How Political Should Designers Be?
After I graduated college I went to work in some offices that had VERY different political climates than what I was used to. I was scared to express a difference of opinion in the break room, let alone when it came to work. And so I didn’t, even when truly horrible things were said. I didn’t want to lose my job.
But I’m starting to worry if my attitude, and our collective attitude of keeping our political beliefs separate from work, isn’t doing more harm than good.
Recently, many astute social critics have pointed out the disastrous effect of the echo-chamber effect in our digital lives. Curated content led to bubbles of distorted news, removing traditional checks and gatekeepers from our information-vetting process. The result was flagrantly dishonest content being portrayed as news, and shared relentlessly and unchallenged amongst a network that ate it up as gospel, without any buffer or variety of different viewpoints.
White nationalist and right-wing hate groups particularly took advantage of this, as deliberately distorted content designed to misconstrue reality dominated real news and information.
The irony, of course, is that one of the most efficient right-wing news organizations in history was created by a company, Facebook, whose employees donated 6 times as much money to Democrats as to Republicans. Right-wing-hate-network-leading-to-election-of-fascist was certainly NOT their design intention.
So what are we as designers to do? Is it ok to continue to separate the political implications of our work from our own beliefs?
Maybe it’s time to push back against the assumption that all we do is create networks and tools, and it’s society that decides how to use them. That giving the user what they want is always a good thing.
Wiping our hands clean of that responsibility is no longer an option for those of us who want to live in an America free of fascism. And make no mistake, every early indication from the Trump administration is that it intends to pursue a racist and fascist agenda. A few weeks ago, I would never have thought of making a political post in the context of my academic program. I wouldn’t want to stick my neck out and call attention to myself, be a rabble-rouser.
But it’s clear to me that many in the tech industry, and the designers and developers that power it, are sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to personal responsibility for their work. There are all sorts of horrific ideals that we can enable and empower with UX skills, and it’s up to each of us to think about the implications of what we do. Technology and good design has always enabled the monsters among us. Hugo Boss designed very compelling style guides for every aspect of the Nazi aesthetic. IBM worked very diligently on categorizing concentration camp prisoners. Numerous other respectable American companies made a nice profit working for the Nazi, and many designers and normal people did too as a result.
It was a nice fantasy while it lasted, to think that our tech industry is separate from politics, and only works for the benefit of mankind’s progress. But that’s clearly not true anymore, if it ever was. I’m going to be more aware of the impact in my work from now on, and I implore all other designers and developers to do the same.
