ARTICLE (12 min read)
January, 2021
Designing ethical futures: Speculating about tomorrow to help us get through today.
Most of the designers I know face ethical challenges at work, and I find myself wondering if they ever act on them.
Times have changed, and designers are thinking differently. We’re working amidst a pandemic and it’s weird and uncharted territory. It can feel hard to ‘do the right thing’ when nothing feels normal.
But it’s also a good opportunity to give things a rethink. And that’s the part of you I’d like to talk to today. I’d like to introduce a bit of lightness to what is usually a bit of a heavy topic.
TALK
SDN UK, 9 December, 2020
Ethics in Service Design.
Join us for this year’s last event as we explore the multifaceted topic of ethics in the practice of service design. The past year has surfaced how resilient we can be as a human race, but also highlighted some of the injustices we face as a society. SDN wishes to be part of that conversation, by bringing in some experts to raise awareness, debate and have a dialogue on the most relevant topics in ethical design.
TALK
TEDxMelbourne PluggedIn: The New Future, June 2020
The Dangerous Power of Speculation.
It turns out that designers with the chops to create the next big thing, aren’t, leaving a precarious question. For designers, it’s about cultivating the meaningful now, not speculating the meaningful next.
The designers who work in the future have pivoted to the present at a time when most other professions are doing the opposite.
What are the ethics of speculating into the future when our present is broken?
ARTICLE (1 min read, plus survey)
April, 2020
Speculative design ethics for designers in a post COVID-19 world.
Designer’s hold a crucial role shaping our responses to COVID-19. It’s clear that many are innovating on what’s to come, but which of these innovations will inhibit the advancement of society, and which will provide meaningful improvements to economic and social welfare? How can we work out the ethical implications of what we choose now?
To kick start the thinking around some of these questions, and in support of my existing work, I’ve created a survey to gather insights on the impacts of COVID-19 on design practitioners. The results will be shared with the design community shortly. Thank you for contributing!
ARTICLE (3 min read plus Canvas)
September, 2019
The Speculative Design Ethics Canvas.
The Speculative Design Ethics Canvas evolved from a lot of interest I received during my research from designers who wanted some tools to help them situate and contextualise their ethical compass. It starts with the problem or dilemma the designer is facing and introduces some considerations to break it down and work out what to do about it.
There is often more to a problem, or situation, than meets the eye and my research shows that the opportunity to look at a problem from multiple angles can help make it more solvable and manageable.
ARTICLE (6 min read)
Published by The Startup, August, 2019
Design ethics for designers who give a toss.
Most of the designers I know call bullshit at work on a daily basis. But calling out bad behaviour doesn’t make you an ethical designer. Times have changed, and designers need to learn to think differently. The good news is that Speculative design and Reflective practice can help designers escape the noise and find their ethics with integrity.
As human-centred design grows and becomes ubiquitous in our workplaces, the need to design ethically has never been greater.
ARTICLE (3 min read)
Published by UX Collective, June 2019
Where have all the designers gone?
I’ve been having discussions with friends and colleagues lately about the lack of credibility of design.
Having ‘design’ or ‘designer’ in your role title does not give you actual design chops.
My colleagues and I are seeing a lot of organisations problematically propelling this problem by hiring inexperienced practitioners into design positions which set the individual and the company up for failure.
ARTICLE (6 min read)
May, 2019
Applying Speculative Design to Design Ethics.
It’s exciting that designers are trying on the latest Speculative design buzz to look beyond what is happening in their practices, but what is Speculative design as applied to design practice?
Speculative design has appeared in the main stream, but what is it and why is it taking the interest of designers?
In early 2018, I conducted research to discover how designers can find their own ethics. This led to a series of experiments which aim to evolve our understanding of design ethics using Speculative design.