[ENG] Ethics in Digital Design: Making informed and responsible decisions | Alexandra Mihai

[0:03]Hey. Okay. So, thanks, Piotra, for the intro. This is my fourth year when I'm talking about ethics and I'm really happy to see so many people here. Uh, by the way, there are spaces in the front, you guys if you want to join. So, my presentation actually evolved quite a lot during this four years because I also changed. So, you can see here in my early beginning, I uh I was quite passionate about computers since almost two years old. So, um my practice also evolved during this years. You can imagine that, uh after I was hacking my computers, I was also designing uh Winamp teams. Um, during my past years, I started to work a lot, um in education. I'm also a teacher, mentor in now, lately since 2015. So, quite some years I'm working with uh web tools that are mostly focused on AI. So, when you work in AI and design, I think you ask yourself a lot of questions. And also as in the previous presentation, I will start with a question. So, um, I have a question to you, actually, and my question is, have you ever made a design decision with which you did not agree 100%? Can you be honest and raise your hand? Ah, that's a lot. So, um, I did too. I'm happy to see I mean, not that happy, but um I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one. And, um this was one of the reasons why I wanted to look into design ethics. It's, um it's quite of a trendy topic nowadays, but just to start with the definition that we all agree with. Um, the way I call design ethics for myself, uh they are some responsible guidelines for everyone involved in the design process. And now you see everyone has an asterisk over there. Um, the reason why I'm saying that is, we are not the only ones who are designing products. So, the people that are working with us, they're also influencing it and uh I'm calling them decision makers. Now, uh decision makers, I think they are very important during these days because we are direct responsible for the work that we put out into the world. Even though we don't really agree with all the decisions every time, uh we are still responsible. So, um, I, uh I'm also quite of a nerd, so I look at research papers and I look at these smart people to see, uh how they researched the process of product design. And, um I'm not going to go into all the details, but what I think it's important for you to understand is that, there is not one person that takes decision when they are designing a product. So, if there is not just one person, that means, um we we actually can influence the outcomes. So, this is the main reason why you should care about ethics, um and because of that, uh we can change some things. And I think it's important to think about the world where we are today, and I started to put, I tried to put all the buzzwords that we have nowadays, probably I missed a few. But, um, we have a lot of new technology that, uh drives around us.

[3:47]And I'm pretty sure that if you are not designing for one of these things or working for one of those companies, I'm pretty sure you at least heard about it and then you tried a little bit some chat GPT in your work. So, I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about. Now, all the buzzwords that you've seen in I don't know much about everything. So, it's a lot of unknown, there's not much rules or governance and there are a lot of consequences. So, Ethics will kind of play an important role in this world nowadays, and I think it's important for us to take a step in and actually be involved in in the process. So, what can we do as designers? And not only as designers, because maybe not all of you is a designer here, but as creator or as producers. You can be involved in the process of taking decisions, but really being involved, and you can increase the standards of our products. And the third one, which I really love and it's also what I'm doing, you can also raise awareness of ethics. So, as designers, we we need to be aware that everything that we are producing will impact the users. And probably this is the theory, you know it, but it's also true because if you think about it, we are also users of our own products or other products. Now, as I told you, I'm a little bit of a nerd. I looked at, um more decision, um the levels that we can take decisions in design. So, this is, um pyramid of the limitations and ethics of designers. And these are three levels that we can consider when we are taking decisions. And I will take them one by one to explain you a little bit about them. The first one is the infrastructure layer. And I know if it sounds complicated, um, what it means exactly is that, as designers, you need to be aware of the medium of uh where you are building the products. So, we don't have much power here because, for example, if we are building a website, everything you need to know is you need to be aware of, maybe some rules of that, and if you are designing, for example, for Android or iOS, you just need to be aware and know all the details about the medium. The next one is one that it's in between the one that we have more control and and the one with the infrastructure. And it's called the business layer. And as a product designer, we tend to be more involved here, but it really depends on what kind of company you work in and what's the level of UX maturity. Because sometimes designers are not that much involved in here. One advice that I usually try to to say here is that, we need to ask to be involved in such decisions. Because it's super easy to design screens and then just go away, but it takes more responsibility also to take care of the business decisions. The last one is the one that we all know, and is the interface layer. This one, we are always in charge because this is our job, so we are the ones who are designing the screens, but in here, we can actually check if the design decisions that we took in this level are ethical. And again, I will repeat myself and you will see a lot of those quotes. It's our responsibility as well to pull away designs that don't match our values. So, the very important question, how can we actually make sure that our designs are ethical? Another pyramid. I know this is different. So, when we are designing, usually there are three levels when we are thinking about design ethics. So, we need to make sure that the human rights are always, um not affected by the designs, that our designs are functional and there's not much effort in needed for them to work. And the last one that we are always experts in, they need to be delightful. Now, if you think about it, how it should be, it should be from from the bottom to the top. Because you all the all the applications and all the websites, all the product, digital products that we work with, they should all follow human rights, right? That's the standard. But I'm pretty sure you've all seen uh apps that are not accessible, maybe security, it's a little bit broken here and there and, um, but they look pretty good. So, in reality, it's actually the other way around. A lot of times we start to think about how should things look like. Should they look good? Should the UX copy be nice? Yes. And this will catch the eye and then you want that much about the other levels, um but they are equally as important, even not more important if you think of the pyramid. What can we do? Um, it's not like a strict guideline, but what really works for me, when I'm designing, I'm trying to have a checklist. And, um when I'm not having a checklist, I'm trying to answer myself some questions, like what should the users say? So the users when they will use our product and you want to make sure they are ethical, they should also say it works, it's intuitive, it gives me joy, it empowers me. Do's and don't's, because we all love those. Uh, I have some clear examples and the the first one that I will start with is dark patterns. Pretty sure you guys all heard about it. There is also a presentation, uh towards the end of the schedule just about that, so I won't have too many examples. But, um, I want to maybe raise more awareness about some patterns that we all have and sometimes we might do even if we want to, even if we don't want to. And, uh, just give some reminders. So, um, a dark pattern is a behavior that we are doing for the users and we, for something that we want them to do, but maybe they don't want. So, one example that I will be discussing today is confirm shaming. There are much more so I think there is a website darkpatterns.org. If you want to check it out. Uh, but this is my favorite one so I couldn't have missed it, that when you wanted to sign up for the newsletter, they were telling you, hey, you want to sign up, um obviously or I'm boring.

[11:15]So I think, you know, I don't know who actually decided to do this. I really doubt it was the designer, but just in case, remember, you can, uh, still have some something to say about it. Another example, this is more standard. I think you have seen it, you have encountered it. I I doubt 100%. And is the one where you want to sign up for something because you get something free or some coupon, but if you don't do this, um yeah, you are paying the full price, so you're they really want to make you feel uh some shame about it. The third one it's actually from um someone that is very popular. I think you recognize it. I don't need to tell the names. And this is about, um the Gmail app for iPhone. So when they switch for that and they had a new version, they said, hey, look, we have a new version, so you want it? No, I don't want a smarter email. I mean, who will click on that button now? I think that's, you know, it would make you feel bad. And what I wanted to show you is I took a few moments for me to actually think, how can I make this better? Because dark patterns, they actually don't work on a longer term. And instead of trying to put shame in front for the people, uh, to click on buttons, you can actually emphasize advantages, or you can emphasize what would be good for them. If they would do the change. And yeah, this is a very simple example where I said, I will give it a try and I can, you can switch back anytime, which again, they didn't say that.

[12:59]So, as I just said, dark patterns, they work on a short term and I'm pretty sure whenever you have encountered those, you tried to click on the unsubscribe button as fast as possible. And this is one of the reasons why. Remember, I told you that we I have quotes, so one more quote is from Mike Monteiro. He has a great book about that and, uh as design, you know, it's just keeping people from doing terrible things to other people and that includes you as well. The second one that it's more like a marketing strategy than a dark pattern, but still a dark pattern, it's uh inducing urgency. And I'm 100% sure if you have seen that previous one already, you have seen this one too. And, um this one usually is using numbers and a lot of colors and, uh, you always know that there are just a few seats remaining at this price. And it was booked two times in the last six hours and there's just one room and you need to book it cause there's no more chance for you to find this. And again, what I think you can do better, of course, you can use that text, but in the end, I think what's better for you is to use practices to tell the users, hey, you know, there is one room like this left on the website. But instead of saying that you can say, this room is actually 99 match based on your past bookings because you just want to know that that person will be happy with the choice. So, our mind works in such a way that when we see such patterns, we just tried to avoid the risks and of course it works because it's just psychology. But, usually when we take decisions, and this is in general, not just design, we just want to make sure that there is a reward behind that decision. So, rewards don't need to be bad. They can be good, but we just need to think about a way to frame them. The third one, maybe you wouldn't think it's ethics, but it is. It's accessibility, and I'm pretty sure this deserves it's own presentation and it's a great topic to discuss about. But I have this diagram here that I use it quite a lot because it can make you think, um about accessibility. So there is a percentage and there is also the great guidelines, Web content accessibility guidelines that I usually tell people to follow because in the end, accessibility is just a practice for us to make sure that we are thinking of everyone. And a disability is not always something permanent. A good example that I would like to to give is when when we are usually saying accessibility, we are thinking of people that have visibility impairments. But I've been in that situation, and I'm not talking about glasses now, but I've been in that situation even when I was on my phone and there was a lot of sunlight. I couldn't see the screen or the text if there was not enough contrast. So, the minimum that I would also suggest everyone to do, although I'm pretty sure if you guys already follow accessibility practices, you've seen this so many times, is to to think about the design also from a color contrast and text perspective. Just to be sure that is accessible for everyone. That doesn't cost anything. And I have a bonus and I will almost close off with that. The last one that it's still ethics, but it's not a topic that is that popular today, but I hope it will be, uh for next year conference, I will talk about it if I won't see it on the list. It's uh sustainability. And sustainability, you know, it's a big thing, climate change, I don't need to talk about this again. But something that we can also consider is to include sustainability in our designs as well. And I have to admit, I don't think about this the first time when I'm designing something, but I started to incorporate it more and more. And this is my website, uh no advertisement, but just so you know, you can also check to see if you have a web page or if you work for a product that has, uh it's on the web, you can check it. I I promise I have the source somewhere on the next slide. You can check it to see if it's, uh, actually cleaner than other pages, uh for CO2. These are some things that you can do. But the reason why I'm saying that is because something that we don't know, I didn't know this before I saw the this copy for the first time. Um, every time someone loads a web page, it emits 6 grams of CO2. It maybe that doesn't mean much, but if you think of this collectively, this is almost 20% of all the global emissions. Um, equivalent to the global aviation industry. That's quite a lot. So, now that you know this, maybe we'll change a couple of things and the things that you you design. And, um, as I said, I have a lot of resources, and when I'm saying a lot, it's a lot. Um, the one that I try to use quite a lot, it's this ethics compass. It's made by the Danish Design Center. So when you think about ethics, I just showed you four things that you can consider, but this checklist is so big and, um I would say you can use it more for awareness in the beginning because you're not going to design with a compass next to you. I'm pretty sure. But if you at least try to use it with your team, and then, um you discuss it in the team or even by yourself, you have a look before you start a new project, I think it's already quite good. And, uh, I have here also some follow-ups, books that I really like. Um, Mike Monteiro, I already had the quote. Most of the quotes are from these books if you are interested to read more. And uh Triine Falbe, she's really amazing about ethics. I would say she's the guru when you want to read more about dark patterns, she's the one who who you can follow. And more, I have more, as I said. The last one, uh, it's actually this. And if you are interested in accessibility, this is also quite of a big, I would say, resource to look at. But, don't worry, you don't need to take pictures on everything. You can also get in contact with me and I can send everything to you and we can also have a chat if you want and discuss about good things I hope. And, uh yeah, that was it.