot so eas- steganographic design uses unsus- ily be intercepted by third parties.” picious fashion accessories to dis- Wu cites an example of the relative tribute the anarchist writings of a security of paper as exemplified by largely forgotten Chinese feminist to a scene in Citizen Four, the documen- passers-by on busy streets. Accord- tary film on Edward Snowden, where ing to Wu, the QR code “has become the journalist Glenn Greenwald resorts a ‘habitualized’ mode of information to paper and pen to communicate. access and as a result its pervasive “In fact, the option of going offline or visual presence inadvertently pro- off-the-grid is becoming increasingly vides an inconspicuous cover.” relevant due to our digital vulnera- bility and unease generated around In the tradition of manuals published that reality,” says the artist. “Such on secret writing, Wu’s cookbook sentiments are mirrored by changes channels the spirit of accessibility, in consumer behaviour. One local Ger- of easy distribution, and informa- man publication reported that follow- tion sharing. An important source of ing the Snowden revelations in 2013, inspiration has been Della Porta’s 1558 Bandermann and Olympia typewriter popular science book Natural Magic, manufacturers were experiencing a which was one of the first publica- customer surge.” tions to disperse invisible ink recipes to a wide audience. “In essence, the Cookbook is a hybrid compilation,” says Wu. “It’s my hope that this Cook- book might be able to contribute to the conversation by helping you make small changes and perform acts of resistance at whatever scale, wher- ever you find yourself to be.” Wu locates a radical potential in analog forms, and sees print as taking on a newfound relevance especially in the context of governmental censor- ship. One of Wu’s essays, for example, recounts time spent in China with the artist-run zine collective Font Fo: “It was fascinating but not surprising to hear them talk about harness- ing the tactical nature of printed DIY zines,” says Wu. “Running out of a home-studio in Guangzhou, Fong Fo prints, binds, and distributes its work on paper in a conscious effort 19

Design & the circular economy Tim Brown 20

The scale of what we’re designing has shifted from products, to com- panies, to economic systems. Who we’re designing for has expanded from a solitary user to an intimately connected web of people, spanning the globe. Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, explains the circular economy and why designers need to get involved. 21

The case for purpose-driven design Amy Cueva 22

It’s easy to hear “design” and assume that the purpose of good design is purely aesthetic. But designer Amy Cueva argues for design that is rooted in a deeper purpose. She explains the origins and impact of purpose-driven design, which brings together the concepts of conscious capitalism and human-centered design to serve not just profits, but people. 23

Here’s how life could change in my city by the year 2030 Ida Auken, Member of the Parliament of Denmark Assemble Author’s note: Some people have read When we are dealing with the future, Communities, this blog as my utopia or dream of it is not enough to work with reports. 393 Macaulay the future. It is not. It is a scenario We should start discussions in many Rd. Kensington showing where we could be head- new ways. This is the intention with ing - for better and for worse. I wrote this piece. this piece to start a discussion about some of the pros and cons of the Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome current technological development. to my city - or should I say, “our city”. I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes. It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much. First communication became digitized and free to everyone.Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly. Transportation dropped dramatically in price. It made no sense for us to own cars anymore, because we could call a driverless vehicle or a flying car for longer journeys within minutes. We started transporting ourselves in a much more organized and coordinated way when public transport became easier, quicker and more convenient than the car. Now I can hardly believe that we accepted 24

congestion and traffic jams, not suddenly had time to eat well, sleep to mention the air pollution from well and spend time with other peo- combustion engines. What were we ple. The concept of rush hour makes thinking? no sense anymore, since the work that we do can be done at any time. I Environmental problems seem far don’t really know if I would call it work away anymore. It is more like thinking-time, creation-time and development-time. In our city we don’t pay any rent, because someone else is using our For a while, everything was turned free space whenever we do not need into entertainment and people did it. My living room is used for business not want to bother themselves with meetings when I am not there. difficult issues. It was only at the last minute that we found out how to use Once in awhile, I will choose to cook all these new technologies for better for myself. It is easy - the necessary purposes than just killing time. kitchen equipment is delivered at my door within minutes. Since transport “They live different kinds of lives became free, we stopped having all outside of the city” those things stuffed into our home. Why keep a pasta-maker and a crepe My biggest concern is all the people cooker crammed into our cupboards? who do not live in our city. Those we We can just order them when we need lost on the way. Those who decided them. that it became too much, all this tech- nology. Those who felt obsolete and This also made the breakthrough of useless when robots and AI took over the circular economy easier. When big parts of our jobs. Those who got products are turned into services, no upset with the political system and one has an interest in things with a turned against it. They live different short life span. Everything is designed kind of lives outside of the city. Some for durability, repairability and recy- have formed little self-supplying com- clability. The materials are flowing munities. Others just stayed in the more quickly in our economy and empty and abandoned houses in can be transformed to new products small 19th century villages. pretty easily. Environmental problems seem far away, since we only use Once in awhile I get annoyed about clean energy and clean production the fact that I have no real privacy. No methods. The air is clean, the water where I can go and not be registered. is clean and nobody would dare to I know that, somewhere, everything touch the protected areas of nature I do, think and dream of is recorded. because they constitute such value I just hope that nobody will use it to our well being. In the cities we have against me. plenty of green space and plants and trees all over. I still do not understand All in all, it is a good life. Much bet- why in the past we filled all free spots ter than the path we were on, where in the city with concrete. it became so clear that we could not continue with the same model The death of shopping of growth. We had all these terri- ble things happening: lifestyle dis- Shopping? I can’t really remember eases, climate change, the refugee what that is. For most of us, it has crisis, environmental degradation, been turned into choosing things to completely congested cities, water use. Sometimes I find this fun, and pollution, air pollution, social unrest sometimes I just want the algorithm to and unemployment. We lost way too do it for me. It knows my taste better many people before we realised that than I do by now.When AI and robots we could do things differently. took over so much of our work, we 25

