DESIGN ETHICS

GORDANA DODIG-CRNKOVIC
Division of Interaction Design,
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg
2019

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 RHETHORIC

Pathos Logos

Ethos

Pathos - appeal based on emotion

Logos - appeal based on logic or reason
Ethos - appeal based on the character of the speaker.

Rethoric - using speech to convince the listener

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 My Background: Teaching Ethics
CDT409 - Professional Ethics (earlier version CD5590) MDH

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590/ ( 2003 – 2014) - course responsible

GFOK025 - Research Ethics & Sustainable Development, Chalmers University of

Technology, PhD course (2014 – 2017) - course responsible

CDT403 - Research Methods in Natural Sciences and Engineering (2000 – 2014)

MDH – course responsible

CIU280 - Emerging Trends in Interaction Design – 2018 Chalmers – course responsible

HCD-TDA486 – Human-Centric Design – 2018 Chalmers – Lecture on Design Ethics

For the complete list, see:

http://www.idt.mdh.se/~gdc/work/ETHICS/GDC.COURSES-ETHICS.pdf
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 My Background: Research in Ethics
2018

Holstein, T. Dodig-Crnkovic G. Avoiding the Intrinsic Unfairness of the Trolley Problem. 2018 ACM/IEEE
International Workshop on Software Fairness ACM ISBN 9781450357463/18/05 https://doi.org/10.1145/3194770.3194772

Holstein, T. Dodig-Crnkovic G. and Pelliccione P. Ethical and Social Aspects of Self-Driving Cars,
http://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04103 https://easychair.org/publications/preprint/CQbW

2017
Johnsen A., DodigCrnkovic G., Lundqvist K., Hänninen K., Pettersson P. Risk-based Decision-making Fallacies:
Why Present Functional Safety Standards Are Not Enough. MARCH2017 International Workshop
on decision Making in Software Architecture @ ICSA 2017 Gothenburg, Sweden. 04.04.2017. Published in:
Software Architecture Workshops (ICSAW), 2017 IEEE International Conference. DOI:
10.1109/ICSAW.2017.50 pp. 153160.

2016
DodigCrnkovic, G. and Sapienza, G., Ethical Aspects of Technology in the MultiCriteria Decision Analysis.
IACAP conference, Ferrara, June 14-17.

Sapienza, G., DodigCrnkovic, G. and Crnkovic, I. Inclusion of Ethical Aspects in MultiCriteria Decision
Analysis. Proc. WICSA and CompArch conference. Decision Making in Software ARCHitecture (MARCH),
2016 1st International Workshop. Venice April 5-8 DOI: 10.1109/MARCH.2016.5, ISBN: 9781509025732.
pp. 1-8, IEEE

For the complete list, see:

http://www.idt.mdh.se/~gdc/work/ETHICS/GDC.PUBLICATIONS-ETHICS.pdf 4
 My Background: Ethics Lectures
2018

ETHICS lecture 2018 08 31

IDEA League School Engineering Complex Systems with Big data and Information Technology
ECS-BIT’18, Chalmers Gothenburg

Seminar on ETHICS, FORA Fog Computing for Robotics and Industrial Automation Summer School 2018,
June 08, Vienna

2017
Supply Chain Management: Social, Ethical and Knowledge Aspects 2017 11 23 & 2017 04 25
Guest lecture for the Supply Chain Management Master Program, Chalmers Univ ersity of Technology

Profesionalna etika kao priprema programskih inženjera za društvene izazove budućnosti

Professional ethics for software engineering students as preparation for the challenges of the future,
IEEE Croatia. Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera, Osijek, October 2017

Research Ethics 2017 09 11

(Guest lecture for Cognition and Communication Master Program, University of Gothenburg)

Risk-based Decision-making Fallacies: Why Present Functional Safety Standards Are Not Enough
MARCH2017 International Workshop on decision Making in Software Architecture
@ ICSA 2017 Gothenburg, Sweden. 04.04.2017.

