This week was dedicated to a final one-to-one tutorial session with our lecturer to get some final feedback and advice as we go into the final week to complete our healthcare projects. I was in a good place with my project, with not too much to do to finish. These tutorials are a great opportunity to talk about project ideas and get feedback on whether those ideas would be beneficial to a project, this makes these sessions incredibly useful. While this was a useful session, we didn’t cover any new content so my blog this week is looking at an important issue in design, design ethics.
Designers must satisfy several often-competing specifications within a design, while the key requirement is to solve a problem, what defines a problem can be different among the stakeholders. Financial considerations can not be ignored, people need to get paid, and organisations have overheads to meet, however, finances cannot be the key driver of the design. The main concern should always be making a positive impact, whether on a large or small scale. Purely financial concerns can lead designers to fall into the trap of using dark UX patterns and a design can lose its way.
Two articles I have read this week have formed the basis of this blog post,
https://mathijssterrenburg.medium.com/the-design-industry-lacks-a-moral-compass-c2940f71031c
https://uxmag.com/articles/breaking-the-code-the-consequences-of-ignoring-ethics-in-design
The first of these articles looks at some of the issues in the world of design, often these spawn from allowing money and brand reputation to take the lead on the design purpose. Greenwashing and a failure to follow up the good initial intentions of designs with their real-world implications. On this second point, I don’t believe any designer starts a project with the intention of that product causing harm. But, a failure to fully consider the implications of the design in use or failure to adapt that design when negative impacts begin to show can lead to a great and positive idea, missing the mark.
An interesting point made within this article is that even a small step such as reducing the energy use of a company website is still an example of ethical design. I feel we do not talk about small steps such as this enough. The amount of energy that can be saved while small on an individual website level may be small but converting that to all websites could make a huge difference. With data centres often powered by fossil fuel-based power stations, and one single data centre using as much electricity as 50,000 homes, the impact of small design changes should not be overlooked.
Source: *https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-staggering-ecological-impacts-of-computation-and-the-cloud/ (Last Accessed 08/05/24)*
AI brings new ethical design considerations and we have already seen examples where AI has shown bias within its results, from sexism to issues around facial recognition for people with darker skin. We can all see the potential within AI and the possibilities for AI to make a positive impact on the world. However, we must consider what potential issues any AI could have and be quick to act and rectify any issues that do appear. The widespread availability and use of AI is just beginning and issues are inevitable, how we tackle these issues and whether we prioritise the impact of the technology rather than its profitability.
The second article also provided links to a couple of codes of conduct relating to ethical design with both the UXPA’s Code of Conduct and Mike Monterio’s Code of Ethics providing a framework to work within to ensure that ethics take a priority seat within our design process. There is no longer an excuse not to include ethical considerations within the design process. We have seen the impact poor design ethics can have and it is our job as designers as stakeholders within the process to challenge design ethics. As UX designers we are often cited as being the user’s representative in the design process and for me this includes standing up for ethical design.
I got into design to solve problems and deliver positive change through design, and keeping ethical design at the forefront of my mind is key to achieving this. Commercial concerns will no doubt play a part in my career but keeping a clear perspective and holding myself to a set of values I believe in will be important for me to achieve what I want to. As I embark on a year’s placement within industry I feel this was a good time to visit and think about ethical design and it is something I hope to be able to make a huge part of my design career.