Making Sustainability Tangible From Ownership And Purchase to Access And Participation Mike Webster BMW’s Drive You can’t solve the challenges we Thanks to the internet and the crea- Now scheme face around waste by material tion of digital platforms facilitating choices alone. Only by reframing peer to peer networks, owners of our consumption behavior and houses, cars and tools began rent- interaction with packaging will we ing them out when not being used. impact significant change. This evolved to include brands offer- ing services and experiences that Thankfully, those new behaviors are people wouldn’t have been able to emerging. Influenced by social-cul- access or afford previously. tural shifts like the sharing econ- omy and sustainably-minded sys- This resonated strongly with younger tems like city bike rental schemes, generations who tend to live more brands are offering more sustainable nomadic lifestyles while placing a products and services through a higher value on experiences, viewing change in focus from purchase to ownership as a burden in some access and participation. cases. It also attracted sustain- ably-minded entrepreneurs who The modern-day sharing economy saw the platforms as an enabler for originated in the mid-to-late-1990s. smarter ecosystem services. BMW’s Drive Now scheme allows people to drive a BMW without having to own one; payment of a monthly subscription gives people access to any BMW or Mini so they can pick up the right car for any given demand, and it’s a sustainable choice for infrequent drivers with ever-changing needs. Meanwhile, Rent The Runway is cutting down on waste in fashion by allowing shop- pers to borrow instead of buying - and always having something new to wear. Furthermore, the bags they use to send and return the garments are reusable, so only the label has to be reprinted. 26

“Paper waste is the dirty secret of There is a growing realization in the the retail coffee business,” says developed world that the way Brooklyn Roasting founder Jim we did things in the past made Munson. Most takeout coffee cups sense sustainably. Resources and require a plastic barrier that renders materials were preserved rather than them un-recyclable. Although fully discarded; infrastructures were put recyclable solutions are appearing in place to facilitate their retrieval; like James Cropper’s Cupcycling, incentives were offered to ensure the chain has gone a step fur- people played their part. ther to shift consumers away from single-use packaging. Offering ‘good The only way we can achieve this is to go’ reusable cups, consumers can for systems to be put back in place buy their coffee in one store and drop either by governments or by brands. the cup off at any store once finished As such, we are coming full circle. to receive a credit for next time. The cups are washed and put back into The UK government is planning a the system. deposit-return scheme to increase the recyclability of single-use plastics. The same goes for US food delivery Consumers would effectively lease brand Tyme. Unlike most food delivery the packaging, paying a returnable services, all their meals come packed deposit. UK supermarket Iceland has in a reusable jar that consumers already trialed a similar scheme that return to Tyme for a discount on their rewards shoppers who return their next order. plastic bottles. The results have been encouraging with over 2,500 bottles returned on average per day across five stores according to The Guardian. Tyme’s meals All these examples are closed-loop Earlier this year TerraCycle and reusable systems that embrace re-usability to announced their closed loop e-com- packages combat waste and underutilization. merce shopping system. The Loop Many countries, such as the Nether- Initiative will partner with big FMCG lands, have been doing this for years brands to remove waste from the with beer. Bottles are borrowed direct to consumer supply chain rather than bought with deposits through reusable primary and sec- paid back on their return. We used ondary packaging. On behalf of the to do the same in the UK with milk. brands, TerraCycle will recoup the How on trend is this now-milkmen bespoke primary packs made from using electric vehicles delivering durable materials like glass and alu- reusable glass bottles!In his excel- minum so that they can be cleaned lent article, “The Plastic Backlash,” and reused over and over. Stephen Buranyi recalls how reusa- ble packaging such as glass bottles Both are steps forward in realizing had a nearly 96% return rate in the the vision of William McDonough US before the 1950s, yet only 5% by and Michael Braungart, the pio- the 1970s. neers of circular economy thinking with their seminal book and man- ifesto Cradle to Cradle. They view the world’s material resources as nutrients, ones sustained within a closed ecosystem; technical nutri- ents describe materials like metals that can be retained and reused by manufacturers while biological nutrients describe those biodegrad- able materials that can be put back into the environment. 27

