A reflection on safeguarding design ethics in the age of growth at all cost

Confession 🙇🏻‍♂️🙇🏻‍♂️ !

I am not an expert on Design Ethics. Whatever I wrote here is what inspired me and I am still trying to follow up on a lot of these principles in my everyday life and work.

My introduction to design ethics was through Victor Papenik’s book ‘Design for the Real World’. His ideas were way ahead of their time. Every time I look back at quotes like the one below, it feels more relevant than ever. Somewhere while reading the book as a student I realized if I keep reading this, I might not continue with this profession. A field of study I had just started liking and enjoying. So I stopped reading the book! Like I skip documentaries which could trigger me to stop eating meat or stop buying plastic. I assume a lot of us choose ignorance when confronted with difficult choices.

“Advertising design, in persuading people to buy things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, in order to impress others who don’t care, is probably the phoniest field in existence today.”

Victor Papenik, Design for the Real World

We (designers) can not run away from ethics!

I realized over the years that even if as a designer I am not working directly to improve the world around me, everything I design has a consequence. My organization, my users, and their environment are impacted by my ethos and the choices I am asking (at times forcing) them to make. They are placing their trust and spending their scarce resources on me and my abilities. And somewhere in the value chain, I might be having a bigger positive or negative impact with or without my knowledge.

I have accountability as a designer towards my profession, my organization, my user, and society in general!

This is not a boring pledge, but just a reminder that being aware of this thought and taking small steps towards it can help us becoming better designers (and maybe better humans in the process).

My version of ‘Design ethics‘

I have certain principles I try to follow which keep my ethical needs in check. This is by no means complete or impactful enough to cause a dent in the universe, but it works for me and my ‘moral sanity’. This stems from my upbringing, my values, my cultural background, and my personal and career ambitions. It also corresponds to my professional setup and it could very well evolve in the next few years.

✅ Am I aware of my biases?

✔ Am I favoring my ideas over others?

✔ Am I open and honest enough to speak out my biases, even if it means my ‘ favorite ideas’ will not make it through?

✔ Am I conducting research, drawing inferences, and analyzing data without bias?

✅ Am I keeping my design processes accessible and open to my organisation?

✔ Am I being completely transparent with my peers about my design choices and possible shortcomings?

✔ Am I making my craft and my process easy enough for others (non-designers) to understand?

✔ Am I being respectful to my peers and open to new ideas?

✅ Am I aware of the possible impact of my designs on users ?

✔ Am I aware of the user value my designs can bring? If not, am I raising the concern with the team?

✔ Am I aware of the edge cases and distress my designs can cause to certain users?

✔ Am I being transparent with users, am I giving enough choices and flexibility?

There is a lot that needs to be part of this list. I hope with time and more maturity I can (truly) bring in things that can make me and the people around me more content and happy.