What is Liberatory Design?
Liberatory Design is an evolution of the design thinking methodology. It’s an approach to problem solving that helps people translate their equity values into action.
Three-Part Approach
Modes
Liberatory Design has nine “modes” which are complementary ways of working towards equity. They break down the daunting task of creating equitable outcomes into actionable phases that foster both a liberatory process and outcomes.
Mindsets
When designing for liberation, it is important to both think and do differently. Mindsets help articulate our equity values and assess if we are manifesting them in our work.
Tools
When we’ve built a strategy and committed to mindsets, tools help us bring them to life through action. While the work of liberation is complex, there are some things we can start doing right away.
Liberatory Design is the backbone of Beytna Design.
We teach it to our clients and use it when customizing our own services.
“Liberatory design helps us translate our why into a what. It becomes the bumper lanes that help us become more equitable practitioners at the same time that we are catalyzing more equitable outcomes.“
—Tania Anaissie
Process Modes*
Notice
Notice and Reflect are at the core of Liberatory Design. Notice invites us to practice self-awareness, seek context about the systems we’re designing in, and explore history’s legacy on our work.
Reflect
We Reflect on team health, our design intentions, and the impact our design process is having on us individually, interpersonally, institutionally, and systemically to support continual growth and healing.
See the System
Seeing the System enables us to identify potential equity challenges, what about the system is producing these, and what we need to learn more about as we engage in empathy work.
Empathize
We seek to understand the experiences, emotions and motivations of the person or community you are designing with so we can redesign systems to be human-centered. We empathize from a place of love, respect, and curiosity.
Define
Define invites us to co-develop a point of view about challenges and needs with the community. Together, we look for patterns and insights in stories that reveal the deeper needs of those closest to the challenge.
Inquire
Inquire gives us direction in moments of ambiguity. It helps us better understand and define a challenge by revealing how a system reacts when we try small safe-to-fail experiments.
Imagine
Imagine allows us to envision liberating futures. It can unleash our creative courage which will foster innovative approaches to address equity challenges.
Prototype
To prototype, we build rough versions of what we’re working on to test key ideas. Designing for equity requires this kind of creative building.
Try
To gather authentic feedback about prototypes and to check our assumptions and intentions, we try our ideas out in the system. Feedback is a gift used to improve whatever is being designed and ensure that the design is attuned to our equity goals.
*This language is slightly adapted from the Liberatory Design card deck for contextual clarity.
Origins of Liberatory Design
In 2016 a group of practitioners passionate about the intersection of equity and design came together to create what would become Liberatory Design.
In 2021 they released an updated version of the card deck. Liberatory Design is used and adapted by equity catalysts around the world.
FOUNDING TEAM:
Tania Anaissie, Victor Cary, David Clifford, Tom Malarkey and Susie Wise
FOUNDING SUPPORTIVE-ORGANIZATIONS:
Stanford University’s d.school, National Equity Project