So, what can you expect in this newsletter at a glance:

• My Thought of the Month - this time about Hope and why it is a superpower 🌿
• An update about the SUX Playbook with new templates 📚
• Latest episode of the SUX Podcast with Maria Giudice 🎙️
• New online Masterclass “Sustainability and Ethics in Gen AI” coming in June 🎓
• Masterclass "Become a sustainable UX Designer" on May 7th - few tickets left 🎓
• Upcoming SUX Events or conference appearances 📆
• And as always we round up with a little “Did you know”, this time about the difference of what people really want and do, because the believe to be in a minority 💡

🌿 Thought of the Month: Hope as Superpower

Last month Maria Giudice was my guest at the SUX Podcast and while we spoke about change-making and how we all could be change makers we moved further to the challenging times we live in at the moment: The environmental and social crisis is already super challenging and on top of this we see the political crises with extreme people and parties taking over political power in democracies all over the world.

Maria said something very memorable in the second half of the podcast: „We have to shift our own internal narrative from being scared to being hopeful“. And this week the German satirist Jan Böhmermann said something really interesting regarding how we too often project the worst possible futures instead of seeing better outcomes as probable as the worst possible outcomes.

Both points made me think a lot. Because in the first place my reflex was that hope and manifestation will not solve the challenges we face at the moment. But, there is a different point of view: Hope is not about being hopeful that everything will be good in the end without doing anything. Instead it is the base layer for actions we take. If we do not believe a better future is possible, our actions will only be half-powered, or - even worse - we will project bad futures and subconsciously point and work towards them.

We have many reasons to believe in a bad future when we look at what is happening in the world these days. But the future is not there yet and we are shaping it with every action we take. The problem is, it is the negative news and stories that are dominating our daily horizon. We only see and read bad news and we project this to the possible futures, while we forget that these are just possibilities but not realities yet. We forget that positive futures are as likely as negative ones.

The solution is not to believe in a better future and with that everything is done. It needs the action we take. It needs every little thing we do. There will not be any change without action. But without hope and belief the action will not have the maximum impact.

In the podcast Maria said so many wonderful things, full of hope for a better future accompanied with actions we can - and should - take. And I want to mention two more quotes from her: “Better leaders will arise from the ashes, because they always do” and “I have this one time on earth, I am gonna to make it count. I am gonna try to be as good as possible. And I am gonna fight back for the values that I have as a human being”. Hope and belief compared with concrete action, that is the key point.

The german philosopher Ernst Bloch once said: “It is a question of learning hope. Its work does not renounce, it is in love with success rather than failure.” I do not agree with all of his ideas, but this is a powerful thought. Hope is in love with success, not failure. So, in fact hope is the basis for success.

I am a really hopeful person. Otherwise I would not do the work I do. I believe that we all can make a difference and I believe that we can influence the future with our actions, no matter how small they seem. I believe in a better future where hope is my driver.

But hope is not a stand-alone item that requires no action. Instead it is the fuel for our actions and the vision for what we want to achieve. And therefore I am convinced it is a key super power, especially in dark times.

📚 SUX Playbook and SUX Resource Database

The SUX Playbook is the making and we hope to release a first version for free in the next few weeks. Meanwhile we have already re-released existing public SUX-Tools with descriptions and PDF- as well as Miro-Templates, ready to use. Find the following tools all here SUX Playbook Tools or here in detail:

✏️ Needs to Consequences Mapping - Link

Understand the negative consequences of your product or services and create a basis for evaluating your user- and business needs in the context of its negative impacts. Also understand how negative consequences and user-/business-goals are directly connected.

✏️ Sustainable User Journey Mapping - Link

Map the negative impacts of a digital product to a user journey and develop ideas to tackle them. With the Sustainable User Journey Map you can break down negative impacts to a tangible and actionable level and develop single ideas based on single user journey steps. By doing this on a user journey level you get very concrete and actionable ideas that are tangible and compact enough to fit project and product process realities.

✏️ Carbon Brainstorming - Link

Identify potential drivers of carbon impacts of a digital product and brainstorm ideas to challenge these.

✏️ Excluded Users Mapping - Link

With this canvas we want to understand which people cannot use our product and why. And we want to reflect why we as the designers of this product should change this.

We also released our versions of Actor Mapping and Non-Human-/Non-User Personas. These are based on the wonderful work Monika Sznel and Damien Lutz and have been modified by us according to our learnings from the past years:

✏️ SUX Actor Mapping - Link

Identify all actors that are related to your product / app / website / service / experience. Our Actor Mapping Canvas is highly inspired by the work of Monica Sznel, as she is the first person where I read about this concept. We modified the canvas according to the experiences and learnings from 4 years of workshops and classes.

✏️ SUX Non-Human/Non-User Personas - Link

Our Non-Human/Non-User Persona Canvas is highly inspired by the work of Damien Lutz on Non-Human Personas. We modified the canvas according to the experiences and learnings of our workshops with the goal to more directly connect the Persona to the product or service.

--

In addition to the work on the SUX Playbook we are updating the Resource Database at the moment: all resources will get descriptions and their own pages to make browsing through resources a more comfortable experience and provide all relevant information about a resource at a glance. Stay tuned. More to come on weekly basis. 🌿

🎙 Latest episode of the SUX Podcast: Maria Giudice

This time I had the honor to be joined by Maria Giudice. You probably know Maria for her books “Changemakers - How Leaders can Design Change” or “Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design”. Maria and me met at the World Usability Congress in Graz last October and I am really happy to welcome her in the podcast now.. In our conversation we speak about how Design can and must actively drive change, but also why all leaders should have design skills. From there we dive deeper into what is good, into Narratives and why fear-based stories stick so much more to people than the positive narratives. And we speak about how the good will arise from the dark times we see at the moment and how we all can help driving this. As a little side note: We recorded this episode right before the election in Germany in February and we spoke briefly about this as well, just so that you do not wonder.

SUX Podcast Episode 19: Changemakers with Maria Giudice

🎓 Online Masterclass "Sustainability and Ethics in Gen AI” coming in June

We have designed a new Masterclass that focuses on the Sustainability and Ethics perspective on Gen AI. Why? When we speak about tech, design and sustainability, we need to speak about (Gen) AI. Because it is everywhere. And we see a discussion that too often does not consider sustainability and ethical aspects in the use of Gen AI.

We think the real price for using it is much higher and paid on many ends. And when the use of Gen AI is discussed we need to consider these negative impacts as well.

I did a lot of work, gave talks and facilitated workshops about Sustainability, Ethics and Responsibility in AI. From that we created this Masterclass to discuss the negative impacts of Gen AI, to compare these to its positive outcomes, to be able to understand the real price of an AI use case and in the end to evaluate if an AI use case should be done from a responsibility point of view (which is also a long term business aspect by the way).

The first Masterclass will take place in June and I will be your lecturer. We are finalizing the date at the moment. If you want to get informed once we have set the final date, you can sign up the waitlist here: https://forms.gle/9r3CwazdNFrxGdsj8

—

Here is a first glance about what to expect:

What are the negative Impacts of Gen AI? What is the real price for it? What could be the consequences for me personally? And is there a way to use Gen AI responsibly and sustainably?

This interactive Masterclass consists of lecture parts and an interactive workshop part. At the workshop part you learn to use the Responsible AI Canvas to evaluate and compare the negative and positive impacts of AI use cases.

Modules of the Masterclass:

1. Environmental Impacts
2. Societal Impacts
3. Impacts on ourselves
4. Creative work and Gen AI
5. Calculating the true price of Gen AI
6. Responsible use of AI
7. Balancing negative and positive impacts
8. Exercise: Responsible AI Canvas

If you want to get informed once we once the final date and tickets you can sign up the waitlist here: https://forms.gle/9r3CwazdNFrxGdsj8

🎓 Few tickets left for Masterclass "Become a sustainable UX Designer" on May 7th

We have a few seats left for our Masterclass this Wednesday and with the code “SUX_Friend” you can get a 15% discount.

What’s new: while the Masterclass takes 4 hours, we now offer an extra 30 minutes at the end to have more time for questions and conversation with Thorsten. So overall the Masterclass now takes 4,5 hours.

7th May 2025, 5:30pm-10:00pm CEST, Online, Tickets and all Infos

You are looking for a tailored Masterclass for your design- or product-team? We offer team Masterclasses in a 4- or 8-hour format. On demand we can adapt the practical exercises to one of your projects. Find all information about our Team-Masterclass for Design- or Product-Teams here: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy/masterclass-sustainable-ux

📆 All upcoming Events:

Find below a list of upcoming local and online events of the SUX Network as well as conferences we visit. If you are at one of the conferences, drop me a message and let's have a coffee together.

