Design for a Better World Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered

About this book

How human behaviour brought our world to the brink, and how human behaviour can save us.

The world is a mess. Our dire predicament, from collapsing social structures to the climate crisis, has been millennia in the making and can be traced back to the erroneous belief that the earth's resources are infinite. The key to change, says Don Norman, is human behaviour, covered in the book's three major themes: meaning, sustainability, and humanity-centeredness. Emphasize quality of life, not monetary rewards; restructure how we live to better protect the environment; and focus on all of humanity. Design for a Better World presents an eye-opening diagnosis of where we've gone wrong and a clear prescription for making things better.

Norman proposes a new way of thinking, one that recognizes our place in a complex global system where even simple behaviours affect the entire world. He identifies the economic metrics that contribute to the harmful effects of commerce and manufacturing and proposes a recalibration of what we consider important in life. His experience as both a scientist and business executive gives him the perspective to show how to make these changes while maintaining a thriving economy. Let the change begin with this book before it's too late.

Contents

1. Almost Everything Artificial Has Been Designed   3
2. Our Artificial Way of Life is Unsustainable   11
3. Why History Matters   15
4. Precise--but Artificial--Measurements   27
5. If Technology Got Us into Today's Situation, Maybe Technology Can Get Us Out   39
6. This Book: Meaningful, Sustainable, and Humanity Centered   47
7. The Need for Meaning   57
8. Measurement in the Physical Sciences   63
9. Measuring What is Important to People   67
10. The Gross Domestic Product   79
11. What Measures Are Truly Important to People?   87
12. Human Behavior and Economics   103
13. We Live in the Age of Waste   115
14. How Did the World Get into Today's Quandary   119
15. Sustainability Has Multiple Components and Implications   125
16. Design, Products, Sustainability, and the Circular Economy   131
17. The Practical Difficulties of Implementing Circular Design   139
18. Sustainable, Robust, and Resilient Systems   147
19. People's Understanding of Systems   155
20. Working with Complex Sociotechnical Systems   167
21. It Is Not Too Late   177
22. Moving from Humans to Humanity   181
23. Democratizing Design and Development   187
24. People Designing for Themselves   195
25. DesignX: An Approach to Large, Complex Systems   203
26. Where Incrementalism (Muddling Through) Fails   209
27. Incremental Modular Design   213
28. When Large, Multidisciplinary Projects Are Necessary   217
29. Dealing with Scale   225
30. Design: Necessary but Not Sufficient   231
31. Why Change is Difficult   239
32. People Will Mobilize for a Common Goal   249
33. What Must Change?   251
34. The Dominance of Technology   265
35. The Future of Technology   275
36. What Can Be Done?   285
37. What Can We Do?   291
38. The Major Points of This Book   301

Acknowledgments   311
Notes   315
Bibliography   335
Index   351

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Biography

Don Norman is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science and Psychology and founding director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego. Business Week has named Norman one of the world's most influential designers. He was an Apple Vice President, has been an advisor and board member for numerous companies, and has three honorary degrees. His numerous books have been translated into over 20 languages, including The Design of Everyday Things and Living with Complexity, also from the MIT Press.