We must cultivate a sort of curiosity that isn’t afraid to be limited. Intimacy, but not blind devotion. Progress, but not hubris. Moral design conserves more than it disrupts. It is careful, not clever. It is cultural, not viral.

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

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

The pursuit of moral design asks us to cultivate at least three things within ourselves and our practices:

1. true affection , rooted in respect, experience, and specific knowledge;


2. empathetic boldness to confront deep-rooted, complex failures in other designers’ work; and


3. genuine humility in an industry that seems to celebrate hubris and seeing wha

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

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

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

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.

that matters are best handled by the smallest, lowest, and most decentralized competent authority.