May:

• Online: SUX Masterclass “Become a Sustainable UX Designer", May 7, All Infos
• Online: SUX Monthly, shifted to May 15, invite will be shared in the SUX Slack
• Munich: DDX Conference, Panel about Sustainable UX and Design, May 10, Munich, All Infos
• Paris: FLUPA UX Days, Keynote "Each Design is a Manifesto for the Future, May 23, All Infos

June:

• Hamburg, Germany: SUX Hamburg joined event with the Design Zentrum Hamburg as part of the Sustainability Week, June 4, more infos soon
• Aarhus, Denmark: UX Connect, Opening Panel, June 10+11, All Infos
• Espelkamp, Germany: Head in the Cloud by Mittwald, Panel "Sustainability and AI" and Workshop "Digital Sustainability, All Infos
• Hamburg, Germany: SUX Hamburg Meetup and Workshop together with Damien Lutz and Sandy Dähnert, June 18, more infos info
• Online: SUX Masterclass "Sustainability and Ethics in Gen AI", Sign up waitlist

July:

• Munich: Green IO Munich, Talk + you can meet us the whole day at our SUX Booth, July 3, All Infos

Events later this year:

• Copenhagen, Denmark: Workshop "Sustainability, Ethics and Creativity in the Convergence of AI and Design" at Future Product Days in September - Infos and Tickets
• Pyrenees, Spain: Talk at the Life-centred Design Festival - All Infos
• Graz, Austria: Workshop "Applying Sustainable UX: From Strategy to Design Tactics" at World Usability Congress - Infos and Tickets
• Berlin, Germany: Talk at Beyond Tellerrand Conference - More infos soon

🌿 SUX Keynotes, Workshops or Trainings for your organization:

Are you looking for a keynote, a workshop or a training session about Sustainable UX or Responsible AI? We offer these for any kind of organization. In fact this helps to finance the SUX Network and all of its non-profit work. If you want to learn more, please get in touch: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com

💡 Did you know:

A huge 89% majority of the world’s people want stronger action to fight the climate crisis but feel they are trapped in a self-fulfilling “spiral of silence” because they mistakenly believe they are in a minority, research suggests.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/22/activate-climate-silent-majority-support-supercharge-action

Thank you for reading all the way down here. If you have any feedback, thoughts, want to share something, please reach out to me on Slack or on LinkedIn. 🙏

See you,

👋 Thorsten

Founder of the SUX Network & Co-Author of the Web Sustainability Guidelines, Keynote Speaker, Sustainable UX Trainer, Digital Sustainability Trailblazer and Responsible AI Advocate. Get in touch if you want to work with me or book me for a talk, workshop or training. And follow me on LinkedIn, where I share frequently tipps, resources and thoughts about Digital Sustainability, Responsible AI and Sustainable UX.

🌏 SUX Community Count:

• 2,621 Slack members 👉join
• 6,852 LinkedIn followers👉follow

🌐 SUX Website: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/

🎓 SUX Academy: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy

📧 Get in touch: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com

Der Beitrag Hope as Superpower – Vol #10 of the SUX Newsletter erschien zuerst auf SUX – The Sustainable UX Network.

When 1000 designers prompt for "Weather App", what do you think, how variable or how similar will the results be?

Welcome to this edition of the SUX Newsletter. This month I am reflecting about Creativity in the age of Gen AI, a topic that needs to be discussed much more in my opinion - and the introduction of ChatGPT 4o has shown that - again. And we have a bunch of new resources, a list of upcoming events, a new podcast episode and two new Masterclasses for you. So, what can you expect in this newsletter:

• My Thought of the Month - this time about Creativity in the age of Gen AI
• New Resources and and an update about the SUX Playbook
• Latest episode of the SUX Podcast with Gerry McGovern
• Two new dates for our Masterclass "Become a sustainable UX Designer"
• Upcoming SUX Events or conference appearances 📆
• And as always we round up with a little “Did you know” - this time about all the Ghibli-style images that have been created in the past weeks 💡

🌿 Thought of the Month: Future of Creativity

What is Creativity in the age of Gen AI? Big tech wants us to believe that everybody now can be super creative. But, is that really the case? Does it make me creative if I can create an image with one prompt? I can understand that it might feel creative. And that it might feel enabling, especially if I do not have the skill to create such an image without Gen AI. But the question stands: how creative is it?

I want to look at those questions from two different angles today.

The use of Intellectual Property

A Gen AI model cannot create output out of nothing. To be able to respond to my prompt with output it needed to be trained with tons of data. In case of image creation, millions of images were used for the training of the AI - fed into the machine. Without this training the model would not be able to create any output. The problem is: much of the data, of the images, the texts, the books, etc. that is used for training is intellectual property of someone else. We have seen millions of Ghibli-Style images in our social media channels in the past two weeks since the release of ChatGPT 4o. This was only possible because original images have been used to train the model. Without the original work of Studio Ghibli, this would not have been possible. But, Studio Ghibli did not get one cent for their work being used for training, nor have they been asked for permission.

The value of ChatGPT (and all the other big public Gen AI models) is based on intellectual property of real designers, artists, writers, photographers, without paying for it or even asking for permission. And this is not an unintended mistake. This is common ground in the training of the big Gen AI models. Meta used the biggest pirate library LibGen for the training of their Llama AI. This library includes 7,5 million books and 80 million research papers. Meta used it on purpose to avoid negotiations for the licensing and to avoid creating a precedent. And side fact: it is highly expected that LibGen has been used for the training of all other big Gen AI models.

