Design Ethics
“Ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.”
Without religion — which is a good thing in a practical sense — , ethics is the discipline that structures and organizes our values when the motivation for action isn’t there. It is doing the right thing even when it is hard, that is why it is a discipline. It’s also why it is so hard to grasp and maintain it throughout our collective activities, it requires constant commitment, awareness of the shifts and action to enforce or change if required.
We’ve become used to having ethics infused in religious scripture mixed with punishment and submission to a feudal system, however long before religious morality claimed ethics as its own, it was often discussed as its own discipline. Aristotle is granted as having used the term ethics, after his predecessors Socrates and Plato, to attempt to define how humans should live best. Which actions would prove to be more beneficial within a conscious and present state of living. One might say that this attempt juxtaposes with the practice of meditation, in which one describes the outside actions and the other focuses on the inner ones.
After WWII it was crucial to establish common principles that would unify countries under agreements of peace. Disciplined peace if you will. Nowadays we hear about codes of ethics under time and event oriented names, examples of this are the Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Declaration.
So you see, as when time evolves so must ethics adjust. Even if just to remember common — some would say old — principles of acting. As a collective when we stray from the disciplined middle, the balance of our actions gets lost. The consequences of these erratic and out of discipline actions no longer aligned with virtues can produce disastrous outcomes.
Depending on the scale and volume that can mean either a family discussion or continents at war. These are extreme examples of course.
As is with ever new generation that comes to be in our planet, we as a collective, have the duty to continuously remember one another of these virtues and adjust them to the present context.
These days there is a lot of discussion, articles and debates on ethics applied to artificial intelligence and what does it mean. I feel that this topic, although fascinating, takes us into a discussion that is hard to qualify and make tangible for many. I would like to frame the discussion of ethics a moment before that visual representation of an animated robotic humanoid comes to mind, when action can be achieved in a more hands on approach.
Ethics is action within a certain virtue
We can understand ethics as a set of actions, and Aristotle quite conveniently organized his thoughts so as we can interpret his framework better. According to him our actions influence our sphere of action and our own feelings and there is a golden mean that can guide us through living. Imagine that, a framework for living. Quite the cheat sheet wouldn’t you say?
Having identified about eighteen virtues by which a person can function at their best as a human being, he then Mary Kondo’ed them by moral virtues and intellectual virtues.
I made a representative chart so we can see what he meant. Essentially what we have here is that whenever our actions — and each concept behind these words needs to be clear to you before you act — fall within the mean we are living our best. In fact our sphere of action benefits from it, our relationships benefit. Whenever we exceed or lack virtue, which does happen, we are not.
So what do these virtues have to do with Design Ethics?
Everything. If by design — ah! — ethics is an action aligned within a virtue then we as Designers when we create, help to create, manifest, ideate, brainstorm we are acting according to our own virtues. Virtues that change and shift according to our inner and outer circumstances.
We have to be conscious of our virtues and which ones are we applying at any given time because they will inform whatever we’re creating and whomever is collaborating with us.
Mike Monteiro wrote it well:
“Ethics can’t be a side hustle.”
It really can’t. Ethics must be part of our conscious creating selves, we must understand when an action — and for that matter a business decision — that impacts a product is well balanced, in excess or when its lacking. Otherwise the result might be a thankless chase after loss.
A first step into these conscious actions is to acknowledge and confront our biases. Our unconscious bias shape the stereotypes we present to the world and bring into work, they shape what we say and how we say it. For this to happen in a balanced way ourselves have to be in balance and at ease with discussing these topics. Disagreeing without being confrontational, give out context willingly without reservations.
This inner work requires you to understand and combine your skills, acquire new ones and place yourself in whichever capable role you feel is the best fit within your team: as a morally sensitive person that will be able to recognize and identify the ethical dimension of the design at hand; as morally creative where you challenge the what is and create the most ethical experience possible and extract value from there; or as a moral advocate — and this is the most challenging for most designers — where you feel secure and knowledgeable to communicate your ethical standpoints to stakeholders and collaborators alike. When we talk about “make your voice be heard” and “representation at the table” this role is what’s about. Not to disrupt per se, be willing to chase that virtue, make it explicit in its misalignment with a company’s values, communicate it clearly and perhaps then change occurs.
The next step for an infused ethics design project to happen is a collaborative approach. There are processes and frameworks that can be used in collaboration with stakeholders and operational teams to frame and formalize the ethical mindset at the beginning, during and at the end of a product. As well as hand off. These are useful to track and understand how aligned the intentions are with project collaborators as well as with the output of the product itself. Where did it shift? And why? Is this where we intended it to go? Is this outcome still within the manifested intentions of the Ethical Contract for this product? Is this requirement ethically aligned or is it exceeding and becoming too insensitive towards a certain demographic? Is this unexpected output still ethically aligned with the values I/the company defends?
So, as you see and you probably feel — if 2020 is anything to go by — there is a need to recenter on what’s relevant to focus on. With the advances in neurotechnology, neuromodulation, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, the need for sustainability and to address inequalities in a over techified western world, the role of the Designer and the table becomes even more prevalent. A Designer who is sensitive, creative and ready to advocate for there to be ethics on the table is essential.
If you’re a Designer who cares, take a dive into the Design Ethics pool.
