Use-Value Score Calculator: Notes On A Recent Grad School Project
I recently turned in two projects for a grad school class called Emerging Media, which is a graduate seminar that focuses on emerging technological advancements as they relate to the Communication Design industry and design-related fields. Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the “emerging technologies” the instructor introduced the class to was generative AI and for one of the projects the class was required to create “a design piece where artificial intelligence is not just a production tool, but an active, visible participant in the final work.” In other words, AI had to be used as design material. Some students (myself included) voiced what are now common ethical concerns about generative AI including disinformation, intellectual property theft, job displacement, reduced critical thinking and comprehension, and massive energy and water consumption (I even sent the professor a blog post I had recently written on the subject). The professor listened to all the concerns and seemed genuinely sympathetic but nevertheless challenged the students to create something artistic and expressive.
Feeling curious (and also wanting to pass the class) I began to wonder if I could lean into the glaring contradiction that would exist in attempting to create a sustainable design project using a tool that isn’t the most environmentally friendly and I acquiesced. Ultimately, I endeavored to create a practical extension of a theoretical paper I wrote for another Kutztown graduate seminar called Contemporary Topics in Design. The paper I wrote, titled Sustainable Design & Telling a New Story, essentially argues that to achieve genuine sustainability designers must critically examine and move beyond the dominant story of consumer culture, which prioritizes profit and exchange-value over long-term ecological and social well-being. As I write in the paper:
“…an overemphasis on mass production and consumption, economic growth and exchange-value has no doubt lead to various egregious negative consequences including the exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation, and the prioritization of profit over human and non-human well-being.3 In other words, the story we’re entangled in is very much a suicidal one. Conversely, prioritizing use-value in a push toward a use-value-centered economy, which would involve carefully considering how goods and services contribute to human flourishing, quality of life, and social welfare rather than solely their marketability or profitability, is perhaps one way designers who care about sustainability can actually begin to make a difference.”
Partly inspired by The Vegan Calculator website—which allows users to glimpse the practical effects of veganism by calculating animal lives saved, gallons of water saved, lbs. of grain saved, lbs. of Co2 saved, and Sq Ft of forest saved—I began to envision a website that would allow users to scan any human designed object and then subsequently receive a use-value score analysis. The analysis is broken up into: materials (1 terrible for planet, 10 more sustainable), longevity (1 breaks fast, 10 lasts forever), eco-impact (1 harmful, 10 harmless), and human need (1 useless junk, 10 essential), with an average Use-Value score also provided. The website I ended up vibe coding uses the Claude API and actually works remarkably well. In honor of socially responsible designer, Dieter Rams, it is my hope that this design project can help open our collective eyes to the amount of unnecessary junk we’re all swimming around in. Try the use-value score calculator here.