Due to its intangible and indirect nature, ethics is often regarded as an ‘inconvenience’ – an afterthought once more pressing matters have been tackled. During World Usability Day, I presented some possibilities to elevate design ethics to a more practical level, structurally integrated in our (daily) design process. Many thanks to Garage by Innogy for the venue, and of course to the communities and organisers of Ladies That UX and Amsterdam UX!

1. Daily Ethical Design
Lennart Overkamp
Interaction & Service Designer
@OverkampLennart
World Usability Day
November 8th, 2018

3. We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few
people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the
Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita;
Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to
impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become
Death, the destroyer of worlds.’
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
~
J. Robert Oppenheimer

4. The Oppenheimer Moment

5. It’s easy to have principles, yet hard to be principled.

6. Society Sustainability
Focus
Persuasion
User involvementPrivacy
Accessibility
Usability
Design ethics

7. Daily ethical design
Ethics integrated structurally in our daily practice as designers,
overcomes the inconvenience of acting ethically,
prevents misuse and mistakes,
adds automatically to the quality of our work,
and will establish a higher standard for design.

8. How might we structurally integrate ethics
in our daily design practices?

9. #1
Keep track of your
assumptions
#2
Seek always to be
proven wrong
#3
Conduct Dark Reality
session(s)
#5
Connect to company’s
mission and values
#4
Make use of the
power of checklists

10. Questions to ask about your design (concept):
• What is the entire life span? For how far in the
future are you creating the solution?
• What is the indirect impact? What are the long-
term effects on economy, society, and
environment?
• Who is affected? Who benefits, who loses?
Who is excluded?
• How could it be misused? Who has control over
it? Who is powerless to defend against it?
Deliverable: design forecast document
Dark Reality session
as a standard component
of the concept phase

11. You are not entitled to your opinion. You are
entitled to your informed opinion.
Harlan Ellison, writer (1934-2018)

12. Thank you!
Alan Cooper
@MrAlanCooper
David Berman
https://davidberman.com/
Mike Monteiro
https://medium.com/@monteiro
And of course: my colleagues!

13. Let’s connect!
Lennart Overkamp
Interaction & Service Designer
@OverkampLennart
loverkamp@mirabeau.nl
linkedin.com/in/lennartoverkamp
medium.com/@lennartoverkamp