Compassion is fundamental to human and planetary survival, continuity and flourishing. Advances in psychology and neuroscience have significantly increased our understanding of compassion as a core human trait with substrates of cooperation, caregiving, altruism, morality and inclusion. Neuroimaging studies investigating physiological characteristics and chemical activity of the brain reveal that neural-correlates of compassion-based thinking and behaviours are specific, traceable and distinct from lab-controlled cruelty trait expression. In simple terms, the brain is wired for compassion and cruelty. This evidence coupled with the growing global worldview of compassion as a core value, attitude and motive in designing for change, inclusion, security, accessibility and dignity, directly calls designers to incorporate compassionate thinking and behaviours in their design endeavours.
This in turn, inherently necessitates designers to reach beyond a human-centred approach to a life-centred design approach whereby consideration of the needs, wellbeing, pain-points and systemic place and belonging of all life forms and the planet’s welfare and sustainability are all core considerations of the design process. In this exploratory paper, we treat compassion as the foundation for life-centred design approaches in which diverse perspectives, futures imagination and anticipatory betterment are central to the inclusive design paradigm. We draw on evidence-based neuroscience and psychology underpinning emotive, cognitive and behavioural correlates of compassion, and the human capacity for development and deliberate activation of compassion-based traits in the professional practice of designers. We conclude with a discussion on what this approach could mean and entail for designers, design thinking and design research.