Recent years have seen an increased interest in ethically responsible design of technology in society at large as well as among design practitioners. While design ethics is a well-established research area, few studies have enquired into how design practitioners understand ethics. Through semi-structured interviews we have explored practitioners’ approaches to ethics in design. Our findings show noticing, reflecting and reacting as three ways that ethical matters are approached. This ties into dynamic and participatory views on ethics, rather than viewing ethics as a set of formal frameworks and deductive reasoning practices. Practitioners need approaches that tie in to existing work practices. Our results provide practice-led suggestions and points of departure of when and how it might be suitable to infuse design ethics into design practice.

Ethically responsible design of technology has been under prolific discussion in recent years. Since design practitioners play a big part in shaping technology, their understanding of ethics is important. Much research has been conducted on ethics in design, but research findings are rarely used in industry. Our study addresses this gap by creating a space for conversation for design practitioners to explore the meaning of design ethics and related challenges. Our findings confirm the complexity of integrating ethics into the everyday practice of design, and suggest co-creating possible solutions as a way to start cultivating ethos in practice. Practitioners envisioned ideas for a toolbox concept, thoughts on how to integrate ethics into existing practices, and a visual moral compass. Our findings translate into a set of questions aiming to make ethical issues in practice visible, and to stimulate discussions around what designers considered to be ethical challenges. 

De senaste åren har intresset för designers etiska ansvar ökat. Trots detta saknas kunskap om hur etisk praxis kan kultiveras i verkliga miljöer. För att utforska detta bildade vi ett team med designers på en digital designstudio. Under 10 månader samarbetade teamet och samskapade aktiviteter och material avsedda att öka medvetenheten om etik hos designers på designstudion. Vår forskning understryker vikten av att presentera etik på ett tilltalande sätt för att engagera designers och illustrerar hur vi laborerade med detta i vårt projekt. Dessutom diskuterar vi co-design som en samarbetsyta för att engagera designutövare i utforskningen och utvecklingen av etisk praktik.

Recent years have seen an increased interest in designers’ ethical responsibility. However, knowledge concerning how ethical practice could be cultivated in real-life settings is still lacking. In order to explore this issue, we formed a team with practitioners at a digital design studio. During 10 months, the team co-designed activities and materials intended to sensitize design practitioners at the studio to ethics. Our research underscores the importance of presenting ethics in an appealing manner in order to engage designers, and illustrates how we explored this in our project. Moreover, we discuss co-design as a collaborative space for engaging design practitioners in the exploration and development of ethics that go beyond “tick-box exercises”.

Design is not neutral but involves ethical aspects, from addressing power dynamics to enabling broader accessibility and inclusion. In industry settings, design leaders can play an essential role in promoting ethical design by, for instance, setting visions, developing and advocating values, and providing guidance for design. Through co-design workshops with ten design leaders working in Sweden, we investigated how these professionals envision the cultivation-that is, the development, promotion, and dissemination-of ethically responsible design. Our study outlines what the participants regard as the main problems that stifle ethical design and designing, and how to practically address them. The findings highlight that design leaders consider the lack of awareness about the ethical dimensions of design to be one of the main problems. Additionally, they point to various strategies for addressing the problems, such as communicating compelling reasons for prioritizing ethics, creating inclusive and welcoming spaces for collaborative problem-solving and learning about ethics, and folding ethics into current practices. This could involve, for instance, adding the dimension of ethics to 'design critique' sessions, or re-evaluating portfolio reviews to prioritize diversity in recruitment. We conclude by discussing design leaders' potential for furthering ethically responsible design, and provide a practical tool, a design brief, to support this endeavor.