Editor's Guide: Design is everywhere in life, a careful design can bring happiness to people, but a shoddy design may also bring harm. However, the advent of a product is not only up to the designer, so how much responsibility should the designer of the experience brought by the product bear? The author of this article has analyzed this and hopes to help you.
Our lives are filled everywhere with designed "experiences": a well-designed product can bring us joy and give us more time and energy to do other things. But at the same time, some "experiences" can be frustrating and cause us financial and even mental harm. As a designer, how much responsibility should you take on these "experiences"?
When interviewing designers, I experienced critical glances (the author of this article is a game designer), especially when my friend introduced meself as an experience designer for the NHS (National Health Service) after I had answered.
I'd like to touch on some overlooked misconceptions and uncomfortable questions: It's easy to point our criticism at certain industries (like the gaming industry), but does that reduce the sense of responsibility of designers in other industries?
Behind any product, there is a relatively small team that can make critical decisions about the design and functionality of the product. Although business usually takes precedence over design, I believe we (designers) have the ability to stand up for our users.
Despite the controversy over Mike Monteiro's point of view (1), I have to agree with him: "Designers should work for people who are going to use the product you're designing." "So designers should work for the benefit of these people, not for companies that profit from it."
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" >, User-friendly can be counterproductive</h1>
Courtesy of memegenerator.net
Let's talk about humanized design. Every user expects the product experience they get to be smooth and seamless. But in the long run, is this best for users? More and more designers are advocating the introduction of friction in their designs.
Why? Because experiences that are often frictionless can cause users to indulge in social media or spend endlessly on shopping software and games.
In 2018, the Norwegian Consumer Council released a report titled "Deceived by Design."
In the report, they shared how certain apps use customer data in a non-transparent way. In addition, the report notes that designers are often at the heart of this type of problem because they employ Dark Patterns (3). "While creating a seamless and enjoyable user experience is at the heart of user-centered design, it's not an excuse to adopt exploitative nudging.
In our view, excessive use of nudges that invade privacy (4), the use of dark mode, and default settings for invasion of privacy should not be considered voluntary or explicit consent of the user. The problems pointed out in this report focus on large companies such as Facebook and Google.
exegesis
(3) Dark design (da dark design is also known as dark pattern design, translated from dark Patterns or dark Patterns design. Dark design refers to the use of hidden means by which a website or application can guide users to act against their will, such as registering an account or buying some products, unconsciously. Benefits are often an important consideration in using a dark design company.
Of course, the dark design is not necessarily completely dark, and the rational use of Nudge can also bring positive effects, the most well-known of which is the British government adding a sentence to the tax recovery letter: "Nine out of ten people pay their taxes on time", increasing the number of contributors by 15%. For the British people, it would be advantageous for the government to spend its money on the right policy.
(4) Nudge:
The word Nudge originally meant "nudge with your elbow". Nudge is a gentle guide that preserves the user's right to choose, indirectly guiding the user through a mechanism to make a specific choice.
Nudge retains the user's right to choose, while dark design often conceals or deprives the user of choice.
Of course, we can easily conclude that any industry needs a responsible design methodology. The first negative cases to be named were social media that could scroll endlessly and streaming platforms that could watch the next video non-stop, which seemed to confuse "human need" (5) with convenient consumption.
There's been a lot of research (about the impact of streaming services like Netflix on our health): The side effects of indulging in these software range from negative effects on sleep and body manners, to feelings of isolation and even depression, better than raising carbon emissions. This can be seen that chasing the latest and hottest videos and shows comes at a considerable cost.
AI is another technology-related case that makes our lives easier and enhanced, and enhances product experiences such as social media, voice assistants, self-driving cars, and more. Designing for AI has been an evolving field so far, but what is the other side of AI?
As we read in the Harvard Business Review (6): A few years ago, the discussion of "data ethics" and "AI ethics" was limited to nonprofits and academia: but today, the world's largest tech companies (Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) are assembling a rapidly evolving team to address the ethical issues arising from the extensive collection, analysis, and use of large amounts of data.
MIT and Stanford university not only publish related research, but even have degrees in ai-power ethics. All of this bodes well that if you're a designer using AI products, you have a responsibility to protect your users and be completely transparent about how you use user data.
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The London College of Communication has developed a Design Responsibility Checklist (7).
It states: "We have a professional responsibility to ensure that our inventions are not only smart, but also smart; we don't just create eye-catching products, and we are aligned with a sustainable future..." （’we have a professional duty to make sure that our inventions are not just clever, but that they are wise; that we don't just create cool things, but that we are in alignment with a sustainable future...') They guide the design from the perspective of the long-term impact on climate, society and even the planet.
It's very gratifying that a new generation of designers has been taught to be very sustainable in their decision-making – form over function is a very irresponsible direction.
I completely agree with what the author of How Our Behavior is Designed (8) says, "Behaviour is our medium, not products." Designers should face the consequences of bringing their work into the world, not just remembering the purpose of the design.
Wheel of the Future
This framework is not new, but it is still very important for assessing the long-term impact of any product. It's called The Futures Wheel (9) (Jerome Glenn invented it in 1972). It's a simple tool, but it can make us think more deeply and point in a more correct direction. Take a few steps forward and think about what kind of future our products will create for the world.
At the end of the day, human-centric experiences always win and lead to more loyal and sticky users. Designers have always known this. But now, we need to communicate and advocate for responsible design solutions to businesses. We do have the ability to change the way things work and ensure that the next generation of products is ethical, ecological and socially accountable.
Let's remember that any industry can change through design. Arguably, if you work in a very commercial business, the changes that come to their lives by caring for and protecting people are beyond working in a government or nonprofit. When we stop saying that only certain teams in the business are "sustainable" or "responsible," we find that we have reached what we advocate for.
Related Reading:
① I readRuined by Design
https://fogknife.com/2019-05-23-i-read-ruined-by-design.html
(2) "Deceived by Design"
https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-06-27-deceived-by-design-final.pdf
(3) Dark design related reading
Dark Design https://www.darkpatterns.org/
Dark Design: Contrary to Ethics and Responsibility https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/71242667
⑤ Critique of Human-Centered Design OR Decentering Design
https://www.slideshare.net/ThomasMWendt/critique-of-humancentered-design-or-decentering-design
⑥ A Practical Guide to Building Ethical AI
https://hbr.org/2020/10/a-practical-guide-to-building-ethical-ai
(7) Manifest on Design Responsibility
https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/63716/ResponsibleDesignFramework.pdf
(8) User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play
https://book.douban.com/subject/34957261/
(9) The Futures Wheel
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/futures-wheel.htm
Translator: Design Sichao, WeChat public account: Xinsichao
原文名称：Responsible Design — or how much responsibility do designers really have?
Originally written by Ellina Morits
Original link: https://uxdesign.cc/responsible-design-or-how-much-repsonsibility-do-designers-really-have-b1fb07166c9f
This article was originally published by @DesignSeason, everyone is a product manager, and reproduction without permission is prohibited
The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol