Moral Design — Journey Group

To design is to make decisions for others. Because it involves an exchange of power, however slight, design is best understood as a moral pursuit.

only sustainable medium for morality is affection—and moreover, he introduces a language for affection that is informed, practical, and practiced.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

Similarly, we might think of design method as a process for inquiry into the purposes, plans, and intentions behind what humans make and do.

Moral design is slower and smaller than the markets want it to be. It is more careful and plodding than the universities and the politicians want it to be. Sadly, we are not without case studies.

What is the purpose of what we’re setting out to make? Who is it for? What are they like? What is good for them? We shouldn’t just ask these questions to uncover strategic insights or check a box but to further our own accountability and growth—as individuals, and as a profession. How can we pursue moral design if we can’t compare our plans with ou... See more

vernacular design, which I would define as functional design for ordinary people rooted in a local economy and culture.

Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.

the people best equipped to solve any given problem in a durable way are those most familiar with the full complexity of the problem