How do we define what matters when considering whether a design is ethical? What practices can we follow to make sure the products we’re involved in respect the principles of ethical design? The importance of design teams in creating products that are good for users, good for business and good for society.

Every day, more of the activities of everyday life take place in the digital world. And with that phenomenon, apps and websites face better-informed scrutiny from their users, especially on the moral and normative aspects considered in their development. The concerns are many, and span shopping, banking, dating and even online learning experiences. In general, the concerns point to a failure to address the needs of all users comprehensively, with biases, intentional or not, and in some cases warnings about abusive practices by companies.

Digital products have reached the point where they’re inseparable from our lives, so design teams need an active awareness, since digital experiences have a real, tangible effect on the lives of the people who use them. Ethics in design isn’t new; it’s in fact a conversation that dates from before the digital era, but it has never been as relevant as it is today, with the advance of AI, augmented reality, the Internet of Things and hyper-personalization.

Design teams are a fundamental part of the process that shapes systems and interfaces, and that’s why they’re in a central position to change the foundations of user experiences and make them more ethical, conscious and safe.

The ethical hierarchy of needs

When we talk about concepts like ethics, it’s hard to express them on scales that quantify how well products comply when we evaluate them. But taking ethics as a system of moral principles that define what is perceived as good and bad, we can come to consider ethical designs to be those created with the intention of doing good, in contrast with those designed using black-hat practices.

One approach that can guide us in establishing whether a digital product or experience meets users’ needs without harming them is the “Ethical Hierarchy of Needs” pyramid developed by Aral Balkan and Laura Kalbag of ind.ie, a nonprofit organization fighting for social justice in the digital age.

The “Ethical Hierarchy of Needs” (licensed CC BY 4.0 ) (Source: ind.ie )

It charts the core characteristics that define ethical design, which we must take into account to guarantee ethical experiences.

In this hierarchy, as in any pyramid structure, each level rests on the layers below it. So if one breaks, the ones above it collapse.

At the base of the pyramid, and therefore the fundamental part to review to guarantee ethically designed products, Balkan and Kalbag state that “technology that respects human rights is decentralised, peer-to-peer, zero-knowledge, end-to-end encrypted, free and open source, interoperable, accessible, and sustainable. It respects and protects your civil liberties, reduces inequality, and benefits democracy.”

At the second level, they state that “technology that respects human effort is functional, convenient, and reliable. It is thoughtful and accommodating; not arrogant or demanding. It understands that you might be distracted or differently-abled. It respects the limited time you have on this planet.”

Finally, the top level defines that “technology that respects human experience is beautiful, magical, and delightful. It just works. It’s intuitive. It’s invisible. It recedes into the background of your life. It gives you joy. It empowers you with superpowers. It puts a smile on your face and makes your life better.”

If a design doesn’t support human rights, it isn’t ethical. If it supports human rights but doesn’t respect human effort by being functional, convenient and reliable, it isn’t ethical. If it respects human effort but doesn’t respect human experience by making the lives of the people who use it better, then it’s still unethical.

In practice, we can say that products and services that exploit users’ data, use dark patterns and, in general, only seek to make money without regard for their human purpose, aren’t ethical.

Principles of ethical design

Beyond the evaluation we can make of digital experiences and their purposes, what practices can we adopt to make sure we’re applying the principles of ethical design? Let’s review some basic principles we can follow to meet users’ needs and make sure we look after their well-being.

Usability

Although usability is already a basic requirement of any design, we should never stop reviewing and updating our notions of how to meet it.

Let’s start from the premise that an unusable product is considered a design failure. Design must help users achieve what they want, meeting their needs while being easy and pleasant to use. Jakob Nielsen defines five key components of usability:

  • Learnability: How easy is it for users coming to it for the first time?
  • Efficiency: How quickly can users complete the task they want to carry out?
  • Memorability: What makes users come back?
  • Errors: How many errors are made in using it, and how serious are they?
  • Satisfaction: How pleasant is the design to use?

Generally, usability should be invisible. Good design is seamless, while bad design will make itself seen and felt immediately. Designers have a moral obligation to create products that are usable, intuitive and safe. This is achieved through thorough user interviews and usability testing. That’s why face-to-face interaction with users matters, to find out firsthand how well a piece of design meets their needs.

