The Ethics of Design

@wickedgeekie#DarkUX
The Ethics of Design
Sophie Freiermuth
Baguette UX

This session  
welcomes  
all opinions and
experiences.
@wickedgeekie#UXPAUKethics

Ethics: Deﬁnition 1
The shared beliefs a group or individual maintains
about what constitutes correct and proper behavior.

Ethics: Deﬁnition 2
Standards of conduct that guide the choices people
make moment to moment.

Codes of ethics
Principles and Standards of Professional Behaviour for the Policing Profession of England and Wales (2014)
1. Honesty and integrity I will be honest and act with integrity at all times, and will not compromise or abuse my position.
2. Authority, respect and courtesy I will act with self-control and tolerance, treating members of the public and colleagues
with respect and courtesy. I will use my powers and authority lawfully and proportionately, and will respect the rights of all
individuals.
3. Equality and diversity I will act with fairness and impartiality. I will not discriminate unlawfully or unfairly.
4. Use of force I will only use force as part of my role and responsibilities, and only to the extent that it is necessary,
proportionate and reasonable in all the circumstances.
5. Orders and instructions I will, as a police officer, give and carry out lawful orders only, and will abide by Police Regulations.
I will give reasonable instructions only, and will follow all reasonable instructions.
6. Duties and responsibilities I will be diligent in the exercise of my duties and responsibilities.
7. Confidentiality I will treat information with respect, and access or disclose it only in the proper course of my duties.
8. Fitness for work I will ensure, when on duty or at work, that I am fit to carry out my responsibilities.
9. Conduct I will behave in a manner, whether on or off duty, which does not bring discredit on the police service or undermine
public confidence in policing.
10. Challenging and reporting improper behaviour I will report, challenge or take action against the conduct of colleagues
which has fallen below the standards of professional behaviour.

Codes of ethics
Of Beahvioural Health Care Providers (Source: Louise Stanger)
• Conﬁdentiality
• Working within your scope of practice
• Not engaging in dual relationships
• Not conducting treatment strictly for ﬁnancial gain
• Proper therapist/Interventionist disclosure (of personal beliefs and values)
• Proper payment procedures
• No wrongful termination or abandonment of clients

UXPA code of professional
conduct
• Act in the best interest of everyone
• Be honest with everyone
• Do no harm and if possible provide benefits
• Act with integrity
• Avoid conflicts of interest
• Respect privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity
• Provide all resultant data

Code of conduct: UXPA UK
a. Members are expected to behave in the best interests of the Chapter, fellow members, hosts and
the Association at any of the Chapter's events.
b. The Committee reserves the right to refuse any member or paying guest admittance to an event if it is
evident that the member has failed to behave in the best interests of the Association. Any Committee
member attending the event concerned may exercise this right.
c. In the event of a member persistently failing to meet these expectations, the Committee has the right,
after an appropriate investigation, to suspend that member's attendance at any of its events for a
period at its discretion.
d. The Committee may resolve to cancel or refuse to renew the Chapter membership and recommend a
refusal to renew Association membership, of any member whose actions, after an appropriate
investigation, have been found to be detrimental to the Association or its members.
e. In these circumstances, the member may, if they wish, request an attendance before the Chapter
Committee or Association Board of Directors User Experience Professionals’ Association UK – UXPA
UK 6 within one month of the notiﬁcation from the Secretary of that resolution.
f. The Committee can only revoke the resolution or accept a further application from the member by vote
Source: Constitution v2.3. - http://uxpa-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/UXPA-UK-Constitution1.pdf

Design Principles
• Design Principles should help the product team
remain focused on a consistent vision of what
makes our product experience unique.
• They should be speciﬁc enough to differentiate us
from other products, reﬂect our values, and help us
make decisions; but broad enough to apply
universally to our product.

