Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide

Gold
Wednesday, November 16, 2022 • Civic Design 2022
Share the love for this talk
That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
Speakers: George Aye
Link:

Summary

The design industry’s relationship to the field of business has long been established and continues to become further entangled each year. But designers aren’t just satisfied with only disrupting the business sector—they’re keen to disrupt the social sector too. Unfortunately, the weaknesses baked into the discipline of design (that have been present from the start) are readily exposed when designers enter complex social issues and treat them like any other human-centered innovation challenge. The lack of a moral framework, let alone a set of ethical guidelines, put designers at great risk of doing more harm than good.

Key Insights

  • Human-centered design can be weaponized to exploit users, as seen in the founding of Jewel Labs.

  • The design industry largely relies on individual designers’ personal ethics (BYOE), lacking a shared ethical framework.

  • Dieter Rams’ principles of good design focus on function and honesty but do not prevent ethically harmful products.

  • Power asymmetry is embedded in most design projects, with designers often lacking influence compared to powerful clients.

  • Greater Good Studio practices 'breaking up' with projects to avoid causing harm, a rare and vital practice in the industry.

  • Saying no to projects requires cultivation and support, as designers are typically trained to always say yes.

  • Design primarily serves to build capital and provide comfort, which attracts powerful stakeholders and can accelerate harm.

  • There is widespread unacknowledged workplace trauma and ethical conflict within design teams.

  • An ethical design framework could include codes of ethics, accreditation, licensing, and community feedback mechanisms.

  • The design industry risks bifurcation into accountable designers serving demanding clients and an unaccountable majority.

Notable Quotes

"Good design is honest and yes, the Jewel e-cigarette will honestly kill you."

"What is design’s relationship to power and privilege? Which humans do we center when we say human-centered design?"

"Power is the ability to change another person’s reality."

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any."

"We mostly have something called a BYOE scenario or bring your own ethics."

"Not every project needs to be responded to; not every RFP needs a proposal."

"Every major brand has a dark side brought to you by design on purpose, 40 hours a week."

"Design helps build capital and seek comfort, which draws in the most powerful."

"Why do designers decide how to design this? How do we wean design's addiction from whiteness?"

"Saying no shouldn’t be about being difficult but about accountability beyond any one person."

Ask the Rosenbot
Marieke McCloskey
User Science: Product Analytics & User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jacqui Frey
Flow and Superfluidity for Design Orgs
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Peter Merholz
The 2025 State of UX/Design Organizational Health
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Aditi Ruiz
Pulse Check: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 2
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Caitlyn Hampton
Compass 101: Growing Your Career In A Startup World
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Tricia Wang
From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Rittika Basu
Age and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Prayag Narula
Dialing for Research: How to Reach the Unreachable
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Greg Petroff
Exit Interview #1: Greg Petroff: From Silicon Valley Executive to Sonoma County Possibilitarian
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Kevin M. Hoffman
Theme 2: Enterprise Team Journey
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Ariel Kennan
Theme 2 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Tutti Taygerly
Videconference: How to Work with Difficult People with Tutti Taygerly
2020 • Enterprise Community
Cara Maritz
The Art of Extrapolation
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Maria Rosala
Research Repositories
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Sofia Quintero
Beyond Tools: The Messy Business of Implementing Research Repositories
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold

More Videos

Rebecca Gimenez

"Our work helps create space to zoom out and have conversations about the future vision."

Rebecca Gimenez

Work in Progress: Service Design at Airbnb

December 3, 2024

Lada Gorlenko

"We have a choice in crisis — see it as a loss or see it as an opportunity."

Lada Gorlenko

Theme 2 Intro

June 9, 2022

Brigette Metzler

"Having a repo isn’t the same as having a strategy for socializing and evangelizing the research."

Brigette Metzler Dana Chrisfield

Research Repositories: A global project by the ResearchOps Community

August 27, 2020

"Delight forums helped us share stories and build a shared vernacular but didn’t lead to significant change by themselves."

Discussion

June 9, 2017

Sarah Brooks

"I was largely wrong about how we thought technology and design would just implement policy."

Sarah Brooks Jennifer Pahlka

Fireside chat with Sarah Brooks and Jen Pahlka

October 21, 2021

Lisa Spitz

"We actively coach Department of PFML staff to shadow and eventually run their own research sessions so they’re empowered long-term."

Lisa Spitz Nikki Brand

Building Trust Through Equitable Research Practices

November 18, 2022

Theresa Neil

"We were doing all the things until we got the advice to specialize; that moment changed everything."

Theresa Neil

Designing for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare

May 22, 2024

Maverick Chan

"Static posters started to feel limiting for complex healthcare stories that needed to move and react."

Maverick Chan Claire Lin

From Doodle to Demo: AI as Our Storytelling Partner

October 23, 2025

Alla Weinberg

"Psychological safety means if I make a mistake on our team, the people won’t disconnect from me."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 8, 2022