Accessibility

Accessibility is a key factor that must be considered from day zero of developing any product or service. Products are always designed for a target customer, but we still need to stop and think about who might be excluded from the experience, intentionally or not. This concept is highly relevant because it adapts experiences for people with different disabilities.

It’s important to make sure everyone can use a product or service regardless of any impairments or disabilities they may have. We must also consider a wide range of people, including people with visual, motor, hearing, speech or cognitive disabilities.

We need to bear in mind that around 15% of the world’s population has some form of disability. It’s fair to assume that this percentage also roughly carries over to your user base. Despite this figure, a study by WebAIM suggests that most websites don’t offer a fully accessible experience.

That’s why making sure everyone can comfortably use the product you’ve designed has both pragmatic and ethical value.

Privacy

Protecting privacy corresponds to the first level of the ethical hierarchy of needs pyramid, but it can raise levels of trust and lift the experience to the level of delight.

It’s highly relevant, above all because it’s a demand constantly made of the tech giants, which have increasingly had to respond to controversies over the use of personal data, leading to laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (in Spanish) in Europe.

Through design, you can promote the protection of users’ privacy by proposing design elements that inform people and let them easily change or delete how their data is used.

Transparency

One of the best practices for guaranteeing ethical design is transparency, since it lets users make informed decisions. The biggest obstacle to transparency in design is dark patterns, black-hat design practices designed specifically to trick us into doing something we don’t necessarily want to do.

To combat them, information must be provided clearly, so users can choose when they give their consent and when they don’t.

Inclusion

At first glance you might think the products we design are inclusive, but it’s always necessary to put them through evaluations that include a diversity of perspectives. Everyone has implicit biases even when we make sure we keep these concepts in mind, which is why it’s essential to avoid bias in order to create experiences that take into account the needs of all users.

Products that include algorithms, voice assistants or simply icons and avatars can be subject to biases that exclude and hinder the experience of a variety of users.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a concept linked to movements such as “design for good,” which refer to design’s capacity for creative problem-solving and international development priorities.

Placing the human values of empathy and collaboration at the center of design processes aimed at finding innovative, local solutions to global sustainable development problems is what makes this a particularly interesting application of ethical design, with an applied focus on human-centered design.

Applications of ethical design

Applying ethical design to the user experience is essential to creating digital products and services that respect and benefit everyone who uses them, fairly and equitably. It must be ensured that interacting with a digital interface is positive, respects privacy, is inclusive and causes no harm. Let’s look at some cases where an ethical perspective on experience design is especially necessary:

Social media and digital addiction

Social media platforms often use persuasive design techniques to keep users on their platforms, even at the cost of health risks. Ethical design here could mean building in screen time reminders, letting users control how often they get notifications and providing resources to combat digital addiction.

Artificial intelligence and algorithmic bias

Algorithms can reflect the implicit biases of their creators and their training data. Ethical design in this context means constantly auditing algorithms to identify and correct bias, as well as explaining how algorithm-based decisions are made.

Digital healthcare

Digital health apps and devices must guarantee the privacy of medical data and provide accurate information. Ethical design here could focus on data security, usability for different demographic groups and scientific validation.

Online education

Digital education must be accessible and equitable. Ethical design could include accessibility options for people with disabilities, limiting the collection of students’ personal data and guaranteeing the validity of educational content.

Designing for well-being

Whether it’s design patterns that exploit psychological vulnerabilities and foster negative feelings of social anxiety, loneliness and boredom, designs based on dark patterns that mislead users into behaving against their own needs and interests, or digital products and services designed specifically to enhance their narcotic properties, the digital space often shows a dangerous disregard for our well-being as users.

Navigating this area of ethical design can also be difficult if organizations exploit unhealthy design patterns in the name of profit. But to knock down that argument, we can point out that the value of an honest user experience is actually a competitive advantage.

In theory, ethical design should be a minimum requirement, but for some reason it ends up being the exception of good design. UX specialists and designers have a responsibility to adopt morally sound design practices for their own good, for users and for the environment in general.