Fairphone is developing a new busi- ness model that moves from owner- ship to service. The ethical consumer electronics brand are working with Circle Economy on a pilot with busi- nesses exploring leasing phones rather than selling them. But kickstarting a circular economy takes not only time but shifting how we view ownership. This mindset shift is fundamental to brands overcoming one of the core barriers to more sustainable products: cost. Supply chains have been honed over the years to work efficiently within a paradigm of single-use packaging, where reducing cost is prioritized over creating value. Circular business models and systems that negate the need for consumers’ purchase of packaging can change this. The cost can be amortized by brands across multiple uses over sev- eral years. Furthermore, the fact that packs will be designed to last means that value and delight can be added to the experience where it matters most; in-use through better functionality and ergonomics, and through more desirable aesthetics that suit people’s environments. This could be a golden age for packaging design. Packaging in its current form asks much from consumers wanting to be sustaina- ble—think of the wrapped cucumber and the food waste versus plastic waste dilemma—yet it has tremendous potential to unlock a more positive consumer experience through the conduit of brand value. This will require designers to reimagine packaging in a new light and challenge the semantics of the name. We are no longer here to package fast-moving consumer goods beautifully; we are here to shape a sustainable future that connects consumers with products through access and experiences offer- ing emotional and functional cues. And rather than view the individual pack as a cost to the business, brands will need to view them as assets to invest in as they’re touch points within a broader sustainable ecosystem. 28

EnCircular - platform that represents and is the benchmark of the whole ecosystem of the Circular Economy of the Valencian Community, ADCV, 2020 29

Rethinking Ownership: Making the Shift from Consumer to User Steven Diacono each year and a report from McKinsey predicts that 3 billion new consum- ers will enter the market from emerg- ing economies in the next 30 years. We are coming to the end of an era of cheap oil and materials, and simply using less is no longer enough. GS1 Circular The way the majority of the world’s The idea of a performance-based cir- economy economy works is ‘linear’. We take cular economy is being touted as a illustration, materials out of the earth, make way to rediscover progress in the Rocketpanda them into marketable goods that we 21st century whilst restoring our Studio, 2020 consume, and dispose of the goods ecosystem. In this type of econ- when we’re done with them. It’s a omy, a company’s growth no longer system that accelerated since the depends on the use of these natu- onset of the Industrial Revolution, ral resources. Instead, it is achieved when there was an abundance of through the use of disruptive tech- cheap and easily accessible natural nology and business models that resources. Mass production made are based on more efficient use of a lot of sense at the time and has resources through longevity, renew- since arguably raised our standards ability, capacity sharing, and dema- of living exponentially. terialisation. The circular economy represents huge opportunities for Fast-forward 250 years and the companies to innovate their busi- earth’s resources are being depleted ness models, products and services a lot faster than they can be replen- from the bottom up to create more ished. We’re using 30 percent more value. resources than the earth can restore Part of the solution may lie in us mov- ing away from owning stuff. What if we didn’t buy the goods themselves, but rather the service? What if we chose access and performance over ownership? The thought of moving away from owning things might seem a bit weird and discomforting. Then again, so was the idea of renting 30

out a spare room to a stranger 10 and enjoyable as possible. The New years ago. Today, this then-radical York Times has described the brand idea has been normalised through as a ‘Netflix model for haute cou- Airbnb, a now $25-billion company. ture,’ which has effectively democ- ratised an industry that was previ- In this new paradigm, manufacturers ously inaccessible for many women. and retailers would remain the own- ers of the product, with maintenance Desso is a Dutch carpet manufac- and repair becoming part of the deal. turer that has been applying the For instance, instead of buying lights Cradle to Cradle methodology since for your apartment you would buy 2008 by designing its carpets and lighting as a service, enabling you flooring so that at the end of their to be worry-free from maintenance useful life they can be effectively and keep up with the latest technol- recollected, disassembled and recy- ogy for energy efficiency. With the cled. An integral part of this model manufacturers being fully respon- is through offering carpeting and sible for the upkeep of the prod- flooring as a service instead of a ucts, their incentives are now more good. aligned with where they should be, creating and maintaining products These business models are just a for optimal performance. It sounds handful of examples of how brands utopian, but many companies are are finding new ways to scale up already putting this into practice. their businesses without strain- Here are three examples from very ing the world’s increasingly scarce different products that we use in resources. We’re also gradually see- our everyday lives: ing the emergence of a different type of consumer, who is interested Vodafone is one of the first brands in in different ownership and business the telecom industry to capture the models such as the hipper disruptive benefits of the ‘access over owner- innovators Airbnb, Uber and Spot- ship’ business model. The company ify. These consumers are prioritising rolled out its ‘Red Hot’ plan in 2013, experience and performance over which allows users to rent the lat- possession. We’re starting to see est available phone for a year and that services and not goods are continually exchange it for the lat- helping to redefine the relationship est models. This enables Vodafone between things and people. to retain ownership of the mobile phones in circulation, including the One major challenge with this is that precious minerals that are subject we have been born and raised into to high price volatility, reusing the a world where we often perceive recollected old units as seen fit. This that what has been used is not good kind of service-based model is also enough. The need for personal own- highly conducive to creating deeper ership is deeply ingrained in most of and longer lasting relationships with us. Changing this kind of mindset Vodafone’s customers. and culture is difficult and a process that might take decades. It really Rent the Runway is a New York- depends on whether as consumers based company that has pioneered we’re seeking the benefit obtained a lease model in the fashion industry. from the good as opposed to the The company has created a service benefit obtained from the actual where its users can lease expen- ownership of the good. Shifting to sive designer pieces for a fraction access based models presents a of the exuberant retail prices. It world of opportunity to businesses employs a reverse logistics model and individuals, and it seems like to dispatch and collect the designer the shift is already well underway. garments, focussing on making the Perhaps it’s not a new idea, but one user experience of leasing as easy whose time has come. 31

