Think Piece: Design and Ethics
While the wild west of the Web seems to be a thing of the past, many designers like myself have witnessed the growth and change of Web. I was (un)lucky enough to be at the formation of mobile and broadband and worked on contracts for digital content when there were few laws to guide us. Those times have changed rapidly in 15 years.
Few regulations gave way to more as users needed to be protected. These regulations, in turn, guided designers how we interacted with users. While some design decisions have dictated those regulations, many still choose to bypass the rules with loopholes. These “bypass” have often led to some ethical issues and conversations at work. How do we, as designers, behave in a team that services the public?
What are my obligations as a designer?
Do I just design because it’s the norm? Do I use a “solved” problem because another “big company” uses that same method? Or do I consider ethics in my design choices?
In the design process, we analyze and research how problems are solved. Just because other companies use a particular solution, are those solutions the holy grail model? We also hear many users during the user testing interviews state, “oh, I’ve seen that done before so I guess I know what it does.” But did we, as designers, teach bad habits? And as designers, are we only designing based on fads and trends vs our instinct and common sense?
I have tried hard to remain true to my ethics, especially making a design choice. However, there has been and will be circumstances which will test those ethics and often times, the business will override one’s ethics.
Regardless of business, our ethics are important to design. While we use a lot of data to defend our choices, the hypothesis to a solution is based on our assumptions, our intuition, and common sense. They affect us externally and internally. Thus, it’s important to not have a single “rockstar” designer or a team of designers with same level, same background, or even the same discipline. There’s value in differences. Our experience shapes us. Our ethics guide us.
These values, ethics, and experiences help us to understand our users and help guide them through the products we design. They trust us to design ways to help them process. And thus, we should be honest with our approach towards the users as well.
If we see an inappropriate design use, we should talk about it and find ways to solve it without compromising the business needs.
Examples
I was recently asked to use a profile icon. When I looked in the brand database for this icon, I noticed immediately that the icon uses a male silhouette. While yes, it’s incredibly small and we’ve gotten so accustomed to that “male” icon being portrayed as “all user” icon, it alienates the “female” users and any and all other non-gender users.
Another example is when we remove certain obstacle like retaining a user’s information without informing them.
While the data shows less clicks and therefore, less drop off and higher conversion, is that the only data we should read and interpret? Do we prefer questionable practices over our ethics as human beings to shave off time and fit our product into a mold that investors want? Have we, as designers, become automatons to data? Is there no value in creativity and ethics just because the data says so? Does data trump ethics?
Resolution
Designers solve problems. But what happens when those problems are solved by inappropriately practice? What happens when the business overrules ethics? How do we solve that problem? I’ve found it’s been conflicting and demoralizing especially when norms override one’s conscience.
While I can’t say for certain what other designers should do or shouldn’t do, for myself, I’ve come to terms with how best to compromise. I choose my battles between minor infractions vs major ones. If my conscience can live with a minor ethical breach, I have to be flexible because the world is full of differences. In the end, I believe it’s a process we each have to resolve on our own and be able to live with our decisions.
