Defining identity and impact at the end

As a very concerned citizen of earth, I want to know “How bad am I?”

As a consumer I know, on many levels, how good I am. Identity and measurement are embedded and celebrated throughout purchase and usage. But at the end, identity is removed and measuring consumer impact becomes a complicated personal math project.

As a UX community, over the last 20 years, we have built some pretty amazing systems of identity and measurement to help consumerism. Fridges that measure contents and order from a supermarket account. Yet, we fail to measure food waste in a user-centric way. Travel services that predict and automate for the ideal journey. Yet, we fail to measure carbon from a holiday in a user-centric way. Sharing videos, images and opinions with millions of people instantly. Yet identifying and removing hateful content seems widely complicated.

Justice between personal consumer behavior and climate change's poorest victims is impossible in the current broken system. Climate impact comparisons between countries remove the individual consumer responsibility. Personal identity attached to consumption would help all of us understand our roles. Measurement systems would help us see our own impact and improve our behavior.

These two critical issues will help all of us answer “How bad am I?”. And to know how much better we can get.

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