Summary
Civic design has achieved much success in recent decades by focusing on delivering better public services and designing interactions between government and residents. However, to meet the complex challenges humanity and earth face, civic design must evolve so its full potential as a practice and community can be harnessed to address today’s wicked problems, such as mental health, inequality, and climate change. Join us as we explore the paradigm shifts and practices we believe are urgently needed to maximize the impact and relevance of civic design: from human-centered to life-centered; from design thinking to complexity thinking; from ego-systems to eco-systems… and beyond.
Key Insights
-
•
Civic design has evolved from business-centered to more human-centered and is now positioned to shift towards life-centered design that includes plants, animals, and ecosystems.
-
•
Current design methods like design thinking often focus too narrowly on immediate and predictable futures, missing long-term systemic impacts.
-
•
Expertise-led design can inadvertently replicate harmful power dynamics instead of empowering communities.
-
•
Zane’s 22nd century Civic design team exemplifies a decentralized, community-led, interdisciplinary approach using complexity thinking and AI to manage ecosystems and address hyperlocal crises.
-
•
Transitioning to a new design paradigm requires stabilizers to maintain current systems, housekeepers to manage endings, and trailblazers to create emergent new patterns.
-
•
Radical participatory, regenerative, trauma-responsive, relational, emergent, pluralistic, and commons-focused designs are key patterns in evolving Civic design practice.
-
•
Restoring human senses and reconnecting to nature is foundational to effective sense-making for addressing complex civic challenges.
-
•
Visual tools like Wicked problem mapping and Giga Maps help communicate systemic relationships and incentivize holistic, long-term thinking across silos.
-
•
Addressing intertwined crises like climate change, mental health, and inequality requires moving beyond symptom-focused solutions to systemic interventions.
-
•
Designers hold a unique responsibility to shape culture and values that will determine the future of humanity and all life on Earth.
Notable Quotes
"Design creates culture, culture shapes values, and those values in turn determine the future."
"Is this enough? Can Civic design do more? There’s a crisis and pressing need for us to evolve our practice."
"The pale blue dot, that tiny speck in the vast universe, reminds us of our precious, unique responsibility to take care of this planet."
"Zane’s team works life-centered, collaborating with plants, animals, and ecosystems, expanding Civic design beyond human systems."
"Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions."
"How might we empower communities to initiate, lead, and design solutions that impact them directly?"
"Regenerative design is about healing and nourishing instead of exploiting and destroying."
"Relational design privileges relationships and reciprocity not only between people but also with rivers, mountains, and animals."
"Emergence means that something new arises through simple interactions; we design interactions so systems find their own desirable solutions."
"What role do you want to play in helping save us and our beautiful planet from ourselves?"
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The pressures in large organizations make it hard for teams to see the value of empathy and cross-team connection."
Matt StoneScaling Empathy, A Case Study in Change Management
June 11, 2021
"During discovery, it’s important to identify which features require exploration versus those that just need validation or small fixes."
Aditi Ruiz Christian Crumlish Farid SabitovA PM State of Mind: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 1
December 6, 2022
"Design always has to take the step forward in some way, whereas product people just go about their day and do their thing."
Dave Malouf Meredith Black Farid SabitovThe Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 1)
February 17, 2022
"Keeping something cloud-based accessible is the most complicated because of hundreds of releases per day in continuous integration."
Sheri Byrne-HaberAccessibility at Scale
June 9, 2021
"Participatory research isn't just a method, it is a mindset that can radically transform the way we do research and the impact we make."
Nidhi Singh Rathore Amber DavisEmbracing participation to unlock deeper truths in commercial research
March 12, 2025
"This is not a checklist or promotion tool; you don’t have to excel in everything to grow."
Laine Riley ProkayHow DesignOps can Drive Inclusive Career Ladders for All
September 30, 2021
"On days with many user interviews, the team wanted internal meetings video off to take a break from 'smiling all day.'"
Ariba JahanTeam Resiliency Through a Pandemic
January 8, 2024
"By understanding your environment and having those conversations with your product manager, you can create a relationship that is sustainable and efficient."
Noreen Whysel Katie SaindonShort Take #4: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"Localization of content is essential because language barriers affect older adults globally."
Rittika BasuAge and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
February 23, 2023