Think Tank: The End of Ownership Tien Tzuo, chief executive officer and cofounder of Zuora The signs are everywhere — owner- to ownership is just basic common ship is on the outs. From Spotify’s sense. The bigger picture here is that IPO to Amazon Prime hitting a hun- the dominant economic model of the dred million memberships to Lyft’s last 150 years is coming to a close, new monthly pass, more and more and it’s about damn time. people are opting for fluid services rather than static products. In fact, Since the rise of industrial pro- our physical world seems to be rap- duction, we’ve operated under idly diminishing all around us. Compa- a straightforward asset transfer nies aren’t buying buildings, they’re model. Companies built and sold renting from WeWork or Servorp. physical products. The fundamental Teenagers aren’t saving up to buy goal was to create a hit. Once that cheap cars, they’re catching rides was achieved, then a company could with their phones. Even the malls are spread its fixed costs over as many disappearing. The world is switching units as possible, so it could compete from capex to opex. on the all-powerful margin. At least that’s what I was taught in business Our physical school back in the Nineties (it was world seems to be really bad advice, even back then). rapidly diminishing all around us. Of course, this entire system was predicated on planned obsolescence. Our physical world seems to be rap- The revenue model depended on us idly diminishing all around us. Why is repurchasing products that were this happening now? Many people specifically engineered to expire point to the shifting consumption after a fixed period of time. Back in patterns of Millennials, but at this the days of Thomas Edison, light- point, we should probably give the bulb companies actually competed poor Millennials a break. They’ve on how many hours their lightbulbs suffered enough analysis. This is could last (no doubt some MBAs soon an increasingly cross-generational corrected them). We were expected shift. If you’re not interested in to fill up our lives with disposable care and upkeep, preferring access stuff on a regular basis. Is it any won- der that people are starting to get tired of this approach? Our new “subscription economy” is 32

far better for everyone for all sorts consumer side — we get to uncover of reasons. For starters, the explo- new music to play, new meals to cook, sion of all these digital platforms has and new clothes to wear, without enabled consumers and businesses throwing more junk into landfills. On to effortlessly extract the services the enterprise and manufacturing that sit behind the products we use side, new analytic services are ena- on a daily basis: music from records, bling companies to work smarter and mobility from cars, software from “unlock” billions of dollars of unreal- servers. Sweden’s Husqvarna, for ized value. The global economy has example, runs a network of auto- been desperately searching high and mated storage units that allow low for growth for years — as it turns people to rent garden tools by the out, we’ve been sitting on top of it hour. We get to experience the value the entire time! All these remarkable without bothering with the expense new acronyms we’re hearing about and hassle of maintenance. We get to (AI, IoT) are turning into utilities like enjoy the milk without having a cow. power or water, that companies can access at the flip of a switch. Ser- vices turn economic potential into kinetic commercial activity. “Goodbye Secondly, in this new model, sustain- Which leads me to my final point — ownership. ability and environmental responsi- services bring growth. And not just Hello, usership.” bility change from a “nice to have” growth, but sustainable growth. neon sign to an actual economic imperative. Today’s economy is rife with all sorts In service models, the manufacturer of foment and arbitrage. Take a look handles the logistics and the equip- at taxi medallions, or Gillette stock. ment (General Electric famously pio- Product companies based on dis- neered this concept by offering their crete, anonymous transactions are jet engines on a “power by the hour” particularly susceptible to the whims basis). If they don’t make sure that of the market. Companies that have their equipment lasts as long as pos- direct relationships with their cus- sible, and that the materials used to tomers avoid boom and bust product build that equipment are recycled cycles and greater macroeconomic or repurposed effectively, they will havoc. A happy subscriber base is lose out to their competitors. It’s that the ultimate economic moat. simple. When companies become more efficient, the planet benefits. There will always be conspicuous consumption. Large numbers of peo- ple will always try to define them- selves by what they own, as opposed to how they act. And how can you blame them? That’s how the old model worked. But a new economic model built around access and ser- vices is catching fire across every industry on the planet, because of access, sustainability, discovery and growth. And that’s why this new model is here to stay. Third, when companies work smarter at offering the best services possi- ble, all sorts of opportunities open up. There’s more discovery on the 33

Access vs Ownership: Really a Revolution? As subscription models rise in popularity do consumers actually care more about access than ownership? Yannis Gidopoulos Uber illustration, Consultants and business commen- about owning a good: they’re just Ani Fonny, 2020 tators are paying a lot of attention as happy to simply have access to to a recent change in consumer it. So as access trumps ownership, behaviour that is disrupting busi- more and more business models are ness models across industries. Con- developing around subscription ser- sumers, it seems, care less and less vices, as fewer buyers actually seek to ‘buy’. One can see why this trend has gathered a lot of attention. Home ownership is on the decline vis-a-vis renting. My parents used to own CDs and DVDs. I don’t own a single piece of music or a single video: but I pay a monthly subscription to Netflix and Apple Music so that instead I can have access to, literally, millions. Equally, car ownership is also declin- ing amongst millennials, compared to the previous generation, as pub- lic transport becomes more efficient, and transport-as-a-service is taking off in the private sector via the Uber/ Lyft/Byrd revolution. Many people care more about having access to transportation than actually owning a car. Indeed, thinking of myself as a young adult, I do not think I will ever buy a car. Perhaps the single most iconic consumer commodity of the 20th century’s manufacturing revo- lution does not even cross my mind. So what’s happening? Are we seeing some sort of psychological revolu- tion amongst consumer preferences? Many commentators certainly seem 34

to suggest that some sort of fun- 1. Many of our parents lived in a sub- damental disruption is taking place urban geographical landscape where in the human psyche: see Brooke cars were structurally necessary. 2. Masters’ FT article (paywall), who Public transport was more expensive writes that ‘we are entering an era than owning a car, for suburban to in which consumers will value access city commutes. over ownership’. By contrast, why are millennials not I disagree. The notion, I believe, that so fussed over buying cars today? consumers no longer care about ownership is, I believe, wrong, and 1. The emergence of new software that the business model disruption capabilities (machine learning, (which I agree is taking place) is being cloud storage) has allowed for the driven by a revolution in consumer viability of the Uber transport-as- psychology/preferences is also a-service business model, which wrong. Instead, I suggest that the is reducing the cost of transport, underlying principles of consumer and disrupting private car owner- preferences have not changed, but ship. Ubers will only continue to that the economics have changed, get cheaper as a) electric cars largely as a consequence of tech- reduce the operating costs and nological innovation. The bottom line b) autonomous driving capabili- is that economics drives consumer ties further reduce the operating behaviour. While it is true that a costs. An electric, autonomous reflexive relationship exists in that uber in 2025 will be able to drive consumer psychology drives eco- you 5km, on demand, for under nomics, this exists in the form of a $1. So why buy a car? few simple psychological maxims — e.g: “people act in a cost-minimizing 2. Urban engineering has moved way”. away from suburban spaces towards higher density city Indeed, this is the central maxim of living, further diminishing the relevance: that people seek to mini- attractiveness of private car mize their costs. So let’s turn to home ownership. ownership. That fewer people are buying homes does not necessarily 3. Public transport has got faster, denote a change in generational atti- cheaper, and more reliable. tudes towards access vs ownership. What has changed is that homes are Again, in light of these structural now too expensive for millennials to and economic changes, consumer acquire, irrespective of taste. The behaviour simply adapts in line with average house price in London is its unchanged fundamental psycho- approaching £500,000. The average logical axioms (in this case, a basic salary in London is £34,000. So in a proclivity for cost-minimization and post-GFC environment where banks convenience). lend responsibly, there are simply very few people who can afford to To consider some final examples, let buy a home. Real estate is an asset us take media and entertainment class that has been inflating at rates content. Here we consider not tan- well above any other illiquid asset gible goods like cars and homes, but over the years, and we now see intangible content like music, films, prices which preclude most people series, podcasts, and articles. Indeed, from buying. Access (renting) is not the difference between a tangible preferred to ownership. It is simply good and an intangible good can impossible to buy for most people. be a subtle one, and one that many In a similar way, Generation X bought have perhaps misunderstood. For cars for, amongst other auxiliary example, when commentators argue reasons, two fundamental reasons: that there has been a shift from ownership to access with refer- ence to books or films, they have 35

misunderstood a book as being a tan- 100 individual songs every month. gible asset. In fact, a book isn’t really Again, it’s not about access over a tangible asset like a house or a car. ownership: it’s about my budget Its utility does not lie in its structural constraint. physical form. The utility of a book — say, a novel — lies in its intangible The movement of business models content. So it doesn’t really make from selling goods to providing sub- sense to speak of owning a book. scription services or ad hoc access For example, what does it mean to to their goods is not a response to own Wuthering Heights? One can’t a revolution in consumer psychol- own Wuthering Heights. Equally, one ogy. It must, surely, be viewed as a cannot own Beethoven’s Fifth Sym- consumer adaption to a change in phony. Nobody can own Beethoven’s underlying economic, structural, and Fifth Symphony. So the shift from technological conditions, in line with owning a CD of the Fifth Symphony a set of ancient, unwavering psycho- from paying a subscription fee to logical maxims. Consumers like con- Spotify so that you can merely listen venience. Consumers like breadth of to it without owning it, is actually an choice. Consumers like to minimize immaterial difference. The same goes their costs for the same outcome. for Netflix. And here I will also make They always have; they always will. the prediction that Kindle will launch a Spotify equivalent for books, where It is important, in times of change, to a monthly subscription will grant think about phenomena through the one access to an unlimited library of lens of basic, common sense prin- books. ciples. Paradigms like ‘access over ownership’ may hold some descrip- The access-ownership debate has tive accuracy, but there is often a little meaning when applied to assets simpler story underneath: one which with no utility inherent in their actual may sound a little less clever, but a form. That is not to say that when little more intuitive. an asset does have utility in its form, 21st century consumers somehow magically lose their psychological desire for ownership. Indeed it is the very millennials who supposedly do not care for ownership who are reviv- ing the Vinyl industry. This is because there is utility in a Vinyl player and record beyond the intangible music itself, but in the physical ritual of playing a Vinyl, and the cover art, etc. In such cases, millennial consumers remain determined to own. And on a less philosophical note, the simple economic and technological facts have changed. The software that supports Spotify did not exist two decades ago. And people who pay a $10 Netflix subscription do not necessarily prefer access over ownership, when ownership is too expensive, if one compares access with ownership for the same volume of goods. I can afford a Netflix sub- scription but I simply cannot afford to buy 10 films per month, or to buy 36

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Dematerialization: Humanity’s Biggest Surprise Andrew McAfee 38

t Humans want more and more all the time, which seems like bad news. Aren’t we going to use up all the nat- ural resources and pollute the Earth as we keep growing? MIT scientist, Andrew McAfee, advocates that the answer is actually “no.” Evidence from America shows that, amazingly enough, we are now dematerializing: using fewer resources year after year and treading more lightly on the planet. 39

Designers, stop designing for yesterday’s planet Alex Crowfoot Humans are currently consuming the the world’s economy on a sustainable Earth’s resources 1.7 times faster than footing”. nature can regenerate, the Pacific plastic waste zone is now twice as The challenge for designers is to start large as France and air pollution-re- thinking about how we can integrate lated deaths exceeded 6 million in sustainability into every project we 2016. Yet many of us are still designing do and not only change consumer for a world that doesn’t exist anymore behaviour for the better, but also offer – a world that believed resources were digital services they can feel good limitless, fossil fuels could be used about, knowing the environmental with no implications and waste would impact has also been considered. just sort of… disappear. Consumers are sending unprec- edented signals that they expect While it’s easy to understand the brands to address sustainability. For impact of manufacturing, heavy designers keen to start reducing the industry and farming, people tend to impact of projects, here are five sim- forget the impact the digital world ple design hacks. is having on the environment. The internet is currently producing more Design better defaults than 830 million tons of Co2 every year, exceeding the amount emitted Are we unwittingly part of the prob- by air travel. Factor in the way digital lem? Many digital products and ser- products and services are increas- vices come with defaults that have ingly able to connect to the physi- a negative impact, but which can be cal world, from e-Commerce to home easily changed. For example, instead delivery right through to IoT devices, of every food delivery coming with and the implications are huge. disposable napkins and cutlery, the designers behind food delivery plat- Digital designers could be playing a forms could force users to choose crucial role in helping to reduce the to add these, as Deliveroo has now human impact on the planet. Every done. Even better – designers could year, we bring thousands of new make users pay extra. Better still, products and services to life, devise they could offer them biodegradable different ways to interact and create options like bamboo. new habits. Digital means these can scale at an unprecedented rate. It’s Minimise data why the World Economic Forum said, “digital transformation can help set Some of the impact of our work is 40

completely hidden. It has been esti- Make better choices the most mated that streaming just an hour attractive of video per week for a year requires more energy use in the server farm Platforms like Amazon give users than two domestic refrigerators. And zero ways to compare the impact where is that energy coming from? In of buying one product over another many countries it’s by burning coal. or from one supplier versus another. We can mitigate this by designing For example, does the product we’re services that reduce the transfer of buying really need to be shipped half- data – designing lighter weight pages way around the world when a second, and screens or giving careful thought albeit slightly more expensive version, to when using video, for example. This is just down the road? If the global has a side benefit of making services shipping sector were a country, it more usable in countries with nar- would have the world’s sixth largest rower bandwidth and less reliable greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of networks. even Germany. Designers could help to reduce this by rewarding users for choosing an option with a smaller car- bon footprint. If we’re smart, that will be at no extra cost to the service. Add the planet to your tools Coca Cola and Audit the inputs Using tools or methods like the Lean PepsiCo are Canvas, Business Model Generation, responsible One of the simplest ways of reducing Design Principles, or Service Blue- for 25% of impact is to ensure that all the suppli- prints, it’s easy to engage teams and packaging ers or inputs into a product or service clients on environmental factors by pllotion found also have a lower impact. Patagonia ensuring they are, simply, visible. At on UK beaches famously tries to do this as part of Futurice, we are experimenting with its global supply chain, ensuring that new methods to encourage our teams its partners complement Patagonia’s to prioritise environmental factors in ethical corporate culture and drive their projects. For example, we add a towards sustainability. Ensure our box called “Environmental Impact” on suppliers are doing the right thing the Lean Canvas, so that it won’t be and we are halfway there. forgotten, and people will design for lower impact from the start. If you Could we, as are building a service blueprint, add designers, take a swim lane called “environmental a similar stand impact” or “resource use” or “pollu- with our tion” so that all concerned are design- networks? ing thoughtfully and consciously. These are just five ways that design- ers can start to use their influence. With an open mind, there are count- less others that designers can find. So, what else could teams be doing to bring sustainability into projects? How can we reduce our impact if we don’t know what it currently is? For teams that don’t know the answer to these questions maybe it’s time to found out. 41

