The Role of Ethics in Design
Understanding the responsibility that designers have in promoting Ethical Design within an organization
What is Ethical Design?
Ethical Design is design that is ethical (duh)—meaning it is design that is objectively good, helpful instead of harmful, and ultimately moral. Design ethics set the standard and define what it means to design ethically. They act as a guide to help designers achieve design that is ethical. To put it another way, design ethics concerns moral behavior and responsible choices in the practice of design.
Design ethics show designers how to work with colleagues, stakeholders, clients and users.
Design ethics guide designers through their design process with integrity.
Design ethics help determine features that ought to be in products and services or features that ought not to be.
Design ethics assist in assessing the ethical significance or moral worth of the products that result from the activity of designing.
Ethics should always play a significant role in design—though, unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for ethics in design to be compromised. Ethics get pushed to the side for all kinds of reasons; competing priorities, lack of knowledge, company culture that is absent of people willing to advocate and champion for ethics. No matter the reason, ethics still need to play a significant role in design. People are becoming increasingly aware of the consequences—good and bad—of design for individuals, societies, cultures, and the natural environment. It’s time to bring ethical design back.
The Role of Designers in Ethical Design
If ethics are to play a significant role in design, it is the responsibility of the designer—as the person who is “rendering intent”—to ensure that ethics are in deed being followed. In order for a designer to play the role of a facilitator and catalyst for ethical design, one needs to learn and master an understanding of ethical design, advocate and promote ethical design within an organization, and enforce ethical design standards.
Mike Monteiro, in Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It, explains the role of a designer in ethical design.
“Working ethically is a skill, and it’s a skill that needs to be taught and then developed. It’s not easy to tell the CEO of a Fortune 500 company that the product they just asked you to design is harmful. It takes more than guts. It takes knowing what questions to ask. It takes knowing how to test the effects of the product. It takes knowing how to build a good argument. And it takes seeing yourself as an equal stakeholder in the product. It takes seeing yourself as a gatekeeper. And frankly, it takes some designers who’ve come from backgrounds and experiences that were harmed by the products of Fortune 500 companies. It takes a lot.”
― Mike Monteiro
Learn and master an understanding of ethical design
Ethical Design is a skill. This means it can be taught and learned. A person can move from a lack of understanding towards mastery of this skill. Designers need to embrace this challenge and work to develop this skill in their own area of work. If you—as a designer—have not made ethics a significant part of your design process, I’m here to burst your bubble. The time is now. After reading this article, you can no longer claim ignorance. You now are burdened with the understanding that this is your responsibility as a practitioner of design. If you keep reading, I’ll get you started with a practical Code of Conduct that you can begin to use.
Advocate and promote ethical design within your organization
Learning and mastering ethical design is just the beginning. You need to move past your own understanding and move towards opening the eyes of others. It’s your duty to teach ethical design to others, to advocate for ethical design when it is not present, and to ultimately champion for ethical design in all corners of an organization—from the heights of the executive table to the depths of the server rooms (Get it? Because servers are sometimes in basements lol).
Enforce ethical design standards
Once you understand ethical design yourself and have started to develop it within an organization, you then get the massive responsibility of becoming a gatekeeper. This means your role requires you to prevent unwanted activity in the area of ethics. Once the standard is set and the bar is raised, you must hold yourself and others accountable for this standard. You must stand in the way of compromise and do everything in your power to ensure ethics are followed. We’re talking about moral behavior and responsible choices in the practice of design. This stuff matters.
Ok, so that’s all well and good, right? Learn and master an understanding of ethical design, advocate and promote ethical design within an organization, and enforce ethical design standards. But where do you start? Start by learning ethical design principles.
Defining Design Ethics
There are many sets of Design Ethics or Ethical Principles out there that you will find. These sets of principles aim to define ethics of design. Over the years, I’ve tried out a few. The Code of Professional Conduct and Ethical Principles from UXPA has become my go-to set of Ethical Principles. Their code of conduct is intended to cover situations that UX practitioners commonly encounter. Because of this, it’s a set of principles that are directly applicable to UX work.
UXPA’s Code of Conduct centers around adhering to the following Ethical Principles:
Act in the best interest of everyone
Be honest with everyone
Do no harm and if possible provide benefits
Act with integrity
Avoid conflicts of interest
Respect privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity
Provide all resultant data
1. Act in the Best Interest of Everyone
1.1. UX practitioners shall be aware of relevant standards, principles, and generally accepted UX methods
1.2. UX practitioners shall undertake professional assignments only when qualified by education or experience.
1.3. UX practitioners shall provide products and services that match the operational and financial needs of clients and employers.
1.4. UX practitioners shall undertake ongoing efforts to develop and maintain their competence.
1.5. UX practitioners shall seek and use peer review as well as provide critical review of the work of others whenever appropriate. UX practitioners shall make reasonable efforts to avoid offering excessive or inappropriate financial or other inducements for participation in UX activities when such inducements are likely to coerce participation.
2. Be Honest with Everyone
2.1. UX practitioners shall not knowingly mislead a client or potential client about the suitability of a product or service.
2.2. UX practitioners shall give recommendations that are objective, consistent with accepted principles, and/or based on the judgment of qualified professionals.
2.3. UX practitioners shall never deliberately misinform or mislead individuals for whom they are providing services.
2.4. UX practitioners shall credit the intellectual property right of work, methods, and tools done or created by others in such a way that all parties involved are always clear as to the origin of such and the rights of the UX practitioner to use or cite such work, methods or tools.
3. Do No Harm and If Possible Provide Benefits
3.1. UX practitioners shall not expose participants to any unreasonable physical, mental or emotional stress.
3.2. UX practitioners shall take reasonable steps to avoid harming their clients or employers, study participants, and others with whom they work, and to minimize harm where it is foreseeable and avoidable.
3.3. UX practitioners shall review for special needs when working with the elderly, the disabled, and children. Precautions taken to avoid risks associated with such groups shall be clearly identified and reviewed by the client or employer.
4. Act with Integrity
4.1. UX practitioners shall work in a spirit of respectful collaboration and cooperation with those with whom they interact without compromising their personal or professional integrity.
4.2. UX practitioners shall not discriminate against their clients, colleagues, or participants on the basis of age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or any basis proscribed by law.
4.3. UX practitioners shall not make public derogatory comments about their clients, colleagues, or participants.
4.4. UX practitioners shall never knowingly use material that is illegal, immoral, or which may hurt or damage a person or group of people. If exposed to illegal material, the UX practitioner shall advise their client or employer of the illegal nature of the material and take reasonable steps to inform the relevant authorities of the existence of the material.
5. Avoid Conflicts of Interest
5.1. UX practitioners shall avoid all known conflicts of interest with their employers or clients and shall promptly inform their employers or clients of any business association, interests, or circumstances that could influence their judgments or the quality of their services.
5.2. UX practitioners shall not accept any assignments that would knowingly create a possible conflict of interest between themselves and their clients, employers, or participants.
5.3. UX practitioners shall advise clients and employers when a proposed project is not in the client’s best interest and provide a rationale for this advice.
6. Respect Privacy, Confidentiality, and Anonymity
6.1. UX practitioners shall not reveal information that identifies colleagues or participants without their permission and shall take reasonable precautions to avoid such information from being disclosed unintentionally.
6.2. UX practitioners shall ensure that participants in any study provide informed consent for use of all data collected.
6.3. UX practitioners shall never disclose in their writings, reports, teaching materials or other public media or otherwise make public any information they have acquired about persons, employers or clients in the course of their professional work unless disclosure is both legal and that they have either taken reasonable steps to disguise the identity of the person, employer or client, or they have the express permission to disclose.
7. Provide All Resultant Data
7.1. UX practitioners shall choose participants and tasks so as to ensure the validity of the results.
7.2. UX practitioners shall consider the limitations of every UX project they plan or carry out and if requested or if in their view the limitations render the results questionable, shall communicate the results of this analysis to their client or employer.
7.3. UX practitioners shall accurately report both the positive and negative feedback from UX activities.
Getting Started
Take these principles. Print them out, share this article, copy and paste the Code of Conduct and put into a presentation. Do something. Share them with your colleagues or discuss them with your manager. Start by using the principles as a diagnostic tool for your products and services. Where is your organization excelling already or where can find opportunities to improve? Take your pick in how you want to take your first steps, but I gave you a few ideas.