So, the question is how creative is the result of my prompt, if it is based on stealing intellectual property of other artists, designers, writers, photographers?

When Figma introduced their new AI feature last summer, it turned out that it has been training with the App-Designs of popular apps So, when you asked it to create a "weather app" you got something that looked very very very similar to the Apple weather app. And when you made the update by default you agreed that Figma may use your design for training their AI. You actively had to opt out of this - what many did not even know.

So, it's not only the other artists, designers, writers, photographers - it's also us.

The uniqueness of the "Creation"

And that brings me to another point. How unique is my "creating"? Am I creative when I create a Ghibli-like image like millions of other users? It might feel creative, but in my opinion it is not. And it gets worse: because here it is still a human decision to create similar things. People actively are following a trend. And let's be honest, that is so human ☺️

But, what if we do not follow a trend and still the output is not as unique as we might think? As described above, Gen AI models are trained with tons of data. During the training process the model "learns" the connections between data points from these datasets and it learns which data points are more often in the dataset than others. The more connections a datapoint has and the more often it is in the dataset the more important it gets and the more likely it will be part of a future output. It is a strong signal. In difference to a weak signal (Disclaimer: this is a very very short and simplified description of how this works). The point is, when we prompt a Gen AI it always tries to return the most likely result. So, the strong signals. I will not, by design, return the weak signals if we do not very explicitly ask for it. As a friend of mine once said: Strong signals prevail, while weak signals vanish.

In my Figma example from above when asked for a "Weather App" the strongest signal was the Apple weather app (this is again a simplified description) and therefore was returned.

My point here is not the intellectual property problem, but the uniqueness of the result. When 1000 designers prompt for "Weather App", what do you think, how variable or how similar will the results be?

With every prompt we need to ask ourselves how unique, how creative the result really is or how many other people might have gotten something very similar to my "creation".

Creativity and AI

So, is working with AI not creative in general? I personally think we can be creative with AI. But it's never one prompt. It's the process. If you ask artists who create with AI you hear a similar story very often: Their process still takes as long as without AI. It's using it as an enabling tool in my process instead of the magic wand that does everything with one prompt. And we must be aware that the output - by default - is a lot less creative than we assume.

The price of using AI

But before we start using Gen AI in our processes we should ask ourselves something else. What is the price and who needs to pay for it. And I am leaving out the outrageous environmental price here (that is an article on its own, maybe I should start a series..), but only talk about the problem of intellectual property. The rise of the big public Gen AI models is based on stealing intellectual property of others. And I think we should start thinking much more about which models we use and which not.

Because, if I know how OpenAI, how Meta, how Google trains their models (on purpose) and still use it, isn't that also a statement? A statement that I accept these practices.

It's not AI taking our jobs. It's the way Big Tech is treating our intellectual property. And in the end it's ourselves, if we continue using their models uncritically or even one step further, if we continue using them at all.

📚 SUX Playbook and SUX Resource Database

The SUX Playbook is the making. I am working on that at the moment and hope to release a first version for free soon. Meanwhile we have a bunch of new resources on the resource database. Special thanks to SUX community members Oliver Jahn Marina Gröpel (noizybutpurple) and Tadeas Adamjak for submitting new resources. 💚

Check out our notion space to have a look at all the latest additions to the database: https://suxnetwork.notion.site/

But, we will also continue to add all kinds of resources and tools from other people to the database and today I have three new recommendations for you:

📚 Book: Cancel Culture in Climate by Jenny Morgan

This is a great book by Jenny Morgan. I came across it by a posting of Katie Patrick 🙏 I find in super interesting because conversation and dialogue are fundamental for driving change. Finding common ground, staying in conversation is crucial. And though we cannot discuss with everybody we must be careful not to cancel everybody who is not 100% in line with us.

📓 Article: What is SUX and why we should care

As I am working on the SUX Playbook at the moment, I am releasing parts of it step by step on the SUX Website and in our Notion space over the next weeks. You can already find some of the tools of the Playbook in our Notion Space (here) like "The Principles of Sustainable UX" or tools like the "Needs to Consequences Mapping", "Sustainable User Journey Mapping" and more.

🏷️ Cards: Life-centred Design Innovation Cards by Damien Lutz

Check out Damiens latest addition to his great Life-Centred Design Lab. And I want to use this to announce that Damien will come to Europe in June and that we will setup Meetup and maybe in addition a workshop together in Hamburg. Stay tuned, details will follow soon.

