As technology gets bigger and more woven into our daily lives, the topic of ethical design is getting more attention. Still, it’s a bit foggy. People who work in technology see it one way, while many outside the industry haven’t even heard of it.
Ethical design is a vital part of IT, as designers have to follow specific rules to create good, helpful, and ultimately moral design instead of harmful design. That’s the key because the choices you make about ethical design will be up to you.
What Does Ethical Design Mean?
Some designers mix up ethical design with just making safe software that guards against things like hacks or online bullying. But that’s more about safety than ethics. Companies like https://keenethics.com/ focus on this distinction, emphasizing that ethical design goes beyond just security features.
Ethical design is more about what a product is meant to do than the risks it might have. For instance, making software for a military drone raises obvious ethical questions. But what about an algorithm that recommends videos? Here, the purpose matters. We know that social media can mess with our brains to keep us hooked, which is the opposite of ethical design.
There are also issues when software is used to profile people. A program that can identify human features isn’t bad by itself. But if it’s used to label people as more or less likely to commit a crime, then it can be unfair.
In short, ethical design means making software that actively benefits its users and those around them. It’s not enough for a product to simply avoid harm. How you apply this principle is your call, but it’s worth looking into ideas like Don Norman’s Human-Centered Design to dig deeper.
Why Ethical Design Is a Big Deal?
We’re on the edge of a technology revolution where algorithms and AI start making their own choices in many areas. The problem is that rules for how this technology should behave often show up late. Sure, there are some laws, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that set some limits, but they don’t guide us toward ethical design. If you’re a software developer, the choices you make now matter more than ever:
- Concentrate on efficiency and cleanability while creating ethical and safe designs.
- Enable clarity so that people can make conscious choices.
- Limit everything that violates user attentiveness.
- Reduce product inflection and make peace of mind.
Creating an algorithm to handle data isn’t too hard. However, real-world data often reflects the unfair systems that already exist. Remember that Twitter bot that became racist because it learned from racist tweets? It’s just one example. The software can end up being biased against women or different ethnic groups.
The Developer’s Role in Shaping Ethical Technology
So, in a world where technology is changing fast and the rules haven’t caught up, the responsibility is on developers. For the designer to be a promoter of ethical design, he or she needs to master the knowledge of it. It is also crucial to promote and advance ethical design in the organization and control the standards of the work.
It’s not enough to make neutral software because that software will likely pick up biases from the real world. What we need to do is build sensitivity, fairness, and awareness into our programs.
