SUX - The Sustainable UX Playbook

The idea

What is
SUX?

The idea

What is SUX?

We need to take action!

SUX is the idea to create and collect practical ideas for all of us to drive sustainability in our daily work. Because we need to take action. The planet is on the edge right now. And we designers are more powerful than ever. But how can we use this power? How can we drive sustainability and change?

At first we wanted to create a manifesto for sustainable UX. But would that have helped? Maybe not. We realized that many designers want to do something, but lack concrete ideas where to start and what to do. That is how the idea of SUX was born.

The goal of SUX is to create a playbook and a community to drive and facilitate sustainability in and through our work. SUX is a non-profit initiative and we are building SUX together with YOU, the community and for the community.

To do so, we decided to take the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a basis. We think it is important to tackle all aspects of sustainability - not "only" climate change (though this might be the most important). Because what would we have won, if we save the world only for us - the rich people and countries?

Did you know?

If it would be a country, the web would be on track to become the fourth largest CO2 emitter on Earth.

SUX is about practical ideas.

SUX tackles all aspects of sustainability.

One important part of SUX is the playbook to drive sustainability. But SUX is more. Sustainability has so many different aspects. Besides creating tools it is also about the process of understanding the SDGs, about developing the right questions, that need to be ask when we design and create products. In the end, SUX is a mindset and an ongoing process, that we can drive all together.

Therefore we will not have one result at a certain point of time, but will be growing over time. SUX will include concrete methods, a knowledge base, deep-dive article and the SUX Podcast, where we discuss the SDGs with the community. SUX is also a community and we invite you to join, nevertheless if you want to work on SUX as well or not.

SUX like »what happened so far SUCKS, let’s do better«? Yes!

The four

pillars of SUX

Responsible

SUX goes beyond the mantra of user-centered design. Instead it focuses on all actors affected by the products we build: Users, other people, society, nature or even the whole planet.

Comprehensive

SUX wants to target all aspects of Sustainability, which are defined perfectly in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN.

Holistic

SUX is about driving sustainability on all levels of UX and Design. From product design to strategy. From our own work, to our teams, managers and clients.

Collective

SUX has to be driven all together.
With the community, for the community and non-profit.

The four

pillars of SUX

SUX like »what happened so far SUCKS, let’s do better«? Yes!

Responsible

SUX goes beyond the mantra of user-centered design. Instead it focuses on all actors affected by the products we build: Users, other people, society, nature or even the whole planet.

Comprehensive

SUX wants to target all aspects of Sustainability, which are defined perfectly in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN.

Holistic

SUX is about driving sustainability on all levels of UX and Design. From product design to strategy. From our own work, to our teams, managers and clients.

Collective

SUX has to be driven all together.
With the community, for the community and non-profit.

Our idea

How we want
to do it

Our idea

How we want
to do it

With the SUX workshop kit every designer can join and work on SUX in small groups.

We are convinced that SUX cannot (and should not) be built by a few people only. Instead we want to invite you to join, to use the power of the community, to create SUX all together for all of us.

Therefore we created a workshop template - the SUX workshop kit. It provides a step by step guideline based on well known UX-tools. In a series of four workshops a group can understand and analyze one or more SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals) and create concrete ideas to tackle it. We started it the first wave of group work in the end of 2021 and the results are close to be released. But we start new groups, whenever new people want to join. So, it's never too late.

Please note: not everybody might be able to work on SUX actively. We all do it besides our main jobs or projects. And that is more than ok. SUX is also a community by itself, where we discuss ideas and thoughts or share great ressources.