Approach to Achieving Ethical Design: The Designer’s Code of Ethics
Last week I gave an introduction to ethical design (link attached here). So what processes or steps do we have to take to deliver ethical design solutions for our projects and products? There are many activities and processes that guarantee a benevolent intent for products. In this blog, I’m going to focus briefly on The Designer’s Code of Ethics, prescribed by Mike Montiero. The code as the name suggests is like a handbook that we designers should always follow. They go as follow:
- A designer is first and foremost a human being.
- A designer is responsible for the work they put into the world.
- A designer values impact over form.
- A designer owes the people who hire them not just their labor, but their counsel.
- A designer welcomes criticism.
- A designer strives to know their audience.
- A designer does not believe in edge cases.
- A designer is part of a professional community.
- A designer welcomes a diverse and competitive field.
- A designer takes time for self-reflection.
A designer is first and foremost a human being. At first look, the code sounds very normal. You won't expect a designer to be a robot or something. But it goes deeper than just saying a designer must first and foremost be a human being. Being a human being means a designer should empathize with users, understand their pain points, drivers, triggers, and goals. Furthermore, use this data to create a solution that doesn’t only work for them but doesn’t exploit them either.
Secondly, A designer is responsible for the work they put into the world. The second code talks about responsibility. This is also very important because a designer must be able to take ownership of his/her own work. We as designers need to understand the impact our work has on people and the environment. Most importantly, we need to understand how our design affects people outside our target audience. All these are things we need to consider when coming up with a design or solution.
Thirdly, A designer values impact over form. The 3rd code is very straight forward. While we want to achieve a design that aesthetically pleasing, function is always more important than form. And it should never be sacrificed for form. When possible we should aim to achieve both but sometimes form is not always effective. There’s a reason the cockpit of a plane is not like that of modern vehicles.
The fourth code, A designer owes the people who hire them not just their labor, but their counsel. We designers are the users’ advocate and we owe it to them, our employers, and even ourselves to fight for the users. How do we go about this? By avoiding dark patterns and making sure users’ goals go hand in hand with the business directive. And when it doesn’t we have the responsibility to call attention to it.
The fifth code, A designer welcomes criticism. Criticism is a topic that has been spoken about many times so I won’t delve too much into it. Everyone should welcome criticism designer or not, its important for growth. Even when you are self-aware enough of yourself there are still little things we don’t notice. And a proper peer critique will unveil bring attention to these things.
Sixth, A designer strives to know their audience. You cant design the right solution if you don’t properly know who you designing for. We should always strive to build a relationship between ourselves and our users’. It helps us in identifying insights even users don’t know about themselves. This explains why it’s highly imperative, even when we have researchers that we take part in the research. Research analysis might not always tell the full story.
A designer does not believe in edge cases. As designers, we can’t afford not to give users our most optimal work. As stated before, we are the users' advocate, we would all want the best lawyers for a legal case the same thing goes for users. We must consider their best interest, not ours.
A designer is part of a professional community. The design community is ever-growing and we owe it to our colleagues to represent them well.
A designer welcomes a diverse and competitive field. Design is multidisciplinary and we should always welcome being part of a holistic team. A group of diverse individuals smoothens the design process and brings diverse perspectives.
Finally, A designer takes time for self-reflection. It’s very important to self-reflect in anything we do. Self-reflection enhances our developments and provides alternative solutions. Ultimately, self-reflection enables us to deliver an ethical design.
While the code is not a direct answer to ethical design, it provides a great framework for it. There's no perfect answer to ethical design, it’s not a white or black situation. Hence, we must assess every one of our design decisions in relation to our users' goals.
