Designers’ role in Tech Future & How Ethics and Morality play a role in the Design Process.

Recently, I watched a documentary movie called “The Social Dilemma”. This movie raised some very genuine concerns.

Are we using social media for our benefit or we are being used by them?

Who is actually responsible for this, Designer or Artificial Intelligence?

Can we(as a designer) reform this habit to focus on humanity rather than business needs?

These 3 questions keep me haunted after watching the movie. So in this article, I will talk about the Designer’s role in the tech future we are building and also how ethics and morality play a role in the Designer’s Design process.

Digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), mixed reality (MR), brain-computer interfaces (BCI), blockchain, and voice interfaces are changing the landscape of human-computer interaction, and services like The Facebook feed, Instagram feed, and YouTube recommendations show how an increasing share of design tasks are being automated. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, and touchless interfaces are reinventing the customer experience. Designers must now be trailblazers and discover how to apply these emerging technologies to create engaging impactful experiences.

So, If you are thinking that AI is responsible for the negative impact of Social Media and in near future, it can replace the designer’s role then Your sentiments are half true. Automation is inevitable, but as creative thinkers, the role we play in predicting and solving will be invaluable. Today, most design jobs are defined by creative and social intelligence. These skill sets require empathy, problem framing, creative problem solving, negotiation, and persuasion. Many aspects of a designer’s role in tech have already been automated and will continue to be until our roles have evolved into something else entirely but one thing is sure that Designers’ skills such as Creative thinking, Social intelligence are hard to outsource into AI.

When humans and computers work together, they can do amazing things that neither could do alone. Designers who embrace new technologies will push the boundaries of the customer experience.

As AI-driven parametric design enables designers to quickly and easily create millions of variations of a design, most designers’ productivity will dramatically increase. Suddenly, we’ll be able to explore massive numbers of alternative directions in a fraction of the time we need today. New technologies will also transform the design process. AI already helps designers work faster and smarter by automating time-consuming tasks, leaving them more time to be creative.

Albert Shum, CVP of Microsoft’s Design, Experiences, and Devices group, sees the present moment as an era of discovery that can inspire amazing design. “It’s like the first time we used a touch screen and discovered a whole world of possibilities,” he says.

Be it voice or augmented reality, we are inventing new ways to communicate, which unlocks a lot of creativity.

-Albert Shum, CVP of Microsoft’s Design, Experiences, and Devices group

So, AI is not alone responsible for the effect of social dilemma, But Designers also. AI is given a specific goal to achieve by humans and it masters itself by continuously learning from the user behavior. So it’s the designer that can reform the existing habits of social media/web and make the world a better place by valuing humanity first and business goals second. For this, there should be some ethics and morality within the designers in order to maintain a balance between profit and ethics.

But What is ethics in Design and how do ethics and morality play a role in the Designer’s Design process? Let’s Find out.

Design ethics concerns moral behavior and is responsible for choices in the practice of design. It guides how designers work with clients, colleagues, and the end-users of products, how they conduct the design process, how they determine the features of products, and how they assess the ethical significance or moral worth of the products that result from the activity of designing. Ethical considerations have always played a role in design thinking, but the development of scientific knowledge and technology has deepened awareness of the ethical dimensions of design. As designers incorporate new knowledge of physical and human nature as well as new forms of technology into their products, people are increasingly aware of the consequences of design for individuals, societies, cultures, and the natural environment.

Design impacts humanity. It affects our spaces and places, professions and pastimes, friendships, and families. Design improves lives. It reduces injuries, increases productivity, and makes knowledge more accessible.

But there’s a darker side, a way of using design irresponsibly — even destructively. We’ve seen the addictive nature of social media, games, and apps. We’ve been shocked by the stories and fake news circulated on these platforms and outraged by the results. A lot of people have realized that big organizations like Facebook and Google should act more responsibly as they monetize their user’s attention and data. We worry about our privacy, our safety, and our psychological wellbeing. Design can do harm.

When a company like Facebook and google improve the experience of its products, it’s like the massages we give to Kobe beef : they’re not for the benefit of the cow but to make the cow a better product. In this analogy, you are the cow.”

– Aral Balkan, ethical designer, founder of Ind.ie

As designers, we want our work to help, not hinder. What we create, whether a website, a marketing campaign, or a product, has an effect on real people and those effects can create ripples. In an effort to protect the people we design for, we invoke labels. We name things “good” or “bad” and let our worldview guide design decisions. Our intentions are good, but our method is myopic. We need a systematic approach to help us examine both our design choices and their underlying motives — an ethical approach.

“We spend a lot of time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.”

— Dr. Prabhjot Singh, Director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute.