The Design Turn in Applied Ethics Chapter 1 Designing in Ethics

Table Of Content

• Cultural Norms ≠ Ethics
• Ethics and Social Justice (offered Fall :
• The 33 Best Free Fonts Designers Should Download
• The principles of ethical design (and how to use them)
• Shifting Ethical Responsibilities From Individuals To Communities
• Design High-converting Websites With These Webflow Best Practices
• Ethics and Values in Design: A Structured Review and Theoretical Critique
• Spatial Education & African Cities

We engage with this point more fully in the discussion section, and now turn to introduce the methods of our review. Interest in these approaches has also been accompanied by questions about the appropriateness and feasibility of design as a site of ethical reflection and analysis. Aside from concerns about the enforceability of ethical design, scholars point to ethics washing, or the signalling of ethical concern without corresponding action (Bietti, 2020; Floridi, 2019; Wagner, 2018).

Cultural Norms ≠ Ethics

It is the synthesis of form and materials by which one judges a product to be well or poorly designed. Products are created to serve human beings in their various activities and pursuits. Anything that directly or indirectly harms a human being or harms someone or something for which a human being is responsible presents a serious problem of product integrity requiring both technical and ethical consideration. Using design ethics, often referred to as ethical design, involves producing graphics, web pages websites, and visual aspects of technological products that are not misleading, valuable, and helpful to customers. It also involves considering aspects like user experience, inclusion, audience pain points, and accessibility when producing, reviewing, or adjusting designs.

Ethics and Social Justice (offered Fall :

Tristan Harris, former Design Ethicist at Google, explains how technology is designed to hijack people's attention. Check out this post for additional information on dark-pattern design or this post on ethics in modern marketing. In this scenario, had Netflix designers and developers researched their design tweaks or audited it from an ethical perspective, they might have been able to tweak the algorithm before launch. Specifically, some users noted seeing primarily content recommendations with white people in thumbnails while some BIPOC users saw mostly thumbnails that showed people of color. While Netflix denied that the algorithm targeted users by race, the news went viral. If you're helping to design a new piece of technology, you should consider all of the potential ethical dilemmas it could create and create a design that could either solve for them or ease your audience's concerns.

The 33 Best Free Fonts Designers Should Download

Every year at SXSW, John Maeda, the global head of computational design and inclusion at Automattic, presents the “Design in Tech Report,” which serves as a kind of State of the Union on design in technology. Maeda defines inclusive design as designing products for a broader audience—whether that’s people with disabilities, people living outside of the U.S., people of color, or older people. On his list of “the top 10 most critical issues and challenges currently facing design,” “ethics in design” came in third, behind “design not having a ‘seat at the table’ ” (No. 1), and “diversity in design and tech” (No. 2). Ultimately, every aspect of your brand's design contributes to the message you're putting out. If you want to create content and that demonstrates your company's values, you should regularly review your brand's design ethics.

The principles of ethical design (and how to use them)

These strategies might be aimed at corporate management, regulators, or others implicated in the design and development ecosystem. Second, E + VID would also benefit from research into the feasibility of any such interventions and strategies, including whether they ought to be comprised of new design methods, practices, or sites, or other formulations tailored to local contexts. Finally, future work should also examine strategies to enhance designers’ understanding of what constitutes a positive moral vision that might inform a normatively strong orientation to design in the context of digital capitalism. If designers are to invest their time and energy in the difficult work of creating more meaningful spaces for designer agency, such work must be situated in a clear and more compelling vision about a morally positive future. Answers to these questions, we argue, constitute a new and promising direction for E + VID, and will demand considerable attention in years to come.

Shifting Ethical Responsibilities From Individuals To Communities

Duped by tiny fonts, hidden charges: The role of ethics in product design - The Business Standard

Duped by tiny fonts, hidden charges: The role of ethics in product design.

Posted: Mon, 09 Oct 2023 08:20:37 GMT [source]

Whether you're working on a product, website, graphic, or software-related design, reviewing it from a design ethics perspective might lead to a successful launch with fewer risks of complaints or concerns from the public. The team says the initiative’s interdisciplinary nature is key to delivering both a curriculum and experience with an authentic voice, giving instructors and students the vocabulary and depth of knowledge to engage on issues such as privacy, well-being and harm. I’ve been a product designer for 5 years and just starting to figure this stuff out. These are some things that have helped me incorporate design ethics at work.

