Ethical Design: Why Is It Critical for UX Designers?

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Ethical Design Why Is It Critical for UX
Designers?
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How many times have you seen design solutions
that showcased male chauvinist attitudes or
marketing content that exhibited racial or gender
biases? The content that designers create
represents our social thought, values, and
culture. Similarly, any products design embodies
a value system, clearly indicating the designers
beliefs and moral principles. While the biases
in some design solutions and content are
deliberate and unethical, the creators of other
designs and content consciously adopt an ethical
stance and reject such biases. The intent of a UX
designer to design great products that follow
moral principles is ethical design. In this
article, Ill describe how unethical designs
occur, as well as explain the concept of ethical
design. Ill also describe how you, as a UX
designer, can create change within your
companymerely by following the best
ethical-design practices.
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The Pervasive Need for Ethical Design The
question of ethical design is relevant for all
products, and you can find examples of failures
to meet this need across a diverse range of use
cases and contexts. For example, a video of two
Facebook employees using a soap dispenser in a
company washroom went viral on Twitter. The
footage revealed that when a white employee used
the soap dispenser, he received the soap easily.
But when a black employee put his hand under the
sensor-driven soap dispenser, he got no soap at
all-even after multiple attempts! The reason the
sensor wasnt able to sense his hand! This is a
typical example of how peoples racist biases can
impact human-machine interactions if product
developers and designers fail to recognize such
possibilities. Youll find such examples of
unethical design across almost every product
domain. Racial and gender bias often result from
unconscious UX design decisions and content
strategies that exhibit various sets of biases.
For example, if a toy manufacturer were targeting
a mixed-gender audience, why would they show only
boys playing with the toy? You can find such
examples everywhere!
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The Concept of Ethical Design Ethics comprise
moral principles that dictate what we should and
should not do in particular situations. Based on
value judgments for good and bad, ethics dictate
our duty and obligation to propagate the good and
denounce the bad. Thus, ethical design basically
means making conscious design decisions that do
good and do not harm anyoneeither intentionally
or unintentionally. Following ethical principles
for content development means avoiding
plagiarized or fake content that would detract
from a content providers value proposition, as
well as providing citations and crediting sources
for content. Meeting the ethical parameters for
design is comparatively difficult. Consistently
applying a moral code when making design
decisions requires subtle perceptions of right
and wrong. From choosing the skin colors for
emojis to common visual metaphors, every wrong
design decision can demean certain people,
depending on their gender, race, religion,
language, or other dimensions of diversity.
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• Here are some areas on which you need to focus as
  an ethical UX designer
• UsabilityThe most significant consideration when
  designing user experiences is usability, which
  refers to how efficiently and satisfactorily a
  user can accomplish a specific goal, using a
  particular feature, design solution, or product.
  It is our moral duty is to design interactive
  user interfaces that are easy to use and, in some
  cases, that prevent deadly consequences! Remember
  the false missile threat in Hawaii back in 2018?!
• PrivacyAs the digital world has expanded at a
  rapid pace, privacy has become a concern that
  corresponds to ethical design. Personal
  information has not remained personal. Big
  companies and organizations have access to plenty
  of private data. As UX designers, we are
  responsible for using this information
  appropriately. The advantages of using this data
  include our ability to shape and improve the user
  experience. Still, we should know where to stop
  and how much access to users data is actually
  necessary.
• InfluenceOften, we must influence users
  behavior and thought processes. The boundary
  between white-hat persuasion and grey-hat or
  black-hat persuasion sometimes becomes obscured.
  Persuasion tactics that change users
  perspectives and convince them to buy a specific
  subscription just to increase conversions are
  highly unethical.
• SustainabilityHave you kept the environment,
  climate change, and natural resources in mind
  when designing your product? Sustainability is a
  significant ethical factor that you must
  consider. We must foster sustainable consumer
  conduct to avert overuse!
• SocietyAs UX designers, we must be conscious of
  our products effects on peoples overall mental
  health. As an ethical designer, you must align
  your work with the needs of your global and local
  communities, politics, economies, and peoples
  health.

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The Challenges of Incorporating Ethics in
Design Let me make one thing loud and clear
design ethics are not about making value
judgments about anything. If you work as a UX
designer, you might not have the opportunity to
participate in such noble initiatives as treating
patients in a refugee camp. However, you can
still endeavor to be ethical in all that you do
when designing a product. Your design solutions
dont need to change the world. All you need to
do is align your design decisions with societys
and your industrys values and beliefs. For
example, when youre designing a B2B
(Business-to-Business) Web site or an enterprise
app, your design must focus on business
conversions. Nevertheless, despite your adhering
to such business and professional objectives, you
can perfectly align your design solutions to
ethicsfor example, by ensuring equity for all
genders, races, and ethnic groups. Balancing
your professional goals and moral values when
designing user experiences is what ethical design
is all about.
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Ethical Design Practices When a page or other
content takes a few seconds to load, apps usually
display a small animated progress bar or other
indicator that represents the loading process.
This is a kind of microinteraction that gives
users feedback about background tasks and is an
excellent example of ethical design. It is
unethical for any business to neglect giving
users feedback when there are delays. Twitters
letting users choose to use dark or white
backgrounds is another great example of ethical
design. Depending on users visual comfort levels
and lighting conditions, they can choose their
preferred background for the app. All the buzz
about designing superior user experiences,
maximizing ease of use, and engineering faster
loading times follows the ethics of serving
customers better. Respecting customers time
while avoiding all kinds of discriminatory
messaging through your design solutions is what
ethical design is all about.  
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Conclusion Because the rapid proliferation of
digital platforms is now connecting people across
all cultures, ethnicities, and age groups,
ethical design has become essential. Every
digital platform is equally local and global, so
you can no longer bring your cultural and
geopolitical biases into your UX design
decisions. As a UX designer, you should uphold
ethical-design practices in making all design
decisions. Ensure that no product design or
user-interface elements exhibit discriminatory,
abusive, or regressive messages or values. By
focusing on ethical design, you can help your
company emerge as a truly global brand. Original
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