Ethical Design

While I was initially cautious about the topic of ethics, it has become a popular topic and so much of what I do ties into it. To demonstrate how I intend professionals who would like to start a network or community could use the Design in Focus platform, I started the RANDSTAD UX network because of my own involvement in this area. Open invite to start any other CID (creative, innovation, design) networks & communities! In the coming time I will share training on that too.

Back to the topic, Randstad UX took off and grew a bit bigger than anticipated. In January we collaborated with Ladies that UX for an interactive discussion event. PwC, who graciously hosted us, requested that we use the theme Design for Good and with that we landed on the topics ethics & AI.

On the event page you can watch the livestream, although it's a bit noisy because of last minute unavoidable challenges, there are some interesting discussions.

Event page

www.designinfocus.org

Ladies that UX Amsterdam has teamed up with RANDSTAD UX (R'UX) in Janaury 2023 for an interactive discusion event with a panel on the theme Design for Good. Hosted by PwC Experience Centre in Amsterdam

Some bad news

For the event I also published an article with some of my thoughts and discoveries. It is a highly critical and brutally honest reflection of my encounters linked to the topic. It's a super long article too, so I don't think it has much appeal to the average person, but if it does for you, drop your comments below and let's start talking.

Article

www.designinfocus.org

Ethics is complicated, and so is AI. Both affect us as humans collectively and CID professionals.

During the event and in the article, you can find Cecilia Scolaro's quote "AI is learning from us". While many are concerned about losing their jobs, there is a very real threat in AI which I have not yet seen addressed.

Machine learning develops stronger strategies, who has access? I will leave it at that and if you read the article you will either know or we can start a conversation here.

Now, the good news

While finding members for the event panel, all kinds of conversations started and I got in touch with so many dedicated professionals who are working on solving problems daily and making positive impact. Due to the sheer amount of people, I decided to create the Design for Tomorrow Awareness Week event in summer this year. During this week I'm planning an explosion of events relating to positive impact design. Ethics once again pops up!

Event page

Well and that is already a lot of developments surrounding this topic, but wait! For this months Randstad UX event, we decided on the theme Design for Accessibility. Even more human centered design.

Event page

www.designinfocus.org

Collab event on accessiblity.

Ok, is that enough advertising? Yup, and reflective of the extend to which ethics has become a popular topic here on Design in Focus.

Does this interest you? What kind of topics should we include, or could you add?

This year I spoke to @Tiziana d'Agostino who writes for the Ethical Design Network (among others) and we briefly touched on a few topics such as dark design.

She is also a member on this platform and you can have a chat with her.

Tiziana's Portal

www.designinfocus.org

UX Psychologist and Interaction Design consultant, Tiziana has more than 18 years of experience in the industry. She is a senior instructor, teaching interactive design, UX and web front-end at several secondary institutions. She has a background that includes a degree in graphic design, a master's in Media Psychology and several professional certifications, along with years of design and web development. She is a co-leader of the San Diego chapter of the Interaction Design Foundation. She strives to create the best user experiences that will persuade without manipulation, and strongly believes that ethical design can change the world for the better. She is a member of the Ethical Design Network and maintains its blog.

She is a good source to hear more about cognitive load in dark design.

While I'm on this topic, I'd like to have some discussions from a more personal perspective touching on some of the thoughts relating to the mental model that has resulted of my own experience as a professional and human.

This was the summary of how I interpreted the topic at the time. My optimism has sparked in recent months, but I think it's undeniable that there are a lot going on under the hood and that it may be too much of a party pooping topic to get into for most.

What are the challenges, and how may we incrementally optimise to solve, overcome or deal with it?

How to strike the balance between idealistic altruism and stone cold reality? I remember getting familiar with an org called effective altruism and attending their meetings in Amsterdam briefly before being swept up in another tide.

In case you're interested

https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

I've not had too much time to thoroughly research it but I'd like to know if there are any groups who offer tools for incremental change applied to specific fields. I've created Design in Focus because I feel that the CID (Creative | Innovation | Design) sectors offer the most potential in solving some of the biggest challenges we face. The biggest challenge rearing its ugly head time and again is that we are not always enabled to create the changes needed to facilitate "better". Sometimes the commitments needed outweigh the realities provided. By unifying those who actually create and planting seeds, we may in the long run be able to make measurable impact.

Share your ideas and thoughts below. Add some links to great reading or training, bearing in mind all walks of life.

One of the first participants on design in Focus was Trine Falbe, founder of the Ethical Design Network.

On her experience portal you can listen to our discussion on Ethical Design. I was really fresh and the quality is reflected, but listen to Trine, she has great things to say.

Ethical Design under a minute

On her experience portal you can learn more about her and her work. The page has links to her training, some of her talks, publications and events.

Also on the page there are a few facts & figures as well as many links to get started with Ethical Design, linking to Trine and other independent references. None of the work is sponsored so I'm sharing my exploration and discovery to dive deeper into the value and impact of design.

Ideally this platform will grow and other CID professionals can lend to the conversation. My field is corporate identity and experience design, therefore I may have more opportunities in these areas, but I invite every design stakeholder to share their own discoveries.

Link to Trines page

www.designinfocus.org

Trine has worked with UX for 20 years in various fields like news, children’s digital experiences, e-commerce and education. She is a consultant, entrepreneur, speaker and author of two books: White Hat UX (2017) and The Ethical Design Handbook (2020). Her dedication to ethical design and responsible innovation always sets the direction in her work.

Share your thoughts below

While it may be profitable for us on the short term to create unethically, there are many factors to consider, for example in Democratising Research. The mentalities we shape with our work are our colleagues too, and now some are pushing to democratise research. While there are some good aspects of it, please rest assured that it will most likely not be for you. If the concept of democratizing research reaches your company, your colleagues can vote and then tell you what to do. How much of a challenge is it already to present your work? Do you have to alter it over and over and over? If pleasing a handful of bosses is hard enough, pleasing your teammates will be even more so.

What are your thoughts? Discuss it here and learn more about Ethical Design at the Ethical Design Network.