[IxDA Discuss] Ethical Issues for Interaction Designers

[Oleh Kovalchuke]

On 7/31/07, Thomas J. Froehlich <tfroehli at kent.edu> wrote:
>
> I suspect that ethical problems would occur between the architects or
> designers and the clients or the architects or designers and upper
> management.
>
I think you are right: in the final count the ethical responsibility for
product lies with business owners, strategists and clients – the people, who
invest in the product development.

The ethics of interaction designers then do not differ from any other
personal ethics. When confronted with moral dilemma we have three options:

   1. Delegate the moral responsibility to higher authority (business
   owners, managers, corporate ethics).
   2. Quit and move on to find projects more in line with our ethics.
   3. Subvert. This can be an outspoken appeal to public at large or a
   passive-aggressive subversion of poor design.

We often opt for the first option, delegating moral responsibility to higher
authority because we:

   - too busy to think about moral choices
   - lack experience in introspection
   - too insecure to quit (personal mortgage payments are more pressing,
   than problems of abstract "users-losers")
   - it is easier to fit in (a corollary of the previous three)
   - trust the authority (they are examples of social success after all)

The main problem with this comforting choice is that, in reality, "corporate
ethics" is a sham (watch 'The Corporation' for detailed analysis of
sociopath nature of corporations and 'The Century of the Self' by Adam
Curtis for history of PR industry in the US).
One of possible solutions then is a code of ethics for IxDA, a framing
device.

Oleh
_______________

Note, that designers are not exceptional people - some of us are
psychopaths. These people are not covered in the analysis of moral choices
for one simple reason: psychopaths are not able to experience moral
dilemmas.



-- 
Oleh Kovalchuke
Interaction Design is the Design of Time
http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm