It has been a while since the last episode of this newsletter. This is for two reasons. In June and July I just did not find the time to write a new edition. In August I took some time off, really needed it from a wonderful but also exhausting first half of the year. But I will get back to that in my thought of the month and reflect on this as well as the current overall situation of the world, of our work or the digital world.
But there is more: Thanks to SUX Ambassador Nadja we made a huge update on the SUX Resource Database. We have one new tool of the SUX Playbook and set up two new Masterclasses. Also there is a bunch of events where we will be with the SUX Network or where I will speak. So, here is what can you expect in this newsletter:
- My Thought of the Month - this time I am reflecting about the current situation of the world and what that means for us (and I have to warn you, it became a long one) 🌿
- We have a huge update about the SUX Resource Database, special thanks to Nadja 📚
- New Tools of the growing SUX Playbook 📚
- Updates about the SUX Podcast 🎙
- Masterclass "Become a sustainable UX Designer" on Sep. 15+18 🎓
- Masterclass “Sustainability and Ethics in (Gen)AI” on Sep. 16 🎓
- Upcoming SUX Events or conference appearances 📆
- Also we are looking for partners & supporters and have some information about that 💚
- And as always we round up with a little “Did you know” 💡
🌿 Thought of the Month: The time is now
During my summer break I was reflecting on the first half of the year and how it went. Because it has been pretty exhausting - more than the years before. I love what I am doing and it has always been exhausting for different reasons - physically and mentally.
My work includes a lot of travels, especially in the spring and autumn months. Last year I travelled 30.000km by train. This year I already collected 17000km until August. And even more important, evangelizing and working towards a better sustainable future is exhausting, because it is about convincing people, about explaining things again and again, finding the right narratives and having a lot of discussions.
My point is, this work has always been exhausting, though also super fulfilling at the same time. But some things have changed recently. Looking back the past month or years, I can see and feel how Sustainability and Responsibility is pushed back. The political and economical situation is often named as one reason. Which is honestly not true, because solving for example the climate crises and social injustice will automatically lead to a better future and also to economically better future. Still the public narrative - driven by politicians but also organizations - is different. Again (we have seen that before) Sustainability is named as a cost factor instead of an opportunity.
But there is more: we also see in our tech world how (gen) AI and its narratives dominate our digital reality. On the one hand we see the group of people who are celebrating every new iteration of ChatGPT. On the other hand we see many people being afraid of AI taking their Job. And do not get me wrong, I can totally understand that. Because the dominating tech narrative is (gen)AI. We get flooded with “you need to use it now for everything, otherwise your job will be gone soon”. Still I think this is a wrong narrative. I have written about that before: AI is a useful tool, but it is a tool, with a lot of limitations that unfortunately seemed to be ignored in the public AI narratives.
But today I want to make a different point on this whole AI game. Sustainability and Responsibility is too often losing in this game. We use and discuss AI as if there are no consequences out of it. And also we as designers discuss it as if there were no other topics. AI is dominating the public conversations, while lacking the critical perspective in terms of the price that is paid for it on other ends.
So, what we see at the moment is a general push back of Sustainability and Responsibility. It is happening on a macro-economic and political level as well as on a tech and design level. Acting responsible and sustainable is seen as a cost-factor, something that we need to be able to afford. And other topics are more important: the “AI revolution” (though I think it is not a revolution, at least not yet) is the ONE topic. I mean look at the agendas of tech and design conferences. Every agenda hosts a bunch of talks about the great things you can do with AI or how you need to adapt now to keep your job, while the talks about Sustainability or even the responsible use of AI are absent too often.
And yes, that is affecting me personally as well. These topics are not “self-running” - I can see how I have to push for it actively and thanks to my wonderful network I am able to bring these topics into events, being it by myself or by other wonderful people. But I have to push it actively.
My point is: this can be frustrating. It is crystal clear that we need to change a lot of things to secure a future for us and even more for the next generations. The climate crisis is not stopping and instead of making our digital world more sustainable we fuel the fire with the countless new datacenters that are built every year. Social injustice is growing and instead of solving it we drive inequalities globally and nationally and still build (digital) services that create more user convenience at the price of more injustice or climate impacts.
But, anyway. This is not the time to bust our heads in the sand. The opposite is the case. Especially now, in these uncertain, hard, frustrating, frightening times. Now is the time to act and to fight for the right things. Nobody said it is going to be easy. But it is worth it. As I said above: it is worth evangelizing for the right topics. Even if sustainability, social justice or a more responsible use of AI are too often not on the agenda, we can put them there. We can ask and push the people in charge to take them on the agenda. We can bring it into our work, by asking the right questions, but just adding sustainability layers, by making a choice about the tools we use, sometimes even without asking, or by finding the narratives that convince other people and stakeholders.
