MTHCD Paradigm to Understand Nature

Nature is “The total system of living beings, animals and plants, and inanimate things that present an order, realize types and are formed according to laws” (Treccani Encyclopedia). Since the second industrial revolution with the product at the center of the design process until the arrival of User Centered Design, designers have only partially considered this definition. The anthropocentric attitude, somewhat selfish and driven by a self-proclamation of the human as the predominant terrestrial species (Harari in Homo deus: Breve storia del future. Bompiani, Milan, 2019), has defined a silent disturbance in the order and laws that dominate the planet (Lovelock in Novacene l’età dell’iperintelligenza. Bollati Boringhieri, Turin, 2020), that is: by acting from a Human Centered Design perspective, the designer, may have undermined the balance of Nature. It is from this that a call for attention accepted by designers as a challenge starts: to consider more agency in the design phase. Specifically, one would like to understand the term Nature more deeply, with the goal of including humans and other-than-humans creatures that have always existed and are often overlooked (Haraway 2020). For these reasons, HCD is being challenged today, evaluating the new More-Than-Human Centered Design paradigm that aims to design by involving multiple actors and thus achieving an ecosystem approach. it is possible, with technology, to interrogate other species, transducing signals from nature and producing data needed by the designer. In conclusion, such an approach could enable the design of solutions that restore a natural balance and respect all agencies involved in the design process, as a result of a broader view of the context in which designers operate.