[IxDA Discuss] Ethical Issues for Interaction Designers

[Robert Reimann]

We took a high-level stab at this in About Face 2.0 (and now About Face 3).
The following design values or
imperatives were the outcome of a long series of discussions amongst myself,
Dave Cronin, serveral
other Cooper designers, and Hugh Dubberly.

We state that interaction designers should endeavor to create designs that
are:

*Ethical* [*considerate, helpful*]
- Do no harm
- Improve human situations

*Purposeful *[*useful, usable*]*
*- Help users achieve their goals and aspirations
- Accommodate user contexts and capacities

*Pragmatic* [*viable, feasible*]
- Help commissioning organizations achieve their goals
- Accommodate business and technical requirements

*Elegant* [*efficient, artful, affective*]
- Represent the simplest, complete solution
- Possess internal (self-revealing, understandable) coherence
- Appropriately accommodate and stimulate cognition and emotion

There's some further discussion of each of these aspects in AF3 (if you
don't want to buy
it--though I hope you do--you can search the book for "do no harm" on
Amazon).

Robert.

On 8/1/07, Oleh Kovalchuke <tangospring at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thomas J. Froehlich wrote:
> >
> >  If you were created a code of ethics, what would it
> > distinctively include?   I would appreciate any thoughts, cases or
> > examples.
> >
> I think we should create a code of ethics for IxDA. Something in the vein
> of
> Asimov's laws of robotics:
>   0. A product may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to
> come to harm.
>   1. A product may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a
> human being to come to harm except where such orders would conflict with
> the
> Zeroth Law.
>   2. A product must obey orders given to it by human beings except where
> such orders would conflict with the previous laws.
>   3. A product must protect its own existence as long as such protection
> does not conflict with the previous laws.
>
> I do not expect that the code will change the minds of those, who have
> their
> minds set. However I think it might serve as a good frame reminder to
> those
> of us, who opt to delegate moral responsibility to higher authority,
> because
> we are too busy to think about the consequences of this delegation.
>
> The code will not stop production of unethical products, but it could lead
> to making them more expensive, less profitable.
> Oleh
>
>
> --
> Oleh Kovalchuke
> Interaction Design is the Design of Time
> http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm
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-- 
Robert Reimann
President, IxDA

Manager, User Experience
Bose Corporation
Framingham, MA