Perhaps you feel a certain helplessness in the face of the ecological, social and economic crises that surround us? It is a feeling that Clemence Piteau, A product designer, she herself felt this before deciding to pivot to a more engaged approach to digital technology. She shares her journey and offers some thoughts on the future of design.
Understanding the interconnection of systems
Two video platform models: YouTube vs. PeerTube
To illustrate her point, Clémence Piteau takes the example of two video platforms: YouTube et PeerTube. Both tools perform the same function – streaming videos online – but are built on radically different models.
On the one hand, YouTube is a centralized platform, designed to maximize mass viewing and monetization of content. Its operation is based on powerful algorithms whose objective is to maximize the time spent on the platform.
On the other hand, PeerTube is a decentralized and open source platform. This model encourages creativity and freedom of expression, limiting some of the negative effects related to recommendation algorithms.
The Hidden Impact of Digital Products
Behind these design differences lie profound impacts on society and the environment. YouTube can reinforce cognitive biases and standardize creation, it promotes unbridled consumption that has a significant environmental cost, particularly through the infrastructure needed to store and distribute videos.
While PeerTube does not rely on an algorithmic monetization model, it is not without impact. A generalization of its use would also lead to considerable resource consumption.
This observation highlights a fundamental reality: every digital product is part of a larger system, made up of complex interactions between companies, societies and ecosystems.
A digital product does not exist in isolation
Clémence Piteau insists on the need to think about digital technology through a systemic approach. Each product belongs to an interdependent network:
- It is designed within a company, organization or association.
- This structure evolves in a society governed by specific norms, values and regulations.
- Societies coexist within a planet with limited resources, interacting with other human and non-human ecosystems.
Thus, a digital product can have major repercussions on the environment, politics, the economy and public health. Conversely, these same products are also subject to external influences: political decisions, economic fluctuations, environmental crises. However, most digital projects are designed without taking into account the overall long-term impact.
Tools for transforming digital
The CSRD, a European regulation
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires companies to be more transparent about their environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts. This transparency requirement aims to direct investments towards more sustainable models. It is an opportunity to innovate and optimize the way we design our products and services.
Rethinking design from a sustainability perspective
A sustainably designed product is not limited to simply optimizing its materials or its life cycle. It's about anticipating the consequences and making informed decisions about what should be included or avoided in the final product.
An effective workshop to integrate this thinking is the Rebound Archetype, designed by Laetitia Bornes, a researcher specializing in the impacts of digital products. This collaborative tool makes it possible to identify the stakeholders concerned by an innovation and to map the direct and indirect effects of its deployment.
The objective is twofold:
- Understand the impacts caused by a product or solution.
- Discuss and arbitrate these impacts by deciding which are acceptable and which should be mitigated.
A key question to ask in this process is: “Who are we to decide on certain impacts, especially those that affect actors outside our organization?” This ethical questioning is essential in a systemic and sustainable approach.
Sustainable design on several levels
One of the most effective levers for integrating sustainability into design is to adopt a multi-level approach, where different strategies are applied at different degrees of depth.
During a discovery process, it is essential to explore in detail the issues associated with a product, taking into account several levels of analysis:
- Concrete and measurable aspects : number of products manufactured, quantity of waste generated, planetary limits exceeded.
- Organizational constraints : difficulties in collecting data, lack of training on CSRD.
- Deep issues : corporate culture based on growth at all costs, resistance to change, uncertainty about the economic future.
Once these levels are identified, the next step is to activate levers of change adapted to each depth level.
Applying Leverage Points for Effective Change
This concept, derived from the work of Donella Meadows on systems thinking, is based on the idea that Each problem has a specific leverage point which, when properly implemented, can generate significant change.
- Superficial solutions require little effort but have limited impact.
- Deep solutions require more resources and time, but produce lasting structural changes.
The goal is therefore to find a winning combination between rapid actions and profound transformations.
The Systemic Design Method
In this perspective, the systemic design method proves to be a valuable tool. It is based on two fundamental pillars:
- Listen and understand the system in which we operate: it is essential to analyze the interactions and dependencies between the different actors to identify the levers for action.
- Imagining a more desirable future : rather than submitting to constraints, it is about anticipating and designing sustainable solutions by integrating holistic and less anthropocentric thinking.
Making tools accessible to all
Another strength of this approach is that it is not limited to eco-design experts or designers. Everyone in a company contributes to product thinking, including technical teams. Every decision – whether it concerns the architecture of a website, data management or the design of a feature – generates impacts that can be anticipated and optimized using existing tools.
Online resources already allow digital professionals to appropriate these approaches and apply them to their daily context. It is with this in mind that the work of The Association of Ethical Designers, which aims to create a practical guide for digital professionals.
Towards a new vision of design
The ultimate goal is not just to design innovative or memorable products, but to reduce their impact. The question is no longer just “How do we make this product amazing?”More “How can we minimize the damage it could cause?”
About Clémence Piteau:
Clémence works at the start-up Auxo Dynamics, which aims to help companies manage their extra-financial data to comply with regulations but, above all, plan a sustainable transition of their business model.
She is also co-founder of the Lyon community of Ethical Designers.
To go further, the slides from his conference, all his references and his toolbox!! Thank you Clémence 🙏: Link to his Notion
Christel Agier, Senior UX Designer at UX-Republic
