3.1 Ethical Considerations
The power of relationships was a key consideration in conducting cross-cultural research, especially when involving such marginalised groups in society as refugees or the poor — groups which were identified as lacking power in academic environments (Marshall & Batten, 2004).
During co-design, as pointed out by Verleye (2014), users might not feel up to the task, and yet might have to participate in the co-design. Designers could later promote the end product or service as a “user-centred” solution designed with users. This could be misleading, as external parties could not be sure of the level of support provided to non-designers to ensure that they were competent, or that the design process was well structured to evaluate user inputs during the co-design exercises. Users could feel that they were not respected and that the co-design was a sham, whereby their presence was merely taken for face value, to show that they had been consulted, but not empowered and not listened to to have an impact on the design outcome.
To mitigate ethical concerns mentioned above, I made sure that the questions that the participants focused on for ideation were the ones they felt strongly about. Every participant’s views were not only taken into account, but were respected during the co-design process. In particularly for asylum seekers, I made sure to interview some of them before or after the co-creation workshop as well, to demonstrate genuine interest in hearing about their experiences, besides fulfilling my information gathering objectives. I also informed them that the ideas they came up with during the workshop would be furthur developed, and eventually shared with MRSN, to see if it would like to implement any of them.
In addition, as research into immigrants might involve asylum seekers, Betts and Bloom’s (2014) Framework for Analyzing Ethical Principles in Humanitarian Innovation came in handy in guiding my research. In particular, to mitigate the risk of solutions having limited or negative impact on affected communities, it was important to adopt user-centered approaches to the innovation process by involving affected stakeholders in the process. A “do no harm” principle was also critical; partnering with local organisations that knew the ground conditions well was essential to adequately assess needs and risks.
Should users be in vulnerable condition such as in urgent need of aid, then it might not be appropriate to try to obtain informed consent to involve the persons in research under such circumstances; if unavoidable, then the ethical review committee’s approval might need to be sought again (No one in dire condition was encountered during the course of this research).
