Damien Lutz

By day, I work as a Senior UX Designer, helping teams build products that are desirable, feasible, and viable.

Increasingly, that includes AI. I’m developing hands-on experience using it in my design workflow and designing AI-powered solutions, with a focus on approaches that are efficient for business and light on the planet.

Did you know the Internet causes 4% of global emissions, more 
than the airline industry?

Since discovering Sustainable UX, I’ve been developing and teaching ways to create digital experiences that use less energy, create less carbon, and encourage planet-friendlier behaviours, without sacrificing usability or business goals.

To do less planetary harm and more good with design, we need to design for more than human needs.

I created my Life-centred Design framework that expands modern design to include nature, animals, ecosystems, and marginalised communities.

I published The Life-centred Design Guide and The Non-Human Persona Guide, the first complete frameworks of their kind, and have been invited to share with universities, organisations, and events across Australia and Europe.

I also experiment in futures and speculative design—exploring the long-term impact of design decisions on people, business, and the planet.

Much of that thinking grew out of my science fiction writing, which eventually became Future Scouting: a process, guide, and game for interrogating how emerging technology shapes the world we’re designing for.

Expanding what design can do, and who it can serve, means inventing new resources to think and design differently.

I’ve created books and tools that put Life-centred Design, Sustainable UX, and futures thinking directly into practice.

As well as teaching UX Fundamentals to new designers, I’ve delivered life-centred design studios, workshops, and lectures across Australia, Italy, Portugal, and Germany, at institutions including Politecnico di Milano in Milan, NOVA School of Business in Portugal, Echos School of Design in Sydney, and more.

I’m honoured to have been featured in Ideia Magazine in Portugal, the Sustainable UX Podcast in Germany with Thorsten Jonas, and the Why Is It Like That? Podcast in Melbourne with Leyla Acaroglu.

Design awards include a Notable Design Education Award at the Core77 Design Awards for my Future Scouting Game, and a Book Cover Design Award for my sci-fi novel The Lenz.