What Would a Code of Ethics Look Like for Architecture Schools? - Common Edge

What Would a Code of Ethics Look Like for Architecture Schools?.

Posted: Wed, 31 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

It is central to developing standards that influence the design strategies, mitigating the design purpose and recognizing the consequences of design on individual users. Design ethics is established on the requirements of Usability, Accessibility, Privacy, Transparency, User involvement, and Sustainability. Usability is the basic principle of ethical design, as ease of use, efficiency, safety, experience, and user satisfaction dictate the base requirements of design feasibility. Accessibility is a requirement for ethical design as it becomes vital to design accessible mediums for individuals with health conditions and physical impediments.

Ethics and Values in Design: A Structured Review and Theoretical Critique

Some of the codes that do exist are “well-intentioned” but “clunky” documents that few actually incorporate into their work, said Lennart Nacke, a professor of user experience and gamification at the University of Waterloo who’s researched UX ethics. The easiest way to adopt ethical design is to ingrain these principles into your practice from the beginning. Rather than getting toward the end of the process and trying to add more accessible elements or tacking on privacy notification as an afterthought simply to protect the business, start with a clear understanding and intention. Castillo worries that the conversation about “ethics in design” could become a cliché, like “empathy” or “diversity” in tech, where it’s more talk than walk. She says it’s not surprising that ethics in tech hasn’t been addressed in depth in the past, given the industry’s lack of diversity.

Spatial Education & African Cities

Intersectional Design is a method of designing by thinking through how factors of identity (gender, race, sexuality, class, and many more) interact with one other. In understanding how these factors combine, we can more deeply understand the context of use and an individual user's priorities. Led by architectural designers Khensani de Klerk and Solange Mbanefo, Matri-Archi is a collective based between Switzerland and South Africa that aims to bring African women together for the development of spatial education in African cities. Through design practice, writing, podcasts, and other initiatives, Matri-Archi focuses on the recognition and empowerment of women in the spatial field and architectural industry. As Ethan Tucker recently suggested, what if we begin to think about ethical practice in similar ways as sustainability? In this idea, we can delve into what Tucker coins "Embodied Justice" across a range of issues.

We connected and engaged with 50 designers through an effort with the Service Design Network publication, BarnRaise (a design hackathon event in Chicago), and an IxDA conference workshop. In healthcare, for example, designers are responsible for creating everything from the industrial designer's medical device that keeps a heart beating to the service designer's physical layout of an operating room. Clinicians, with similar levels of influence, initiate their professional practice by swearing to follow the Hippocratic Oath. Designers, on the other hand, are given no guidance for ethical decision-making even as they continue to expand their influence into newer and riskier fields with long-standing moral implications. Ultimately, design ethics should be an integral part of the design process. By considering the ethical implications of their work, designers can create designs that not only meet user needs but also contribute to a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable world.

The urban metropolises of our planet are home to an abundance of stories. They are home to stories of wealth, of innovation, and of architectural marvels. They are home, too, to stories of inequality, inequity and of urban divides – places where one’s income determines the quality of the spatial environment around them. Within these stories has developed an increasing advocation for making cities “smarter”, the goal being to use data and digital technology to build more efficient and convenient urban environments. Open-source design must honour user privacy, security, and freedom above all. Licensing should maximise permissions and encourage inspection and auditing to boost accountability.

These aren’t simply semantic differences — or they shouldn’t be, at least. Simply put, participatory design is designing for people, perhaps allowing them some manner of involvement but no significant decision-making power. Netflix and Youtube make it too easy to binge watch with their auto-play function. For example, Signal is a secure phone and messenger app specifically designed to protect its user’s privacy. When you sign up, it doesn’t ask for anything but your phone number because that’s all that’s necessary to start using the app. With increasing awareness and concern about privacy as a result of targeted advertising and data-driven businesses, there has been backlash and more customers are seeking out brands that respect our right to privacy.