If you were paying attention to the tech and design world back in late 2019, you probably heard the buzz surrounding The World We Make 2019. It wasn't just another dry industry conference or a boring product launch. Honestly, it felt more like a manifesto. Spearheaded primarily by the team at Designit, this global initiative sought to answer a question that feels even more urgent today: How do we stop designing just for "users" and start designing for humanity?
2019 was a weirdly pivotal year. We were standing on the precipice of a global pandemic we didn't see coming, yet the cracks in our digital and social infrastructure were already showing. The World We Make 2019 wasn't just about pretty interfaces. It was a massive, decentralized conversation about ethics, sustainability, and the raw impact of technology on our collective psyche.
Some people thought it was too idealistic. Others saw it as a necessary wake-up call for an industry that had become obsessed with "move fast and break things." Looking back, it’s clear that the discussions sparked during that year laid the groundwork for how we talk about AI ethics and climate tech right now.
What actually happened during The World We Make 2019?
It started as a series of events and workshops spanning cities like London, New York, Madrid, and Tokyo. But it grew into something bigger. The core idea was simple: design is the most powerful tool we have to shape the future, but we've been using it wrong. We’ve been using it to increase "time on site" and "conversion rates" while the planet burns and social cohesion dissolves.
Participants weren't just designers. They brought in sociologists, climate scientists, and business leaders. I remember the discourse around "Human-Shaped Design" vs. "Human-Centered Design." It sounds like a semantic nuance, right? It's not. Human-centered design often focuses on the immediate desires of a single person—like how easy it is to order a burger at 2 AM. Human-shaped design, as championed in The World We Make 2019, asks what happens to the neighborhood, the delivery driver, and the environment when millions of people order that burger.
The pivot from profit to purpose
In 2019, the tech industry was facing a massive "techlash." Facebook was still reeling from various privacy scandals, and the public was starting to realize that free apps often came with a hidden cost. The World We Make 2019 tapped into this frustration.
The workshops focused on a few "Impact Areas." One was Circular Economy. We’re talking about moving away from the "take-make-waste" model. Designers were challenged to think about what happens to a product when it’s dead. Another big one was Trust and Transparency. How do we build digital systems that don't rely on tricking the user? These weren't just theoretical debates. Companies like Designit were actively pushing these frameworks onto their corporate clients, trying to steer the ship from within.
It's easy to be cynical. You might think, "Oh, just another corporate social responsibility stunt." But the depth of the research presented—often involving real-world case studies on urban planning and healthcare access—suggested something more substantial. They were trying to build a new toolkit for the 21st-century creator.
Why we're still talking about 2019’s vision today
Think about where we are now. AI is everywhere. Climate change isn't a future threat; it's a Tuesday afternoon. The principles laid out in The World We Make 2019 have basically become the blueprint for "Responsible Tech."
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Back then, the organizers talked a lot about "Long-termism." This is the idea that our decisions today should be weighed against their impact 50 or 100 years from now. In 2019, that felt like a luxury. Today, with the rapid deployment of Large Language Models and autonomous systems, it’s a survival strategy. If we don’t design for the world we want to live in, we’ll end up living in a world designed by an algorithm optimized for engagement.
Real-world impact and the "Friction" argument
One of the coolest—and most controversial—takeaways from the 2019 initiative was the concept of Positive Friction.
In traditional UX (User Experience), friction is the enemy. You want the user to buy the thing in one click. But The World We Make 2019 argued that we actually need friction in certain places. We need a moment to pause and think: "Do I really want to share this misinformation?" or "Do I understand how my data is being used here?"
This line of thinking directly influenced the "slow tech" movement. It’s why you now see features on your phone that tell you how much time you’re wasting on social media. It’s why some platforms started asking "Are you sure you want to tweet this article without reading it?" 2019 was the year these ideas moved from the fringe of academia into the mainstream of design thinking.
Misconceptions about the movement
A lot of people think The World We Make 2019 was just about being "green."
It was much broader than that. It was about equity. It was about asking why tech products are almost always designed for able-bodied, wealthy people in the West. There was a huge emphasis on Inclusive Design. This isn't just about adding a dark mode or increasing font size. It’s about building systems that work for people who don't have a stable internet connection or who are navigating the world with a disability.
Another misconception is that it was anti-capitalist. Honestly, it was more like "Evolutionary Capitalism." The argument was that if businesses didn't start caring about the world they were making, they would eventually run out of customers, resources, and social license to operate. It was a plea for sustainable growth over explosive, destructive growth.
The legacy of the 2019 summits
What did we actually get out of it?
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For starters, it changed the curriculum in many design schools. You’ll find the "Human-Shaped" philosophy embedded in courses from the RCA in London to Parsons in New York. It also led to the creation of various "Ethics Toolkits" that developers use today to audit their own software for bias.
But perhaps the most important legacy is the community it built. The designers who met in those rooms in 2019 are now the VPs and Directors making decisions at Google, Apple, and various global NGOs. They carried those 2019 conversations with them.
Actionable steps for creators and consumers
If you're a designer, a founder, or just someone who cares about where we're headed, you can still apply the lessons from The World We Make 2019 today. It doesn't require a massive budget. It requires a change in perspective.
Audit your impact beyond the user. When you're building something, don't just ask "Does this help the user?" Ask "Who does this hurt?" or "What does this look like at scale?" If 10 million people use your product, what happens to the environment or the local community?
Embrace the "Circular" mindset. Whether you’re making a physical product or a digital service, think about the end-of-life. How do users "offboard"? Can data be deleted easily? Is the hardware repairable?
Champion transparency over "Delight." The tech world loves the word "delight." But delight is often used to mask data harvesting. Be honest with your users. Explain why you're asking for permission. Build trust, not just "magic."
Diversify your inputs. If everyone in the room looks like you and thinks like you, you aren't making a world for everyone. You're making a world for yourselves. Reach out to experts in fields you know nothing about.
The World We Make 2019 was a snapshot of a moment when we realized we were at a crossroads. We didn't solve everything that year. Far from it. But we started asking the right questions. The challenge now is to keep answering them, even when it’s harder than just shipping another feature.
Focus on these core shifts:
- Move from User-Centered to Humanity-Centered. Stop looking at people as "users" to be harvested and start seeing them as citizens to be served.
- Prioritize Long-Term Health over Short-Term Growth. If a feature boosts revenue but erodes social trust, it is a net loss in the long run.
- Integrate Sustainability into the Design Process. Don't treat "green" as a checkbox at the end; make it the foundation of the initial brainstorm.
- Cultivate Intentional Friction. Build moments of reflection into digital experiences to prevent mindless consumption and the spread of harm.
The future isn't something that just happens to us. It’s something we’re actively constructing every time we write a line of code or sketch a wireframe. The vision of 2019 is a reminder that we have the agency to choose what that future looks like.