🎙 Latest episode of the SUX Podcast: Gerry McGovern

For the latest episode of the SUX Podcast I was joined by Gerry McGovern. Gerry is besides many things the author of the book World Wide Waste and well known for his work regarding digital sustainability and especially digital waste and e-waste. For me this was also really special because I relate to Gerry and his work pretty often in my talks. “Up to 90% of all digital data is not used” is one of the famous quotes from his book World Wide Waste and you probably have heard it somewhere already. Gerry and me had a really deep conversation about the dark side of tech, but he also made crystal clear that it is worth fighting and that he thinks it’s worth to work on changing the world, because as he said: „Whatever I say does not mean I am giving up.“ I can deep from my heart recommend this episode of the podcast.

SUX Podcast Episode 18: World Wide Waste with Gerry McGovern

My next guest will be Maria Guidice the author of "Changemakers". The episode is already recorded and will be released within the next days.

🎓 Two new dates for the Masterclass "Become a sustainable UX Designer" in April and May

For April and May we set up two new open (and updated) Masterclasses. As always we offer a limited number of seats for a significantly lower price for people in low-income situations or from countries with lower incomes. This works on a trust basis, so please decide on your own if you are eligible for these tickets.

What’s new: while the Masterclass takes 4 hours, we offer now an extra 30minutes at the end to have more time for questions and conversation with Thorsten. So overall the Masterclass now takes 4,5 hours.

Option 1: 24th April 2025, 5:30pm-10:00pm CEST, Online, Tickets and all Infos

Option 2: 7th Mai 2025, 5:30pm-10:00pm CEST, Online, Tickets and all Infos

Team-Masterclass for Design- or Product-Teams: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy/masterclass-sustainable-ux

📆 All upcoming Events:

Find below a list of upcoming local and online events of the SUX Network as well as conferences we visit. If you are at one of the conferences, drop me a message and let's have a coffee together.

April:

• Copenhagen: SUX Dinner by SUX Copenhagen, April 28, more infos soon
• Online: SUX Masterclass “Become a Sustainable UX Designer", April 24, All Infos

May:

• Online: SUX Masterclass “Become a Sustainable UX Designer", May 7, All Infos
• Online: SUX Monthly, May 8, invite will be shared in the SUX Slack
• Munich: DDX Conference, Panel about Sustainable UX and Design, May 10, Munich, All Infos
• Paris: FLUPA UX Days, Keynote "Each Design is a Manifesto for the Future, May 23, All Infos

June:

• Hamburg: SUX Hamburg joined event with the Design Zentrum Hamburg as part of the Sustainability Week, first week of June, more infos soon
• Aarhus: UX Connect, Opening Panel, June 10+11, All Infos
• Hamburg: SUX Hamburg Meetup and Workshop together with Damien Lutz, June 18 or 19, more infos info

July:

• Munich: Green IO Munich, Talk + you can meet us the whole day at our SUX Booth, July 3, All Infos

🌿 SUX Keynotes, Workshops or Trainings for your organization:

Are you looking for a keynote, a workshop or a training session about Sustainable UX or Responsible AI? We offer these for any kind of organization. In fact this helps to finance the SUX Network and all of its non-profit work. If you want to learn more, please get in touch: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com

💡 Did you know:

A Topview analysis reveals that generating just 1 million Ghibli-style images consumes approximately 40,000 liters of water, a volume that, according to the United Nations’ minimum water requirement of 20 liters per person per day, could sustain 2,000 people for a day.

Source: https://www.onfocus.news/1m-ai-images-water-for-2000-people-still-worth-the-likes/

Thank you for reading all the way down here. 🙌

If you have any feedback, thoughts, want to share something, please reach out to me on Slack or on LinkedIn. 🙏

See you,

👋 Thorsten

Founder of the SUX Network & Co-Author of the Web Sustainability Guidelines, Keynote Speaker, Sustainable UX Trainer, Digital Sustainability Trailblazer and Responsible AI Advocate. Get in touch if you want to work with me or book me for a talk, workshop or training. And follow me on LinkedIn, where I share frequently tipps, resources and thoughts about Digital Sustainability, Responsible AI and Sustainable UX.

🌏 SUX Community Count:

• 2,595 Slack members 👉join
• 6,727 LinkedIn followers👉follow

🌐 SUX Website: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/

🎓 SUX Academy: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy

📧 Get in touch: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com

Der Beitrag Future of Creativity – Vol #9 of the SUX Newsletter erschien zuerst auf SUX – The Sustainable UX Network.

