Designing for Impact || AI, User Behavior, and the Climate Cost of Design Choices
Snackable Skills: Designing for Impact
AI, User Behavior, and the Climate Cost of Design Choices
Every product design choice, from defaults and workflows to feedback loops, influences what users do. And as AI becomes embedded in more products, those decisions increasingly shape how much computing power, energy, and other resources we consume.
But what if we could design AI experiences that deliver better outcomes while using fewer resources?
Two Ticket Types:
Community Workshop Only | 45 min | Free
Learn to see the opportunities. Understand the environmental consequences of AI product decisions, recognize resource-intensive behaviors, and explore how design can change them.
Community Workshop + Apply-It Lab + Recording | 75 min | $15
Turn an opportunity into an actionable design experiment. Apply the E-A-R-T-H framework to a specific product experience, evaluate tradeoffs, and define how to test whether the redesign works.
Free for Catalyst Members!
Join Climate Conscious Leaders for an interactive Snackable Skills workshop where we'll explore how product design influences AI usage and its environmental footprint. Using familiar AI tools and emerging agentic workflows as examples, we'll apply the E-A-R-T-H framework to explore:
Behavior: How do design choices influence the way people interact with AI, and what happens behind the scenes?
Impact: Which interactions consume the most resources, and how do we distinguish valuable compute from unnecessary consumption?
Opportunity: How might we redesign AI experiences to reduce environmental impact while maintaining or improving user satisfaction?
Through practical examples, collaborative exercises, and group discussion, you'll explore design strategies that balance user needs, business value, and environmental responsibility.
Part 1: Interactive Workshop | 45 Minutes
Free and open to everyone
Explore the hidden environmental impacts of AI-powered experiences, learn practical climate-conscious design strategies, and collaborate with fellow participants to rethink a familiar AI interaction.
You'll leave with fresh perspectives and actionable ideas for designing AI experiences that deliver more value with fewer resources.
Part 2: Bonus Apply-It Lab | 30 Minutes
Exclusive to Catalyst Members and Apply-It Lab ticket holders
Ready to take your learning further?
In this hands-on, collaborative session, we'll tackle a more complex AI product-design challenge together. You'll work with fellow participants to identify resource-intensive behaviors, explore alternative designs, and consider how to validate improvements in both user experience and environmental impact.
Who Should Attend?
Product managers, UX designers, technologists, founders, and anyone curious about how the products we build can influence user behavior and environmental impact.
No technical AI expertise required. Bring your curiosity, creativity, and willingness to collaborate!
Learn More about CCL Catalyst Membership and all it's perks here: