Design Ethics: Superpower of Designers

December, 2020

Last month, we hosted our first Twin-City Service Design Drinks Singapore x Berlin on the topic of Design Ethics, to a global audience of 187 participants.

In case you missed the event, watch the edited video here:

If you’d just like a brief summary, here are the key points:

What is Design Ethics?

Ethics | ˈɛθɪks |

moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity

the moral correctness of specified conduct

Ethics is, in its essence, a sense of right and wrong. It can be relative to the culture it exists in, and our perspective is often shaped by the communities which we identify with. Our perspectives however, can change over time, and what we’ve perceived as acceptable can shift when we magnify it through a more critical lens.

What superpower do designers have?

The role of a designer has constantly been evolving while impacting the way we live, perceive and behave. Ever more so with the introduction of technology, that impact has increased ten fold.

As seen in the film The Social Dilemma, those in charge of designing our day-to-day behaviours through tech products or social media platforms have been instrumental in creating positive societal change, but these platforms have also caused problematic social, political and cultural consequences. These designers have ‘superpowers’, but the power of a ‘superpower’ lies in why and how we use it.

How do we navigate the complexities of ethics in decision making?

Although most of us would like to imagine ourselves as empathetic, human-centric, and problem solvers who hold ethics in high regard, ethics is often regarded as a philosophical and subjective discussion, where it becomes an afterthought rather than a skill which we actively practice and prioritise.

Our relationship with ethics is quite a complicated one whenever ethics emerge in our everyday decisions.

When designing technology, the mechanics that shape behaviour are vital for the growth of organisations.

A few tips from our speakers to consider when designing:

  1. Define ethical guidelines before shaping behaviours, so we are mindful of ethical considerations when designing technology.

  2. Focus on the plurality of humans (e.g. non-users, communities, democracies and nations), and not just the plurality of end-users, in order to avoid oversight as design impacts more than just the user.

  3. Start thinking of how design can affect the wider map of stakeholders not just now, but in the times to come so we can be adept in spotting ethical harms before they happen.

Poll Results

During our event, we conducted 5 short polls in order to gain an understanding of how our participants felt towards design ethics.

The results reveal that although many of us find design ethics necessary to be on the table for discussion, there is still much room for thought to develop around design ethics and for it to grow as a key consideration during our design process.

Here is a quick summary of the poll results:

Bringing design ethics onto the table may lead to complex discussions, and it is our hope that we actively continue this conversation and keep this dialogue ongoing as a community - in our workplaces, our homes, and our social circles - so that we can progressively take strides in designing for ethics.

To stay up to date with our future events, do follow SDD Singapore on LinkedIn and SDD Berlin on Insta, Facebook and LinkedIn. We look forward to seeing you all once again!

Links shared during the event that you might find useful:

Further Reading (web resources)

Toolkits

Books

Communities

Social Good