Supply Chain Management: Social, Ethical and Knowledge Aspects Guest lecture for the Supply Chain Management
Master Program, Chalmers Univ ersity of Technology

For the complete list, see:

http://www.idt.mdh.se/~gdc/work/ETHICS/GDC.PRESENTATIONS-ETHICS.pdf 5
 Design Ethics Lecture Plan

1. The Aim
2. Identifying Ethical Issues
3. Classical Approaches to Ethics
4. Ethics for Design (video)
5. Designers Own Initiatives to Integrate Ethics
6. Ethics for Designers Web Resources
7. Importance of Stakeholders
8. Values
9. New Technological Challenges
10. References

https://design.sva.edu/product/design-and-ethics-poster/
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The Aim

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 The aim
As the topic of Design Ethics is huge, what this lecture can do is
to open the window with a view

https://www.onventanas.com/historia-vidrio/ventana-japonesa/#iLightbox[postimages]/0
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 Design constitutes moral practices

If ethics is about the question of how to act, and designers

help to shape how technologies mediate action, designing
should be considered ‘ethics by other means’.

Every technological artefact that is used will mediate human

actions, and every act of design therefore helps to constitute
specific moral practices.

P.P Verbeek, What Things Do, 2009, p.69

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Identifying Ethical Issues

Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.

Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego

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 Ethics and Morality
- Etymology

Morality and ethics have same roots, mores which

means manner and customs from the Latin and
etos which means custom and habits from the Greek.

Robert Louden, Morality and Moral Theory

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 Ethics and Morality

Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we

would call moral standards and moral conduct while
ethics is used to refer to the formal study of those
standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of
ethics is also often called "moral philosophy."

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 Ethics and Morality

Morality: first-order set of beliefs and practices about

how to live a good life.

Ethics: a second-order, conscious reflection on the

adequacy of our moral beliefs.

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 Society, Values and Norms

ETHICS

MORALS

LAW

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Classical Approaches to Ethics

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 Classical Approaches to Ethics

The Virtue Ethics

Focuses on attitudes, dispositions, or character traits

that enable us to act in ways that develop our human
potentials. Examples: honesty, courage, faithfulness,
trustworthiness, integrity, etc.

The principle is: What is ethical is what develops moral

virtues in ourselves and our communities.

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 Classical Approaches to Ethics

The Utilitarian Ethics

Focuses on the consequences that actions or policies

have on the well-being (“utility”) of all persons directly
or indirectly affected by the action or policy.

The principle is: Of any two actions, the most ethical

one will produce the greatest balance of benefits over
harms.

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 Classical Approaches to Ethics

The Rights-Based Ethics

Each person has a fundamental right to be respected and

treated as a free and equal rational person capable of
making his or her own decisions.
The principle is: An action or policy is morally right only if
those persons affected by the decision are not used
merely as instruments for advancing some goal, but are
fully informed and treated only with their informed
consent.

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Ethics for Design

https://vimeo.com/232973887

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12 designers and researchers from 8 European cities discuss the
impact of design on our societies and the paths to follow for designers
to work for the good of all.

1. What does a designer do?

2. Is there something wrong with design?
3. Ethics and Morality
4. How designers can do better?
 Ethics for Design
1. What does a designer do?

• 0:00-4:20 James Auger, M-ITI, Madeira. Critical Design:

Gravity battery- solar energy lifting mass – storing energy for
later use
• 4:20- Alan Findeli, Nimes and Montreal Universities, Project
laboratory. “Inhabitability”
• 08:27 Peter Bil’ak, Type and graphic designer, Typotheque,
The Hague. Design for all: magazine by designers for all –
affordable, social distribution

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 Ethics for Design
1. What does a designer do?

• 11:14 Design for values – Nicolas Nova, The Near Future Lab
Geneva
• 11:43 Geoffrey Dorne, Design & Human, Paris. App for
communication between refugees
• 13:08 Sarah Gold, IF London – privacy and security – The
opportunity for design to come in and make a difference

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 Ethics for Design
2. Is there something wrong with design?
• 15:17

• 17:33-18:51 Sarah Gold:

– Design not taken seriously
– Technology moving too quickly
– Rights we expect to have:
• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• Rights related to automated decisions & profiling
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 Ethics for Design
3. Ethics and Morality

• 19:24 – 21:09
• 21:09 -21:41 James Williams, doctoral candidate on attention
ethics at Oxford University, Time Well Spent. Ethics as “the
world it aught to be”
• 22:32 – 24:36 Matthieu Cherubi, Design technologist,
Shanghai – machine ethics, car ethics

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 Ethics for Design
3. Ethics and Morality

• 27:37 – 28:01 James Williams: Technology helping us achieve

our values
• 28:54 – 29:58 Sarah Gold: Beyond technological solipsism –
awareness about other people’s presence
• 29:58 -31:30 James Williams: Moving towards what we want to
move to

