Design Ethics¶
Reflections¶
Week 01¶
In today’s session, I learned that nowadays when designing, it’s common that we design for monetization and make people make certain choices. The class started with these 3 important things about technology:
- Technology is part of our existence
- It is not neutral, not does it determine us.
- Design is ethics by other means
We also learned about the IceBerg model. I think this really helps me in understanding better how humans behave. As a UX designer, this seminar relates to me alot.
- Events: what is happening? > react
- Patterns of behavior: what trends are there? > recognise and anticipate
- Underlying structures: how are the parts systematically related? > challenge and design
- Mental Models: what value, assumption and belief shape the system? > transform
It is interesting to learn how the technological aspect in our daily life is hidden. Sometimes we forget that technology is unavoidable. We forget that the systemic nature of technology is everywhere. When we see a normal picture, for example a picture of a forest or a bathroom, we forget the technological concept of this. The important lesson is that tech has receded from our perception. This is sometimes dangerous as somebody becomes oblivious and indifference, they are not aware of the impact they might create while using technology as a tool.
What I appreciate about this session is that Ariel emphasizes the importance of the value of each tool created. It also creates an awareness on why or how each culture or action is being carried out. We had an extensive conversation about guns as a tool and the values assigned behind the invention of guns. I personally find it really insightful and we had an interesting and extensive conversation about it in our class.
In conclusion, this class has opened up new perspectives. Something relates to me personally is the notion of designing with the people. I always believe that in order for a product to be successful and attaining to user goals, we have to design with the party involved, instead of designing for them. It is important to have the values being throughly thought out before creating the any product. It teaches me to be more critical when viewing any designed object. An object is not just an object, it holds the value, the culture, or even the beliefs behind every design decision.
Week 02¶
In today’s session, we learned about the philosophical view of design. We explored what is design, and as a designer, what would be the impact that one can have based on the design decisions. I fully agree that as a designer, especially in interaction design, we should not be forcing the user to behave in a certain way. I once took a course about UX Evil by design and recognized that a lot of the UX design strategies are intentionally forcing users to behave in a certain way. Thus, I found the concept of nudging preferable as it still gives users the choice to make decisions.
In this digitalized world, it is getting more and more common to have more digitized products. Almost everyone will encounter or use an application on a daily basis. However, I think users should still have the freedom to decide what they want from the application themselves, not just justified by the UX design strategy. I think the fundamental problem about this is that UX is a new field and there are no guidelines that controls what should or should not be done. Secondly, UX is something that is heavily related to business goals. Almost all UX strategy has the intention to translate design decisions into monetization tools.
Thus, I think the values and virtues from this class are quite insightful for me. This is because I used to work in a real business environment, and even though my design solves user’s problems, it is not necessarily contributing to the well being of the community and elevating planetary crisis. Thus as a designer, I think it is important to know that you have the responsibility and also understand what you are fighting for. With that, it is easier for us to achieve work satisfaction and find meaning in our effort.
In conclusion, I think being a responsible designer is important. To me, a good design that is beneficial to the community and society requires wisdom. You will need a lot of careful thoughts, critical thinking and be morally upright to make responsible decisions, especially when that design decision is going to have a magnitude of impact. Thus, designers hold a special role in the world, as they are the ones that provide the stage which will dictate the means of people’s interactions with many things at all scales.