• My thoughts about 2024 and about the things to come in 2025 🙌
• Two new resources in the SUX Resource Database 📚
• SUX Podcast-Recap and the upcoming episode 🎙
• The first SUX online get together end of January & the SUX Local Chapter Hamburg starting in February 🌿
• Recap of the SUX Academy, the upcoming Masterclasses “Become Sustainable UX Designer” in January and February 2025 and the plans for more courses 🎓
• We are super thankful that we got a supporting partner for this edition: mittwald Hosting. Read more why this is a wonderful sponsor for us and why you might want to consider them for your hosting 💚
• And as always we round up with a little “Did you know” - this time about TikTok💡

🌿 Thought of the Month: What a year

2024 - what a year it has been..

2024 was an intense year- with many good things, but as well bad things happening. And I need to start with the bad things: The election in the US did not went as we all wished for. In Germany the current coalition broke and there will be an early new election next month with a Nazi-Party being at 20% in the polls at the moment and in many other countries extreme (mostly right wing) parties are on the rise. And this has a lot to do with our work on many levels. Because many of these parties are denying or at least downplaying the climate catastrophy - in a time where we see more and more direct consequences of the climate catastrophy in terms of for example natural disasters (as we see right now in Los Angeles), we still need to fight for the acceptance of the facts. 2024 was the first year where the global average temperature rise was above 1,6 degree celsius compared to the average before the industrialization.

And while this is happening we celebrate all the new Gen AI models and features, that exponentially rise the tech-demand for energy and thereby the carbon emissions (and fresh water consumption).

Our digital world plays a significant role in the the greenhouse gas emissions and many people were and are doing great work towards a more climate friendly digital world. But, there is much more work to do to make tech climate friendly and to use it in a more climate friendly way.

And it is not only the ecological part of sustainability. Digital products create social injustice - being it in a global context (for example because of the resources necessary for the chips in our servers that need to be mined under inhuman conditions or the data workers that need to overlook the LLMs we use, so we do no see any horrible outputs) or in a local context where the convenience for the user is most often paid by someone else somewhere else in the ecosystem of the service or product.

I personally see that we are making progress in making these injustices more transparent, but still it is not standard in our processes.

But there have been a lot of positive things happening. The SUX community grew, we did more than a handful of local and in-person events, some of them in cooperation with other wonderful people. The SUX Slack Space grew to almost 2500 people and the SUX Academy was born and meanwhile more than 200 people have done one of our Masterclasses.

And just some weeks ago at the W3C an official interest group for web sustainability has been established and I was invited to join as an expert (so, in case you do not know how the W3C works: this is a huge step towards making the Web Sustainability Guidelines an official standard). Regulations in the EU catch up and the emissions of digital infrastructure become relevant for sustainability reporting.

I can sense the momentum shift towards digital sustainability. It needs to be faster, but it is there. And that is still a good basis to move on from.

2025 - what a year it will be...

And we need to go much further. 2025 needs to be the year where we make sustainability step by step default in our design processes, followed by the whole product creation processes. We all should ask ourselves what are the three things I can change in my design process in the next 6 month and what are the 3 things I want to have changed by the end of the year. Being it on my personal level, but also on team, project or organizational level.

And that includes to question the use of (Gen)AI. I am not saying we should not use it at all. But we should use it more informed and depending on the right use cases. Gen AI causes a lot of negative impact: ecologically but also societal. And no, AI is not the answer to everything and AI will not make you a better designer. AI is useful for a bunch of use cases. But for others the real price (paid by others) for using it is too high. Is it worth making my life easier today if it destroys the tomorrow not only for me but also our children? If I could wish for something, I would wish for much much more informed discussions of the negative impacts and real price of (Gen) AI.

And we need to leave our home turf. It won't be enough to design sustainable digital products, we need to think about how we can use our craft to create impact and influence in the world. As I said in the last newsletter, we are dominated by false narratives. Fascists are elected because they are "better" in telling easy Narratives. Truth vanishes and becomes irrelevant - at least for the moment. We need to work on better narratives. Narratives that explain the complex world better and that counter all the false Narratives of the fascists, nazis and deniers.

But it's also about demystifying the big tech narratives that are in the end mainly are about making them stronger. We are relying heavily on big tech and part of our journey needs to be to get more independent from it.

So, 2025 will be tough year. For sure. But there is a lot of hope as well. We are many and that gives us a lot of power. Design is an essential part of most processes and we have a lot of impact. But at some points we need to take back this power. Btu I am confident that we will be able to achieve this as well.

One key aspect is to get together, to combine powers. We are many and we are strong. Therefore one goal of the SUX Network is to provide more opportunities to get together, to share thoughts and ideas or to learn and try tools, tactics and strategies. We plan to produce more episodes of the SUX podcast to get the voice of more inspiring people to the community. And we plan to provide more courses and Masterclasses - and offer as many low-income tickets as possible to make our classes available and affordable for as many people as possible. We also plan to offer different courses - on responsible AI but also Sustainable Design Leadership. We also plant to work together with other non-profit organizations for projects and events.

