Design justice
An approach that examines how design distributes benefits and harms among groups of people and that puts the communities who live with the consequences at the center, to design with them.
What it’s for
It helps you see that a design can work well for most people and, at the same time, leave out or harm certain groups.
Principles
Center those who live with the consequences
Their voices guide the process; they aren’t just consulted.
Impact over intention
What matters is what the design does in the community, not what was intended.
The designer as facilitator
Rather than an expert who decides, they accompany the community.
How it’s done
Ask who wins and who loses with the design.
Design with the people most affected, from the start.
Share control of the process and the outcomes.
Applications in design
When to use it
When designing public services, technology or spaces that affect different groups differently.
Avoid
Inviting the community only to validate at the end what has already been decided.
Don’t fall for it
Also acknowledge your own position and what you can’t see from it.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2020
Design Justice Network (2016), according to Costanza-Chock
A collective of designers and organizers wrote the principles of design justice.
- 2020
Sasha Costanza-Chock
Developed the approach and explained it with cases in the book Design Justice.
Sources
Original sources
- Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press.
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