This paper challenges the assumption that humans should naturally be given primacy over non-human actors in the design process. New technological capabilities are starting to give non-human actors (e.g. networked objects) decision-making ability, thereby allowing for an active form of agency. This move will only grow in sophistication in the future and has the potential to be profoundly disruptive to both the design process and wider society. Using Donald A. Norman’s fundamental characteristics of user-centred design, ideas informing the Internet of Things, and philosophies around New Materialism, this paper argues that the fundamental assumptions that underpin the act of designing need to be reassessed.