Human-Centred Design Must Mature to Protect Humans

Patrizia Bertini argues that twenty-five years of usability-focused human-centred design helped make technology seamless — and, unintentionally, extractive. As friction disappeared, attention and personal data became commodities and interfaces were optimised for engagement rather than human wellbeing. Bertini says the next generation of design must ask whether products work for human beings, citizens and society, not just individual users. She highlights recent European regulatory moves — notably the Digital Services Act and the proposed AI Act — that treat dark patterns and manipulative AI techniques as violations, and outlines five regulatory dimensions designers must address (data, decisions, resilience, scale & power, accountability). The article calls for embedding compliance, auditability and rights-respecting constraints into product design, research, governance and metrics.