As user experience professionals, our work has implications that can cascade throughout organizations, industries and the world. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence tools such as Chat GPT and DALL-E, understanding the ethical implications of the experiences that are created is more important than ever.
Read:
Design for Safety – Eva PenzeyMoog (Book)
https://abookapart.com/products/design-for-safety
“How will our product hurt people?” As web workers, we don’t often ask this question—but we should. Eva PenzeyMoog explains how even the most well-intentioned design can be weaponized for interpersonal harm.
Anti-racist language terms
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MCahBUpHJcsqzi7VVR4g4G0Acf25JCr01DjkzaN8-6I/edit?usp=sharing
Compiled by the wonderful Content+UX Slack community, this spreadsheet reviews problematic terms and offers alternatives which remove racist connotations and add clarity to what’s being said.
Outsmart your own biases
https://hbr.org/2015/05/outsmart-your-own-biases
“When making decisions, we all rely too heavily on intuition and use flawed reasoning sometimes. But it’s possible to fight these pernicious sources of bias by learning to spot them and using the techniques presented in this article, gleaned from the latest research. They’ll open up your thinking about possible outcomes, objectives, and options and lead to better choices. In this article you’ll find some strategies and tips to outsmart your own biases.”
Implicit association test
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
The implicit association tests produced by Harvard measure associations between concepts (e.g., Native Americans and White Americans) and evaluations (e.g., Past, Present). People are quicker to respond when items that are more closely related in their mind share the same button. For example, an implicit preference for Native Americans relative to White Americans means that you are faster to sort words when ‘Native Americans’ and ‘Past’ share a button relative to when ‘White Americans’ and ‘Past’ share a button.
Building for Everyone – Annie Jean Baptiste (book)
https://www.amazon.com/Building-Everyone-Practices-Googles-Inclusion/dp/1119646227
This book makes publicly available for the first time the same inclusive design process used at Google to create user-centric award-winning and profitable products. Author and Head of Product Inclusion Annie Jean-Baptiste outlines what those practices look like in industries beyond tech with fascinating case studies. Readers will learn the key strategies and step-by-step processes for inclusive product design that limits risk and increases profitability.
Watch:
Carol Smith – Being actively ethical: Dynamic UX for AI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0IU1GZWL3s
Artificially intelligent technologies are exciting and with them come new and intimidating responsibilities. How do we understand and clarify our users’ needs for transparency, control, and access (and more) when the system is constantly changing? Learn what you can do to protect the people affected by these systems by utilizing ethics and speculative activities to preemptively identify potential misuse and abuse of these systems.
Mike Monteiro – How Designers Destroyed the World
https://aneventapart.com/news/post/how-designers-destroyed-the-world-by-mike-monteiro-an-aea-video
In this bluntly honest talk, captured live at An Event Apart Orlando Special Edition, Mike Monteiro invites you to consider your responsibilities as a designer, and embrace your role as gatekeeper. You’ll learn how to increase your influence and be moved to use your powers for good. This presentation was named 2014 Talk of the Year by net magazine.
Brene Brown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjUEH2vkzPM
Shame is an unspoken epidemic, the secret behind many forms of broken behavior. Brené Brown, whose earlier talk on vulnerability became a viral hit, explores what can happen when people confront their shame head-on. Her own humor, humanity and vulnerability shine through every word.
Listen:
99Pi – Architects Code
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-80-an-architects-code/
In this episode of 99 percent invisible, Roman Mars shares the story about a group called Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) which has taken the stance that there are some buildings that just should not have been built. Buildings that, by design, violate standards of human rights.
The Crazy One
http://thecrazy1.com/episode84
In this episode you’ll hear examples, frameworks and stories that will help you consider the ethical implications of your design! From Stephen Gates.
Radio Lab Presents G
https://radiolab.org/series/radiolab-presents-g
How we conduct our user research is important. Understanding the base of how research was conducted allows us to better critique the methods and structures we might take for granted. In Radiolab’s “G” it explores the concept of intelligence. Over six episodes, the series unearths the fraught history (and present-day use) of IQ tests, digs into the bizarre tale of one man’s obsessive quest to find the secret to genius in Einstein’s brain, reveals the ways the dark history of eugenics have crept up into the present, looks to the future with a controversial geneticist who has created a prenatal test for intelligence, and stages a raucous game-show throwdown to crown the smartest animal in the world.
Sold a story
https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
Content Strategy and Plain Language is foundational to user experience. In this series Emily Hanford investigates how reading is currently taught in America and how an empire has been designed around potentially faulty concepts.
