With our modern digital tools, the world is getting smaller. It has never been easier to follow events on the other side of the planet and to gain knowledge in any area from your home.
But with great power, comes great responsibility. We have a climate crisis and governments that persecute their citizens. I know, many of these things are not unique for the modern world but with modern tools, it has become so much easier and cheaper to control, monitor, produce in larger scales.
Protesters in Hong Kong destroyed a “smart” lamppost on Saturday over fears that the device is equipped with facial recognition software and was being used for surveillance.
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/hong-kong-protesters-facial-recognition-tower
Is there anyone on your team asking the hard questions about how our work will impact people, cultures and our planet? I often lack openness to discuss these topics in projects and with clients.
We need to talk less about the output and more about the outcomes we are looking for and set principles to follow in the development process.
According to Merriam Webster, ethics is “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.”
We as designers must consider human rights as a part of our process and not use our knowledge of human psychology for dark experience patterns and shaming people into things they might not want. Show respect to all people no matter what given circumstance they have or what they identify as. We need to understand and include all parts of humanity.
One thing that is getting bigger and bigger in software development is accessibility. But still, I find it common that we only look for the low hanging fruits like color contrast and big text, but there is so much more we need to understand to build products for everyone. And at the end, when the investment cost of accessibility is brought up or we have to prioritize work, accessibility is often the first to get dropped.
I highly recommend that you have a look at Per Axboms talk about Navigating the ethical minefield of digital design. Per is a huge role model in this topic.
Do we know the impact our designs have on our environment through the entire production chain? Children are mining cobalt for our smartphones lithium-ion rechargeable batteries in Congo, risking their lives around toxic dust. Not only bad for the planet but humans are getting exploited for our convenience.
The role of design needs to include a climate mindset and not only look and feel. It’s a necessity for future business models and we as designers have the influence and power to make a change.
Circular design and circular economy is something that is growing and is needed now more than ever. The circular economy has three principles. Keep products and materials in use, design out waste and pollution, regenerate natural systems.
You can read more about circular design on the Ellen Macarthur Foundation website.
The way we consume today has an impact on us and the planet in so many different ways. We need to build commerce that has a balance of sustainability, inclusion, and ethics but still generates sales. The reputation of having an unsustainable and inhumane manufacturing process can ruin a brand in modern media that is costly to repair.
An example of this was when journalists in Denmark revealed that H&M burned 12 tonnes of unsold clothes per year in Denmark alone.
We need to build commerce that is sustainable and including but still generates business. With modern technology like AI and VR in combination with data, we should be able to design better experiences both digital and physical and look into how Phygital which means digital-physical fusion can change the way we consume for the better. We as designers are part of the problem.
You can read more about Phygital on Forbes
According to Domo, in 2017 there was 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day! Data is gold we mine in the digital age. We use data to design extraordinary experiences to help people reach their goals and create personalized products and services.
But there is also another side to the story that can be devastating. Security, ownership, anonymity, and integrity to name a few. We don’t know how collected data about us is used and we can rarely control it. At the end who decides what is ethically okay usage since data is used not only by advertisers but even by organized crime.
And with the trend of solely data-driven design decisions, we tend to forget that there is a human behind the numbers that have emotions and needs we can’t understand without qualitative research. Just like in The Matrix.
In 2018 the European Union released the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to protect the public from intrusive marketing, invasion of privacy and to ensure data protection. This is a great step in the right direction but it has its flaws.
We need to question how we use data in a proper manner and how we can protect the innocent by preserving anonymity when we design services. Make a risk analysis of the impacts of leaked information getting in the wrong hands.
We are designers, a part of the creation of almost every experience in some way. Let’s start asking the hard questions in our companies together and open up communication on how we can improve the problems already in the design phase. We can no longer blame others for what we help to create, let’s take responsibility!