We at SUX have two main goals for 2025: Making sustainability default in digital design processes and using UX and design to create a sustainable digital world that helps to create more delightful lifes for every human (and every being) in this world and that exists in balance with the planet.

And we invite you to join us on this way. 🌿

📚 SUX Playbook and SUX Resource Database

In 2024 the SUX Resource Database grew and we also published the first tools of the SUX Playbook. More will follow in the next weeks and month and the playbook will be enriched with more detailed explanations and step-by-step guidelines.

But, we will also continue to add all kinds of resources and tools from other people to the database and today I have two new book recommendations for you:

📓 Book: User Experience Design und Sustainability by Tanja Brodbeck, Claudia Bruckschwaiger, Katharina Clasen, Thorsten Jonas, Clemens Lutsch, Olga Lange, Kathrin Rochow, Martin Tomitsch and Ingo Waclawczyk

Based on research done by the working group sustainability of the German UPA, the book shows the status quo in Sustainability in UX Design and how UX Designers see it. In addition it collects current tools and frameworks to implement sustainability in the design process. I had the honor to be part of this book and to work on three chapters. Furthermore two of the SUX tools are part of the book as well. Please note: so far the book is only available in german.

📓 Book: Better Things. Materials for sustainable product design by Daniel Liden

In his book Daniel Liden seeks to tackle the lazy 'greenwashing' terminology we see every day, providing a guide for product designers, manufacturers and consumers wishing to make better and more informed decisions about materials. This book is most interesting if you come from an industrial design direction or work in projects or on products that have a strong physical product component.

Find more than 140 (and growing) various resources, tools, frameworks, talks about sustainable UX and design but also digital sustainability in the SUX Resource database: https://suxnetwork.notion.site

You developed a tool, or found an interesting resource? We invite you to add it to the SUX database.

🎙 This year's episodes of the SUX Podcast:

In 2024 we had the honor to welcome 5 wonderful guests at the SUX Podcast. It is a wonderful privilege to be able to meet all these wonderful people and to discuss digital sustainable, responsible tech and sustainable UX and design. And good news: the next episode is already recorded and will be released next week.

EP12 - Damien Lutz Life centered Design

EP13 - Don Norman Changing the world through Design

EP14 - Tom Greenwood AI and digital Sustainability

EP15 - Hannah Smith A fossil-free internet by 2030

EP16 - Christina Cassens Too Good To Go, no more food waste

EP 17 - Laura Korčulanin We need to talk about water → To be released this week

So if you do not want to miss this episode, we would be happy if you give us a subscription, it also helps us a lot.

💫 SUX Events & Local Chapters

In 2024 we did a first bunch of local events and we are going to continue with this in 2025.

But we will also start a regular online meetup, where we invite the SUX community to come together and discuss current topics and more.

🌍 SUX Online Monthly:

We got the feedback from the community that there is a strong wish for a virtual place to get together and discuss current issues or challenges and get together with other community-members. Meghan Logan stepped in and offered to help bring this event to life. And so Meghan and I planned a first SUX monthly for this January. We plan to discuss one or two current topics or challenges and all participants will have the opportunity to bring their topics to the table. The SUX Monthly will be a place to participate actively and to get together with the community and there is room for you all to bring in your ideas and wishes. So, if that sounds interesting we would be happy to welcome you in two weeks.

When: 23rd January, 6pm CET / 9am PST, Online

Sign up here to get the invite and Zoom Link: https://forms.gle/okX7tCC89JrXvBzCA

🌿 SUX Copenhagen Event:

In February SUX Copenhagen will do its next event. Details to follow soon and Stine Ramsing will post it in Slack as soon as everything is set.

🌿 More SUX Local Chapter:

In 2024 we started to do a bunch of local events, because we heard you and understood about the importance of coming together in person. Stine Ramsing started the local chapter in Copenhagen and in cooperation with Anna Rátkai and Stefanie Kruse I did a Sustainable User Journey Community Workshop in Copenhagen. In cooperation with Sera Tajima and the Craft we did two local events in Amsterdam, we co-organized the World Usability Day in Hamburg together with uxHH - User Experience Hamburg Anna Brandes and Karsten Lenz and started the local chapter in Bremen with Simon Fenske and Celina Breitenborn . For 2025 we plan more local events and local chapters. Hamburg will start in February, a bunch of cities have already announced their interest and we are in the process of preparing these as well.

Sign up here, if you want to get notified once the exact date of the first event of the SUX Local Chapter Hamburg is announced (event will be end of February): https://forms.gle/QttWyuRQ59mcfsrC6

And if you are interested in setting up a local chapter in your city, let us know.

