Centering Humanity in Design and Development
Embrace ethical, inclusive, and accessible design responsibly to navigate the rapid digital evolution.
In a rapidly changing digital world, the fast pace of transformation often means that ethics and inclusion can fall by the wayside. That’s a mistake, both morally and strategically. Joseph Carter-Brown and Keith Rich of Think Company present a framework for ensuring teams for intentional, ethical, inclusive, and accessible design as they develop digital solutions.
We live in a world of ever-present, rapid change driven by the primacy of digital experiences in modern life. In most cases, innovation brings positive changes, but the constant and accelerating pace of transformation brings new challenges that must be overcome.
Pioneering Positive Change in a Rapidly Evolving Tech Landscape
We’re all struggling to adapt, especially designers and developers who want to build digital solutions that leverage new technologies to stay ahead of the curve and deliver solutions that outpace the competition. There’s a lot of pressure to be first, but in that race, it’s easy to cut corners and fail to consider how the design will affect the people who will eventually use it. We must do so ethically, accessibly, and inclusively as we innovate.
Why is this important? Well, for starters, it’s the right thing to do. We are obligated to use technology responsibly so that it does the most good for the largest number of our customers without harm. We strongly believe that companies that don’t develop ethically and inclusively ultimately hurt their customers and themselves. Without inclusive design, a company cuts itself out of potential revenue and growth.
For the past 18 months, large tech companies have been spending immense amounts of money and resources on rapidly developing and distributing large language models, human-like chat bots, and other forms of advanced AI, even though they acknowledge significant risks. Researchers, technologists, and even sovereign governments, including the United States, are starting to pressure companies to develop AI ethically and more responsibly. As a result, a number of key companies — including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic — have formed the Frontier Model Forum, an industry body that sets standards for ethical AI development. It’s a big step forward, but AI isn’t the only technology that needs ethical guidelines: we need to see this same kind of action for design and technology in general.
Intention: The Starting Point for Ethical Innovation
Innovative technologies and solutions are typically developed by cross-discipline teams within projects that, unsurprisingly, aren’t always seamless or approachable. Understanding how to integrate ethical design into the work isn’t often apparent when you’re in the midst of creation. So, it’s critical to address the ethical implications of the technology at the very beginning. Align the team to ask this question at the kick-off: “What impact do we want this to have on society, groups, and individuals through the designed experience?”
The conversations this question elicits should be a good starting point for incorporating ethical and inclusive design because it will set your intention. After all, design without intention is just decoration, and we strive for more in this industry.
The Obstacles to Intentional Design
In Silicon Valley, the maxim for innovation has long been, “Move fast and break things.” Certainly, this philosophy can accelerate innovation, but it also leads to unforeseen and entirely preventable harm, including
- Alienation and marginalization,
- Systemic failures
- Security and privacy breaches,
- Frayed trust in the product.
To avoid these harms, design and technology teams must consider three interconnected areas as they set their intentions and guidelines: ethics, inclusivity, and accessibility. And to help your teams work through this, here’s a guide to help you along your journey.
Ethical Reflection
To align the entire team on a common ethical foundation, consider the following at the project’s outset:
- Intentionality: Establish the problem you intend to solve and envision the best-case scenario for the solution. Make sure to keep this concise and within the scope of the project, adding only the necessary detail and complexity.
- Equity: As you design the solution and get feedback from end-users, ensure that both sides — customer and business — benefit proportionately from the experience.
- Privacy: Users must be in control and able to make informed decisions about how their private information is used and shared.
- Sustainability: This isn’t just about the environment, though that’s one leg of the stool. This also includes social and economic sustainability to ensure your business can maintain the solution and that it solves a real problem for users. Additionally, the solution shouldn’t cause a waste of resources, either on the business or customer side.
- Transparency: In ethical design, users can make informed decisions because engagement with the solution is transparent — they know exactly how their actions will affect their experience before they have to make choices.
Product Inclusivity
Once an ethical base has been established, it’s critical to challenge biases continuously so the team can collaborate and create a UX that’s available and inclusive for as wide a range of people as possible.
- DEI: Actively strive for a balanced team of many different demographic groups and eliminate barriers that might prevent marginalized groups from accessing resources and opportunities. Every team member should feel comfortable expressing their perspectives, knowing they will be valued.
- Challenge biases: Everyone has biases. It’s important to identify and then constantly challenge them so they don’t creep into and harm the design process or the solution.
- Empathy: This is the ability to understand another person’s experience from their point of view, and it’s a critical skill to nurture so the design team can develop solutions that benefit all stakeholders.
- Societal implications: Think through your solution’s potential effects on society. Think about what could go wrong and the societal cost of your solution.
See More: Disability Inclusion: 5 Brands That Are Truly Making a Difference
Accessibility
Accessibility is the third piece of the humanity-centered puzzle because it ensures the widest possible range of users who could benefit from the solution should be able to use it.
- Usability: A useable experience gives people agency in how they engage with the solution. The UI shouldn’t mislead, and content should not be obfuscated or misrepresented.
- POUR: the user-centered accessibility principles from WCAG 2: By following these principles, developers can ensure their solution is accessible.
- Perceivable: Available to the senses
- Operable: Navigation, controls, and forms are all operable
- Understandable: The UI should be comprehensible to all users
- Robust: Content can be interpreted by a wide array of user agents and assistive technologies
- Mental health: This may seem like overreach, but as digital creators, we use our understanding of how our users think and feel to design solutions for them. Psychology and behavioral economics should play a significant role in shaping scope and conceptualization.
By developing and designing with intention, following the principles laid out above can help guide a team towards a humanity-centered approach. Increasingly, people experience the world through digital experiences, and as designers, we have the awesome power of creating and directing them for our users. With that power comes the responsibility to do so in an ethical, inclusive, and accessible manner.
How can your design process prioritize accessibility? Why is ethical design important to you? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
Image Source: Shutterstock
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