Sustainable Graphic Design Eric Benson 42

Benson has provided digital work for such clients as the Vanguard Group, FILA, Credit Suisse First Boston and Texas Instruments. He has designed print and packaging material for Texas Instruments, MADD, Toyota, and pro- duced a range of sustainable print collateral for Whole Foods. In 2006 Benson received his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin with a concentration in design and social responsibility. His teaching methods and assignments hope to serve as an incubator for producing more socially responsible designers in the world. This talk was recorded at TEDxUIUC 2010 (4/10/10), which was organized at the University of Illinois at Urba- na-Champaign by a group of students led by Cristian Mitreanu. 43

Is Privacy a Luxury? The new commodization of privacy Laura Kaufman What is the cost of true data privacy? take steps to afford the ‘cost’ of true Back in 2008, two Carnegie Mellon privacy? researchers calculated it would take the average adult 76 working days Let’s take a look at why privacy is a a year to read and act on all of the luxury, how we got here in the online privacy policies to which they are context, and possible policy steps exposed online. If everyone in the we could take to improve our privacy US read every policy for the websites fortunes. they visited, it would amount to a $781 billion opportunity cost to the When did privacy become a market. luxury? If we care about our privacy, this It would be a bit misleading to sug- seems pretty expensive. Are there gest the high cost of privacy is a new other ways to protect our data and phenomenon that emerged only after still access the services we need the introduction of digital services. besides reading the fine print? Sort To an extent, privacy, especially in of — a number of services such as the physical world, has always been a Superhuman, myriad pay-for-VPNs, luxury. Those with greater means are and Brave have emerged to replace the able to purchase greater privacy — traditional ‘utility-for-data’ exchange bigger property, higher fences, fewer model common across online services neighbors. All of these features require and content providers. These services a certain level of financial autonomy. are early in their adoption curves and Since true privacy is scarce in net- so do not yet benefit from user net- worked society, it has always come work effects experienced by market at a premium as demand remains high. incumbents. They may also not have This doesn’t change in the digital access to the capital required to com- realm. As barriers to accessing dig- pete with existing ‘free’ services. This ital services decrease, the majority means these services, along with their of individuals who regard them as a ‘new’ business models, usually come at day-to-day necessity cannot afford some kind of premium, often costing the ‘cost’ of privacy, leaving them anywhere between $5 and $50+ per vulnerable to data exploitation. month. The economics of privacy Too rich for your blood? Me too — and it’s only gotten worse since Luxury goods thrive on high brand 2008. Given this reality, how do we equity which enables price points 44

Coca Cola and that encourage exclusivity. This cre- platform model. This all changed after PepsiCo are ates a virtuous cycle wherein the only the dot-com bubble burst at the turn responsible consumers who purchase the goods of the millennium, and Silicon Valley for 25% of are those who value the brand dispro- had to scramble to find a way to stay packaging portionately more than others, stay afloat. Digital services companies pllotion found topical on what’s in ‘style,’ and can determined they could encourage on UK beaches afford the cost of acquisition, only user adoption by making services leading to more exclusivity and higher ‘free’ in exchange for ‘exhaust’ data, price points. or user behavioral data that seemed to have no inherent value. Rather than In a way, the economics of privacy charging more to preserve privacy, are not t\\oo different from those of these companies accepted payment in the form of data. If a user gave up your favorite chic handbag. Consum- privacy, often unwittingly, the ser- ers who value privacy more are more vices remained free. In her recent likely to take steps to preserve it and book on the subject, Shoshana Zuboff stay informed on the latest privacy calls this emerging business model issues. As mentioned above, privacy ‘surveillance capitalism.’ Zuboff argues preservation is also relatively costly. Google was the true pioneer and per- However, there is one notable differ- fecter of this approach to the digital ence between privacy and your hand- realm, finding perfectly legal means bag — privacy isn’t concrete. Privacy of ensuring its right to user data. This also works in reverse as an economic data, and the technical mechanisms tool. While Louis Vuitton wouldn’t developed to manage it, turned out to accept its own handbags as a form of be incredibly valuable to a particular payment, digital services are all too market sector — Advertising. In the ready for you to relinquish privacy in years since, the majority of digital exchange for access to their prod- services and content providers still ucts. You also can’t exactly ‘return’ use this model to re-package data privacy or pay most Internet-powered and sell user eyeballs to advertisers. companies cash in exchange for them not collecting your data. To be sure, this approach creates many economic efficiencies for the The business models enabling online market and consumers can benefit services to take off in the late 1990s immensely from free access to ser- flipped the privacy premium on its vices. The challenge we face today is head. Early companies like Netscape that there are insufficient guardrails or AOL charged subscription access in place to prevent the exploitation fees or earned revenue by enabling of these data by bad actors. contextual advertising via a ‘portal’ While regulatory requirements around transparency have improved since Google’s founding and the explosion of online services, they are not strin- gent or prescriptive enough to deter companies from using tactics that encourage passive policy acceptance. Most online services employ what are referred to as ‘Clickwrap’ terms, which manifest themselves in the lit- tle ‘I accept the terms and conditions’ dialog boxes we all tend to sail right by on our way to access what we want. Clickwrap covers a company’s legal obligation with little expectation thatusers will read the full terms. 45