And the good arguments are often there. Sustainability is a business case, always in the long term and more and more often also in the short term. Using (Gen)AI uninformed and for everything is a solid business risk (look at Klarna and how they had to roll back their AI first strategy). Integrating sustainability and responsibility is most often much easier than expected.
But, we need to carry these arguments to the people. We need to act wherever we can. Sustainability and Responsibility are pushed back - often because of wrong narratives and false expectations. And we need to stand up actively and put these things back on the agenda - and keep it there. Especially as designers we have the tool- and mindset to drive this change on all levels and to influence narratives as well. It begins with the decisions we take and tools we use all the way to the narratives we tell and drive.
So, even if I felt really exhausted from the first half of the year. Even if the situation can be very frustrating, even if these difficult times can feel overwhelming, I realized for myself that these are important times to act, to keep the pace for the right things and to fight for it.
It is necessary, because later is too late. And it is also worth it. Looking back I can see how acting creates influence. Every small decision and every small act is a manifesto for the future we want to live in. This might sound like a big responsibility. During my reflections I realized that even more, it is a big chance.
But the time is now.
📚 Update of the SUX Resource Database
Over the past month SUX Ambassador Nadja Bozovic a made a huge update to the SUX Resource Database. Each resource now has a detail page with a description and detail infos about the resource - making browsing resources much more comfortable and easy to use. Check out the updated resource database here: https://suxnetwork.notion.site/
Nadja wrote a full article about the updates on the SUX Blog. It will be released today as well. Also, check out Nadjas favorite resources:
First on my list: Planetary-Centric Design Framework. Gabriela Lozano-Corona and Betina Mazzarino, PCC (ICF), NCOC™ have developed this framework as a tool for designers, founders, and investors to better understand their project’s impact. Ooh, interesting! Let me learn more about it.
Next up: Imperfect Design for a Better Future. In this article for the Branch magazine, Thorsten Jonas writes about how we should shift from achieving perfection to designing in balance with surrounding ecosystems and what we can learn from nature on this journey. Yes, I read the article on the spot. And, yes, I then spent an hour or two reading through other Branch issues. Super insightful!
Then: How to Sell Sustainable UX. In this eBook, Stefanie Kruse offers strategies to convince teams, clients, and stakeholders to start applying the principles of responsible design. I’m intrigued, I think to myself as I read through + open a handful of new tabs to explore this further.
A special thank you from my side to Nadja Bozovic who did a fantastic job in updating all the resources. We developed the new detail page together and then she did all the editorial work over the past months. Stunning work and such a huge update to the resource collection. Thank you, Nadja! Really happy that you are part of the team. 💚
📚 New tools of the SUX Playbook
The SUX Playbook is growing. I added a new tool to the playbook as well as a full workshop template for this tool. It is based on a series of workshop we did in the past, connecting digital products and services with the Sustainable Development Goals and how they relate.
✏️ Sustainable Development Goal Mapping
This is a pretty handy method to understand how a certain Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is related to a digital product.
✏️ Sustainable Development Goal Mapping, Workshop Template
Based on the above named tool, I created a full ready to use workshop template that can be used to understand the relation to one or more Sustainable Development Goals. We facilitated this workshop
More tools are in the making in a ongoing process. Meanwhile checkout the existing tools like for example Sustainable User Journey Mapping or Needs to Consequences Mapping at our Notion space. In addition I am working on a description and explanation of the whole SUX Framework. Stay tuned for updates (or check out the Masterclass).
🎙 SUX Podcast: new Season in preparation
Producing the podcast is really wonderful and super insightful for myself as well. Still it is also a lot of work and therefore I had to take break in the past months. But the Podcast will return. At the moment I am setting up a line-up of guest for the next season. Recordings will start in the next weeks to stay tuned.
Meanwhile I want to invite you to have a look into the wonderful guests I (and in the beginning Bavo Lodewyckx and me together) already had. These are the top 5 most played episodes so far:
Tim Frick - Back to the Beginning
Don Norman - Changing Design towards a better world
Trine Falbe - Ethics and Sustainability
Tom Greenwood - AI and Digital Sustainability
Hannah Smith - A fossil free Internet by 2030
What I really like about our episodes. They are valuable for listeners in the long term. The episode with Tim Frick was the very first episode and still gets plays every month.
Also we are looking for partners of this new season. As described above it is a lot of work and partners help us to bring this podcast to life. If that sounds interesting to you, please get in touch and we can provide you with numbers and more information about the options: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com
🎓 Few tickets left for Online Masterclass "Become a sustainable UX Designer" on Sep. 15+18
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: We added the lastest tools of the growing SUX Framework to the Masterclass like SDG Mapping. Also we saw in previous Masterclasses that 4 hours packed with lectures, and practical exercises are quite intense. Therefore we split up the Masterclass into two parts with 2 hours each and 2 days in between. In addition there is a 30min bonus after the second session for questions. This is optional, we just want to give your questions and also conversations enough room.
- 📆 Dates: 15+18 Sep. 2025, 5:00pm - 7:00pm CEST, Online (plus 30min bonus after the second session)
- 🎟️ Tickets: Tickets and all Infos
- 💚 15% discount with code “SUX_Friend”
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. We have done the Masterclass for companies like Siemens, Ahold Delhaize, or the Scotia Bank already. Find all information about our Team-Masterclass for Design- or Product-Teams here: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy/masterclass-sustainable-ux
🎓 Few tickets left for Online Masterclass "Sustainability and Ethics in Gen AI” on Sep. 16
Not just or designers, but for everybody working with Gen AI like ChatGPT: For the second time we are doing our new Masterclass that focuses on the Sustainability and Ethics perspective on Gen AI as well as what creative means or becomes in the age of 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. Because the real price for using it is much higher and paid on many ends. In addition we also need to questions more careful which use cases work well with Gen AI and which doesn't. Using ChatGPT for the wrong use-cases is not only bad for the environment, it is also a solid business risk.
So, the question is, how can we use Gen AI like Chat GPT more responsible and how can we decide when to use and when not? We need to understand the true negative impacts and set in into relation to the true value to decide how and what for to use it. That is what we do in my Masterclass. At the end you will be introduced to the Responsible AI Canvas and how to use this tool to evaluate your potential AI use case in terms of its negative impacts in relation to the value you get.
- 📆 Date: 16 Sep. 2025, 5:00pm - 7:30pm CEST, Online,
- 🎟️ Tickets: Tickets and all Infos
- 💚 15% discount with code “SUX_Friend”
We are also offering this format for teams and organizations or events. In such setup we can tailor the Masterclass to your needs. We did this format already for organizations like Booking or KnowIt Experience as well as the World Usability Day Estonia or the upcoming the Future Product Days in Copenhagen. Please get in touch if you want to learn more about this: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com
📆 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.
September:
- Masterclass "Become a Sustainable UX Designer: 15+18 Sep. 5:00 PM, All Infos
- Masterclass "Sustainability and Ethics in (Gen)AI", 16 Sep. 5:00 PM, All Infos
- SUX Copenhagen: Get Together on Sep. 23, 6:00 PM. More infos will follow soon
- SUX at Future Product Days in Copenhagen: I will do my Workshop "Sustainability, Ethics and Creativity in the Convergence of AI and UX" - sold out.
October:
- Hamburg: I will give a one our Masterclass at the Design Business Days.
- Ainsa, Spain: I am super happy to provide a talk to the Escape design festival of my friend Jeroen Spoelstra of the Life-centred Design School, All Infos
- Graz: SUX at World Usability Congress in Graz. My friend Clemens Lutsch and me will do a full day Workshop: "Applying Sustainable UX: From Strategy to Design Tactics", All Infos
- Würzburg: I will give a talk about Creativity and AI at the Future of Industrial Usability conference. All Infos
- Munich: SUX at PUSH • Design, Product & Leadership Conference, we will do a breakout session and we will be available for conversation and discussion at our SUX Booth. More infos to follow soon
November & December:
- A bunch of events will follow: beyond tellerrand in Berlin, Boye 25 in Aarhus, Green IO 🎙️ in Paris. More infos about this in the next newsletter
- Hamburg, 13 Nov.: we are again co-organizing the World Usability Hamburg
- London: We plan to do an event in London in December, stay tuned
🌿 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
💚 Become a SUX Partner and support our mission:
The SUX Network is a non-profit initiative and community. Still it is a lot of work to run the community and community events, to develop the SUX Playbook and workshop formats, to maintain and continuously extend the resource collection, to produce the podcast or to be present at events and conferences. All this work is done unpaid, out of passion and the belief that it is not only our responsibility to act, but also a huge chance, since especially design has the power and the tools to drive change in general.
To continue this journey and to be able to reach out even further we are looking for partners and supporters for the SUX Network. We offer different ways to support our work:
- General Partner, named at all events and occasions
- Special Partner for certain events, the resource collection, etc.
- Sponsor of the SUX Podcast, one episode or a whole season
What will you get in return? We offer a significant global reach with a wonderful and highly engaged audience dedicated to sustainability and responsibility. Therefore we also choose partners carefully based on if they align with our values (Check out our current partners and friends: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/#partner). If this sounds interesting to you, please get in touch and we are happy to share details about the possibilities as well as detailed numbers: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com
💡 Did you know:
OpenAIs o3 hallucinates 33% when running OpenAIs internal PersonQA benchmark test. o4-mini is even worse: 44%. When running the SimpleQA test, the hallucination rates for o3 and o4-mini were 51 % and 79 %.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/technology/ai-hallucinations-chatgpt-google.html
Thank you for reading all the way down here. 🙌
If you have any feedback, thoughts or 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:
🌐 SUX Website: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/
🎓 SUX Academy: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy
📧 Get in touch: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com
