Develop & introduce a model for sustainable product development
Integrate a sustainable user experience framework into organisational processes
Drive a cultural and mindset change within the organisation
I’m a firm believer in that design is one of the most important tools we have for addressing changes in behaviour and that we can have a large impact by changing mindset and the way we design products.
SUX was initiated, developed and introduced by me at Migros Food Online with the goal to consider sustainability within product design and development. Sustainable User Experience is not an initiative or a project but rather an appoach to developing products, similar to User-centered design and Agile methodologies. It aims to initiate and inspire action around suststainable approaches, ideas and solutions.
The founder of Migros, Gottlieb Duttweiler (1888 – 1962) was a Swiss businessman and politician with a strong commitment to social and cultural issues. Even as early as 1946 he set up foundations to protect reserves and green areas in Switzerland and articulated “that a larger a company is the greater its responsibility to engage in activities that go beyond business activities in order to solve problems of humanity.”
Migros founder Gottlieb Duttweiler (1888 – 1962)
The climate crisis is by far one of the greatest problems of humanity and the truth is that even if fossil fuel emissions were to stop immediately emissions from the global food system alone would increase global temperatures by more than 1.5 degrees. Research clearly shows we must change what we eat and how food is produced to solve the climate crisis.
As the biggest supermarket with the biggest market share in Switzerland Migros has a lot of power and therefore responsibility. In the end the company is directly affecting what people eat on a daily basis.
How can Migros become the most sustainable digital supermarket in Switzerland? How might we build a digital supermarket that has empathy, not only for users, but also the planet? To answer this question I believe we have to ask ourselves how might we consider sustainability in our product development.
SUX stands for Sustainable User Experience, and means designing for responsible innovation that engages consumers as participants in sustainable practices.
The idea behind SUX is that when we are building products that shape the behaviour of millions of people, we should be conscious of how these products and behaviours also affect the environment.
In tradition UX practice the aim is to approach design and solutions to problems in a way that meet both the needs of the user and the business. Arguable great UX is the sweet spot in-between where product development benefits both parties. In SUX we introduce a third party - sustainability/or the planet. The aim shifts to find solutions that meet the needs of all three parties.
Focuses on all actors affected by the product: Users, business and the planet.
Has to be driven together. By all for all.
Is about driving sustainability on all levels, from product design to strategy.
To make SUX a valuable tool at Migros Food Online I considered how the model could be integrated into current processes within the organisation. Within the product team we use the ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) framework as a method of prioritization. The ICE Scoring Model is a way to to prioritize potential ideas and projects based on their relative value that is calculated using three parameters: Impact, Confidence, and Ease. Sustainability can be considered within the first step in ICE by asking:
our users?
our business?
our planet?
By considering the impact on sustainability in addition to impact on business and users we can make sure more sustainable ideas are given higher values and thus prioritized within the product developement above those that are less sustainable. Similarly we can consider sustainability within Confidence by calculating the potential effect on sustainable metrics such as carbon emissions or waste.
The Earth persona is a conceptual persona used to initiate discussion, inspiration and new perspectives. By illustrating the earth as a key persona who has core needs, goals and pains we can use her as a tool to build empathy and understanding - similarly to the users we design for.
