8 lessons from the EuroIA Conference 2018 in Dublin // Part 1
Lesson 1 / Design responsibly and be ethical
Probably because of the theme “Humanogy”, ethics was a hot topic at EuroIA 2018. In Humans, Heat & Hygiene, Ellie Ereira emphasizes the need for designers to be aware of the impact of their design choices. She uses a 2x2 grid to organize and prioritize ideas in terms of impact and complexity.
In Modern Frankenstein: designing kind machines, Clementina Gentile explored our fears regarding machines, robots and AI. Starting with the narrative of rebellion, she asks: “Is this what we must be afraid of?”.
Ethical concern is both epistemic (how it works) and normative (what the outcome is). Based on various examples of unfair outcomes as well as harmful representation, she shows us that AI can be very good at being unfair and biased. She reminds us that data is not neutral, categories are never neutral, code is not a black box and outcomes are not objective. Designers must assure that they are not excluding or harming someone. They have the responsibility to choose which futures are preferable.
By the same token, several other speeches and workshops focused on AI, underlining that AI is never neutral (neither is IA). Among them, Raffaella Roviglioni presented IA vs. AI: will robots be better researchers than us? She walks us through all the steps of user research and analyses opportunities in which machines could perform better than designers. This talk provoked a lot of discussion within the audience and with the speaker which resulted in an animated and riveting conversation. It became a memorable moment, where all experienced a time of community by sharing knowledge, concerns and reflections on the future of our practice.
Additionally, on the topic of ethics, in the final keynote speech, Oliver Reichenstein reminded attendees that the actual debate around ethics is, in fact, more so about morality. We tell ourselves: “we should do good things, we should be nice…”, but his philosophical background argues that it is more an issue of responsibility than one of being good. He points out that we are transferring responsibility to machines.
© Peter Vermaercke / EuroIA
As an example, he questions whether it is actually better to have less accidents due to autonomous cars if no-one is responsible? It is better in terms of numbers (less deaths), but is it less painful?
Lesson 2 / Understand the true meaning of empathy
The word “empathy” is used repetitively in our daily language as designers. Kat King questions, however, whether we have lost touch with its original meaning, while explaining the history and concept of empathy in her talk, Understanding Empathy.
She introduces the subject by delving into the etymology of the word. “Empathy is a very new word in the English language” she says. Appearing in the 1900s, people previously talked of “sympathy” instead. The word empathy emerged from the German “Einfühlung”, meaning “feeling into” something, and suggested a more personal projection into ones’ situation or experience.
© Noelle Lewkowicz
Today, the word empathy is categorized into three types: cognitive (understanding someone’s pain), emotional (feeling others’ pain) and automatic (internal simulation of physical actions). Professionally though, Kat says, “we only focus on two: emotional and cognitive”. We also run the risk of forgetting our first role as designers, often when working for corporations and focusing too much on the business side of a project. Sure, business is important, it is a job after all, but we must not lose sight of why we are here: for our users.
Lesson 3 / Do not underestimate physicality
Empathy and emotions are strongly correlated, and in his workshop entitled Embodied Interactions, Emotions and Design, designer Erik Dahl shows another connexion between emotions and physicality. He invites participants to experiment and explore the relationship between physicality and emotion. In a context where systems, services and objects tend to combine physical matter and information, the body needs to be taken into account. When designing a new digital product, a new interface or a new service, it makes sense to include its physicality.
© Peter Vermaercke / EuroIA
To explore this strong correlation between physics and emotions, the workshop used the Laban grid. Rudolf Laban had the conviction that body and mind were inseparable and that our physicality was undeniably linked to our mental states and vice versa. This link between posture and emotion was the basis of the workshop’s exercises.
Physicality makes sense even more as our interactions get closer to real world. As Rob Scott underlines in his talk, Cross Reality User Experience: taming the wild west of VR & AR Interaction Patterns. Referring to the history of computing, Rob demonstrates that HCI with our hands is growing towards a more natural affordance. After the abstract era (before 1984), with the keyboard as the sole peripheral, came the representative era, with mouse and touch screens as support of interaction. With VR and 6DoF controllers, interaction is now imitating the real world. Consequently, taking the body into account becomes mandatory when designing for virtual and augmented reality.
Lesson 4 / Mind the language
When presenting Language for Transition, Koen Peters opened by quoting Paul Pangaro: “An organisation is its language”. In his talk, he evidences that language is at the heart of the design practice. Referring to the LTI (Lingua Tertii Imperii, the language of the 3rd Reich) analysis by Victor Klemperer, he demonstrates that language shapes our mind, affects and, even, constitutes the ways we perceive reality.
He breaks down the mechanisms of language and reveals how we can use them as designers: metaphors, visual language and neologism can help to design and transform. One can foster change by adapting the language.
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Authors
Sylvie Daumal / Co-founder of WeDigital.Garden
Noelle Lewkowicz / Designer @WeDigital.Garden
Arnaud Bartois / Designer @WeDigital.Garden
Mathieu Bourel Choi / Designer @WeDigital.Garden
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About EuroIA
EuroIA is the place where the European information architecture and user experience design community meets and exchanges ideas, building a common knowledge. Four designers from WeDigitalGarden team had the great opportunity to attend as speakers, organizing a four-hour workshop.
