How posthumanist design enables a world in which humans share center stage with nonhumans with
whom we are entangled. Over the past forty years designers have privileged human values such
that human-centered design is seen as progressive. Yet because all that is not human has been
depleted made extinct or put to human use today's design contributes to the existential
threat of climate change and the ongoing extinctions of other species. In Things We Could
Design Ron Wakkary argues that human-centered design is not the answer to our problems but is
itself part of the problem. Drawing on philosophy design theory and numerous design works he
shows the way to a relational and expansive design based on humility and cohabitation. Wakkary
says that design can no longer ignore its exploitation of nonhuman species and the materials we
mine for and reduce to human use. Posthumanism he argues enables a rethinking of design that
displaces the human at the center of thought and action. Weaving together posthumanist
philosophies with design he describes what he calls things--nonhumans made by designers--and
calls for a commitment to design with more than human participation. Wakkary also focuses on
design as nomadic practices--a multiplicity of intentionalities and situated knowledges that
shows design to be expansive and pluralistic. He calls his overall approach designing-with: the
practice of design in a world in which humans share center stage with nonhumans and in which
we are bound together materially ethically and existentially.