Dieter Rams
• Good design is innovative
• Good design makes a product useful
• Good design is aesthetic
• Good design makes a product understandable
• Good design is unobtrusive
• Good design is honest
• Good design is long-lasting
• Good design is thorough down to the last detail
• Good design is environmentally friendly
• Good design is as little design as possible

Yves Béhar
1. Design solves an important human problem
2. Design is context speciﬁc (it doesn’t follow historical cliches)
3. Design enhances human ability (without replacing the human)
4. Good design works for everyone, everyday
5. Good tech and design is discreet
6. Good design is a platform that grows with needs and opportunities
7. Good design brings about products and services that build long-term relationships (but don’t
create emotional dependency)
8. Good technology design learns and predicts human behavior
9. Good design accelerates new ideas
10.Good design removes complexity from life

UK government
1. Start with user needs
2. Do less
3. Design with data
4. Do the hard work to make it simple
5. Iterate. Then iterate again
6. This is for everyone
7. Understand context
8. Build digital services, not websites
9. Be consistent, not uniform
10. Make things open: it makes things better
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-design-principles

WhatsApp principles
• The interface should feel native to the device the person
is using
• The app should be lightweight and require as little
storage as possible
• The interface should be simple
• User actions and animations should be quick to respond
• Features should provide obvious utility so they require
little introduction
Source: One Year Designing at WhatsApp
Medium · by Charlie Deets, https://medium.com/facebook-design/one-year-designing-at-whatsapp-c20b4c46bae6

From Principles to
Patterns

Design Patterns
• a general reusable solution to a commonly
occurring problem

#darkpattern
• good design
• tricks, deceives or manipulates the user for the
beneﬁt of the business

Ethics start with the self
@wickedgeekie#UXPAUKethics

Example 1
1. Read the text and at the
same time, listen to your
own internal reaction
2. Stop reading and write
down what you think as
you think it
3. Continue reading and
stopping to write until
you’ve read the entire text
4. Answer the final question
in writing
5. Raise your arm to let me
know you are done
• Peter has been really struggling to find a job
after a 3 year parenting break caring for his
twins.
• He’s finally being offered a job for a major
weapons manufacturer (from assault riffles to
missiles to crowd control water guns, net
throwers and tasers).
• The job is spot on for him, the location is
convenient and the pay is fair. He could also
work early shifts to help with childcare.
• He labels himself a pacifist and you’ve
always known him to argue for peace.
• He calls you for advice. What do you say?

Example 2
you think it
in writing - YOU WILL
HAND OUT THIS STICKY
TO THE CROWD, WRITE
LEGIBLY
know you are done
• You joined the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to
work on an exciting police system that
coordinates better with ambulances.
• New laws have been passed, minors can
now be placed in detention if parents are
informed of the whereabouts of their
child, and of how they can visit.
• MoJ wants you to explore the idea of an
App letting parents do that, and book
visits or top-up their child’s e-wallet for
purchases at the detention centre’s shop.
• What do you do?

Example 3
you think it
in writing - YOU WILL
HAND OUT THIS STICKY
TO THE CROWD, WRITE
LEGIBLY
know you are done
• Your beloved product has lost the love
of your users who are no longer login
in, or renewing their subscription.
• The team believes that if they could
get users to login and take a tour,
users’d see the new features and stay.
• They want you to design a
“cancelation wizard” that would
showcase all the new features before
a user can complete cancellation.
• What do you do next?

Inquiry
• Aristotle: examine the conditions in which praise or
blame are appropriate
• Ethics are part of the pursuit of improved lives

Online Ethics Canvas Canvas Title: New canvas Date: 2018-04-19
Individuals Affected Groups Affected Behaviour Relations Worldviews
Group Conflicts Product or Service
Failure
Problematic Use of
Resources
What can we do? Uncategorised Ideas

Take away
• Read Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
• Watch Harry Brignull’s original Dark Patterns talk: bit.ly/
HBDarkPatterns <caps matter!
• Darkpatterns.org
• Download and read Ideo’s Little Book of Design Research
Ethics lbodre.ideo.com
• Develop a practice of inquiry
• Ensure your design principles are ethically sound to all using
them

Thank you!
• Get in touch at sophie@baguetteUX.com
• Check out www.BaguetteUX.com
• Follow me: https://twitter.com/wickedgeekie

The Ethics of Design

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