Designing in Worldview-Shifting Environments

From right-wing shifts over decreasing openness for other forms of existence to business-like governance of states, designers are embedded in complex and emerging political shifts. This is the reality within which they design, often without being conscious about how they contribute to changing conditions and how these conditions in reverse change them. The concept of shifting baselines describes the phenomenon of distorted and limited perception of change. In parallel to changing environmental conditions the reference point, through which people assess such change, shifts. Hence, they do not notice how their worldview shifts. Recent shifting baselines can be observed in migration discourses in Germany where ideas that were once unthinkable quickly became a political agenda. I would argue that this shift of reference point happened often without noticing. Design is political and therefore gets shaped and shapes political worldviews. What is fundamentally important is that designers recognize shifting baselines and consciously navigate them. They need to understand how shifting worldviews influence their design activities and how their design activities influence worldviews. This requires reflection spaces where the following questions can be addressed: Out of which conditions did a worldview emerge? Did these conditions change and how did this affect the worldview? How does all this shape design activities? And do design activities contribute to worldview shifts? Of course, apart from the just mentioned political developments, a shift in worldview can also be positive. What matters in both cases is that designers consciously navigate worldview-shifting environments.

Mar 10, 2025