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Design needs ethics
Design has a huge influence on how people behave and live their lives. As designers, we are trained to solve problems and make people’s lives better, but rarely do we consider what 'better' actually is. It is important to understand that what we design is not neutral. In fact design is an inherently ethical activity. That’s why I believe designers should understand ethics and learn to incorporate it in your design work. And for that, you’re in the right place. Check out the toolkit for practical resources for approaching design from an ethics perspective.
A designer's ethical skills
If you want to engage with the ethical dimension of your designs, invest in learning the following skills. This will allow you to understand and engage with ethics within each different design project. Mastering your ethical skills will help you grow as a responsible designer.
moral
sensitivity
moral
creativity
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advocacy
Challenge yourself to make the most ethical design possible. What would that be and how would it work? This ideation game will help you tackle ethical issues in a fun and challenging way, using bluff and creativity.
Values are an important concept in ethics. With this tool you will look at which values are relevant to your design and how your design affects them. It can help to do this exercise with different stakeholders.
This tool helps you set the ethical terms at the start of your project. Use your imagination to think of unethical situations and discuss what you’ll take responsibility for as designers.
Designing is never a solitary act. Therefore it is important that everyone is on the same page. This technique guides you in a value negotiation with all stakeholders involved in order to find common ethical ground.
As a major field of philosophy, ethics has a lot of knowledge to offer. However, it can be overwhelming to start. This tool introduces you to the most commonly known theories of normative ethics, the study of ethical action.
Tristan Harris, former Design Ethicist at Google, explains how technology is designed to hijack people's attention.
In part three of a series of reflections on how design designs us, Leyla Acaroglu explores some brain-provoking arenas of design and technology ethics and exposes the conundrum that we currently face as a species.
From dark patterns that trick unsuspecting users to mass social experiments conducted by internet giants, we take a look at the murky, increasingly complicated rights and wrongs of design – and the moral questions you should ask yourself as a designer.
Our role as a designer has become more influential and powerful than ever. The work we do makes an impact and naturally brings up the discussion around ethics, responsibility and accountability. In this article Tobias van Schneider invites us to think about this with him.
What does your chair say about what you value? Designer Sebastian Deterding shows how our visions of morality and "the good life" are reflected in the design of objects around us.
Learn to recognise and deconstruct the scripts of existing designs. By questioning why a design is how it is, you’ll uncover the underlying intentions and world-view of its designer.