🎓 2024 saw the birth of the SUX Academy

In June we started the SUX Academy. The main idea was and is, to teach principles and techniques of sustainable UX in a structured way for individual designers, but also for design- and product-teams. The 4-hour Masterclass became the first course and already saw more than 200 alumni in 2024.

We will continue Masterclass and plan to add self-study online-course and a special Sustainable Design Leadership class. In addition we plan to offer Masterclasses for responsible AI together with another wonderful non-profit organization. Stay tuned.

For January and February we set up two new open (and updated) Masterclasses. There are only a few tickets left for the January-Date, but a few more for the February-Date. As always we offer a limited number of seats for a significantly lower price for people in low-income situations or from countries with lower incomes. This works on a trust basis, so please decide on your own if you are eligible for these tickets.

Option 1: 28th January 2025, 5:30pm-9:30pm CET, Online, Tickets and all Infos

Option 2: 17th February 2025, 5:30pm-9:30pm CET, Online, Tickets and all Infos

Team-Masterclass for Design- or Product-Teams: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy/masterclass-sustainable-ux

And as a little extra, the 2025 Masterclass will get a new chapter about behavioral design and how to drive sustainable behavior of our users. For those of you who do not know the Masterclass yet: It teaches you fundamentals and tools of Sustainable UX and enables you to start using Sustainable UX in your daily work right after the Masterclass. Upon completion you’ll get a personal Sustainable UX certificate. For all details, please see the event page.

Here is some feedback from participants of recent Masterclasses this year:

🌿 “It was truly inspiring for me to attend this masterclass and I recommend it to any Service Designer or UX Researcher. An evening packed with insights, practical exercises and a looooooooot of wonderful resources to explore further.🤓”- Natalia

🌿 “This experience showed me that it's indeed possible to design more mindful and sustainable digital products and services, and I'm grateful to organizations like SUX - The Sustainable UX Network for this opportunity.” - Ilaria

🌿 “This was an engaging and impactful session that fundamentally changed my approach to becoming a more sustainable designer. I feel like I have all the tools I need to go and implement change in my org and with clients, and educate others too. I can't recommend these class more, I'm so glad I signed up!” - Ella

🌿 Supporting Partner of this edition: Mittwald Hosting

And I am super happy to announce that we have a supporting partner for this edition of the Newsletter. As you know, most of the work of the SUX Network is non-profit and therefore unpaid. Finding sustainable organizations that are willing to support us is crucial to be able to run this community for you. So I am more happy to announce the partner of this edition of the Newsletter: mittwald . I personally know Mittwald and I have on site and seen their hosting-center and their efforts in sustainability in real life. They are the kind of partner we wish for - a true sustainable company closely dedicated to make the digital world more sustainable. So, if you are looking for a new hosting company, Mittwald is a wonderful option that I can personally recommend. Find more information about Mittwald and their efforts in Sustainability here: https://mitt.link/sux

Mittwald: We live the web. We breathe code. And: We love agencies and freelancers. With highly performant and flexible managed cloud hosting, we provide web professionals with the platform to launch their web projects to the next level. Smart workflows and innovative features, like measuring the CO2 emissions per website visit, make your work more efficient. Hosting has never been this fun!

A big thank you Mittwald for supporting this edition of the SUX Newsletter! 💚

💡 Did you know:

2.921 grams CO2 per minute TikTok users generate on average (on instagram it's similar with 2.912 grams). Per year the average emissions per user are 49kg CO2, resulting in an estimated overall footprint of TikTok is likely around 50m metric tonnes of CO2 (to give you some context: the annual emissions of Greece are 51,67m metric tonnes of CO2).

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/12/tiktok-carbon-footprint

Thank you for reading all the way down here. 🙌 We are living in challenging times, but I am personally also convinced that there is a lot of hope. 2025 will be a challenging year and we need to take action, but there is also a lot of opportunity to do so. Let’s start now and together make this world a better place through and within Design and UX.

See you,

👋 Thorsten

Founder of the SUX Network & Co-Author of the Web Sustainability Guidelines, Keynote Speaker, Sustainable UX Trainer, Digital Sustainability Trailblazer and Responsible AI Advocate. Get in touch if you want to work with me or book me for a talk, workshop or training. And follow me on LinkedIn, where I share frequently tipps, resources and thoughts about Digital Sustainability, Responsible AI and Sustainable UX.

🌏 SUX Community Count:

• 2,450 Slack members 👉join
• 6,336 LinkedIn followers👉follow

🌐 SUX Website: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/

🎓 SUX Academy: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy

📧 Get in touch: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com

Der Beitrag What a year – Vol #8 of the SUX Newsletter erschien zuerst auf SUX – The Sustainable UX Network.