Understanding the implications of How do we lower the price? the terms requires a certain level of privacy literacy, and bypassing them Privacy’s status as a luxury is not set entirely requires the resources neces- in stone. While physical privacy may sary to pay for alternative services have scarcity limitations due to avail- which do not collect data or may not able space, digital privacy scarcity be as fully developed as those offered can be addressed by existing social by incumbents. This requirement and economic structural mechanisms: means true privacy achievers are an exclusive, if not non-existent, commu- 1. Responsible Regulation nity who have the desire, understand- ing, and resources required to fully The 5-day workweek, access to protect their data. Privacy remains a healthcare, and predictable utility luxury good. prices were all previously considered luxuries of the upper classes. While Understanding the implications of we still have strides to make in these the terms requires a certain level of areas, additional regulations on indus- privacy literacy, and bypassing them try did lower the barriers to access entirely requires the resources nec- for these improvements to quality of essary to pay for alternative services life. Regulatory improvements regard- which do not collect data or may not ing privacy, such as Europe’s GDPR be as fully developed as those offered and California’s CCPA, are only the by incumbents. This requirement beginning, and, as most regulations, means true privacy achievers are an are imperfect. exclusive, if not non-existent, commu- nity who have the desire, understand- Regulators could make moves to stan- ing, and resources required to fully dardize notice & choice disclosures protect their data. Privacy remains a with concepts like requiring privacy luxury good. nutrition labels or clear technical mechanisms of capturing user pref- Understanding erences and consent. While vague the implications policy language can lead to legal of the terms interpretations that still enable data requires a certain abuse, it’s important that these reg- level of privacy ulatory measures reflect how the literacy, and technology actually works in order to bypassing them ensure we reduce negative economic entirely requires externalities. As we reduce variabil- the resources ity in interpretation of legislation, we necessary to pay can ensure companies are reducing for alternative the burden on the consumer to read, services comprehend, and act on individual service policies. 2. Economic Incentives Privacy cost is another area in which consumers can vote with their clicks. If you cannot afford to make the switch to services that do not rely on your exhaust data to profit, you can ‘prune’ the services you use and block the collection of data without need- ing to read every single user agree- ment. I personally have no problem providing behavioral data to compa- nies providing great value. 46

For online content, consider using a browser or search engine which does not collect user data and blocks cook- ies and other identifiers. When given the choice to set your preferences, consider taking the extra two minutes required to disallow the collection of data not necessary for the service you are using to function. Every per- son needs to decide for themselves what level of data collection they are willing to tolerate, but limiting this means squeezing a provider’s reliance on that data and forcing them to find alternative mechanisms of providing value to their customers. 3. Technological Innovation There are more privacy-conscious technologies and services emerging every day. These services aim to pro- vide greater transparency and data minimization as a feature of their products, not a bug. The number of new services allowing consumers to monetize, track, or associate informa- tion to their digital identities across the web will give users greater abil- ity to control if and how their data is used in a more centralized fashion. These innovations will lower the cost of privacy by reducing the privacy literacy requirement and decreasing barriers to control. While we must stay vigilant, our cur- rent cultural climate and distrust of industry incumbents is naturally pushing us toward these three solutions to the high price of pri- vacy. Certain aspects of privacy may always remain a luxury item, however with the right legislation, incentives, and innovation, data privacy does not need to be so expensive. 47

What If: Privacy Becomes a Luxury Good? World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 48

Our devices are monitoring us around the clock, the digital services we rely on require our personal data and ano- nymity is becoming impossible. What if data privacy becomes a luxury that only the wealthy can afford? Explore the possible, plausible and probable impacts of the Fourth Indus- trial Revolution. 49

How to design with privacy in mind Martin Wiesemborski First of all: Why should you care? and seeks to proactively embed pri- vacy into the design. Fast-forward to Well, there are some obvious eco- 2018, and it finally got the attention it nomic and legal reasons to make sure deserves by being incorporated into you follow the necessary rules to pro- the GDPR. In brief, it states that pri- tect your user’s privacy. Especially vacy should be built into your design now, with the GDPR in effect, you as a default, that you should minimize could get a hefty fine — like Google, the personal data you collect, keep who had to pay 50 Mio Euro in France it secure and destroy it when it is no because of GDPR violations. Besides longer needed, as well as be transpar- the legal aspect, you, of course, need ent to the user about why you need it to make sure sensitive data is secured and what happens to it. Also, always — or you might get hacked, like so make sure there is no zero-sum trade- many careless companies recently off between privacy and other inter- and thereby losing the trust of your ests. With these guiding principles in customers. mind, we can start to design our new project. Let’s go. But even on a smaller scale and not the worst-case scenario in mind, you Before you start should think about privacy and data protection: As part of your branding. Begin with how much data you actu- ally want and need to collect. Remem- Websites are often the primary point ber: Less is better. The more you track of contact between your company and plan to do with the data you’re and its customers, therefore they collecting, the more you need to com- are essential to defining your brand municate to the user, e.g. with endless and to create trust. By putting an declarations of data protection and emphasis on data protection, you can cookie banners that quickly fill the build the foundation for this trust. So whole screen. how do you start? What are ways to design with privacy in mind? Gotta collect ’em all Privacy by Design Do you really need all these cookies? Clearly, this is an extreme example, Back in the 1990s, Dr. Ann Cavoukian because free-to-read ‘journalism’ created a framework called ‘Privacy need ads to support their business by Design’ that is based on 7 principles model and you’re probably in a whole 50