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 Ethics for Design
4. How designers can do better?
• 31:30
• 31:46 -33:00 Matthieu Cherubi, Designing against your own
ethical beliefs and values – Pizza robot

• 39:23 -40:30 Window of opportunity, Sarah Gold

• 41:39 43:44 Distractions of design like pollution of
environment, James Williams
• 47:27 Juicy salif Lemon squeezer: vacuous design?
https://www.independent.co.uk/property/interiors/the-secret-history-of-
philippe-starcks-lemon-squeezer-1972849.html

• 48:03 – 49:00 Openness as a virtue, Sarah Gold

• 49:00 – 49:43 Care for the user, James Williams
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Designers Own Initiatives to
Integrate Ethics

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 Designer’s
Code of Ethics
 Code of Conduct Example

Object of the code

to state the principles for an
international basis of ethical
standards related to the practice
of design which are accepted by
all Member organizations of ico-
D.

A designer’s responsibility
to the community, to the client, to
other designers

A designer’s remuneration
Competition
Publicity
Code does not mention sustainability and circular economy other than indirectly via ecology.
http://www.ico-d.org/database/files/library/icoD_BP_CodeofConduct.pdf 29
Hippocratic Oath for Design

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Hippocratic Oath for Design

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 32
https://www.fjordnet.com/media-files/2017/11/AI-ethics-manifesto.jpg
https://ekprayogblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/open-design-manifesto/ 33
Ethics for Designers
Web Resources

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 Ethics for designers web resources

https://www.ethicsfordesigners.com/articles/

https://usabilitygeek.com/ethics-in-user-experience-design/

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Ethically Aligned Design & IEEE Standards

https://ethicsinaction.ieee.org/
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http://www.springer.com/la/book/9789400769694
http://opac.vimaru.edu.vn/edata/EBook/SACH%20TV%20SO%20HOA/English/SDHLT%2003015%20-
%20Ethical%20IT%20innovation%20%20a%20value-based%20system%20design%20approach.pdf

http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~pchatter/2011/pepi/The_Handbook_of_Information_and_Comp
uter_Ethics.pdf
Values

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Values and ethics of knowledge

Based on the article:

Nancy Tuana (2015)

Coupled Ethical-Epistemic Analysis in Teaching
Ethics. Critical reflection on value choices.
CACM VOL. 500 NO. 12. Pages 27-29

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 Values in the Knowledge Production

KNOWLEDGE

VALUES VALUES

APPLICATION
INFORMATION

VALUES VALUES
DATA

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 Values

V a l u e s serve as a g u i d e t o a c t i o n a n d
k n o w l e d g e . They are relevant to all aspects of scientific
and engineering practice, including discovery, analysis, and
application.

TUANA. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM | DECEMBER 2015 | VOL. 58 | NO. 12

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 Values and emotions

“The decisions that scientists and others need to make

about what projects to pursue, what theories to accept,
and what applications to enact will unavoidably have an
emotional, value-laden aspect.”

“The best course is not to eliminate values and emotions,

but to try to ensure that the best values are used in the
most effective ways.”
Paul Thagard

TUANA. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM | DECEMBER 2015 | VOL. 58 | NO. 12

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Ethics in the Value-Sensitive Design Approach
Mary L. Cummings
Specific human values to be considered in the design process:
- Human Welfare,
- Ownership And Property,
- Privacy,
- Freedom from bias,
- Universal usability,
- Trust,
- Autonomy,
- Informed consent,
- Accountability,
- Identity, and
- Environmental Sustainability. [Environmental, Social,
Economic, Technological etc.]
- Calmness [? Only? Perhaps Cognitive sustainability?]
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What are values?

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Conceptual framework for the design
of the passenger experience in Shared
and Automated Vehicles (SAV)

https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/25572 45
 Rethoric Balance

Pathos Logos

Ethos

Pathos - appeal based on emotion.

Logos - appeal based on logic or reason.

Ethos - appeal based on values which are

grounded in the character of the speaker.

Ernst Haeckel – Hummingbirds 1904, Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature) p. 46
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstformen_der_Natur
 Requirement for transparency of values

Transparency of values is essential for trustworthiness and

credibility of research. It is central to transdisciplinary
research such as e.g. the National Science Foundation’s
Sustainability Research Network on Sustainable Climate
Risk Management (SCRiM, http://scrimhub.org).

Coupled ethical-epistemic analysis helps to identify new

and refined research topics, and inform modeling for multi-
objective, robust decision making.

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 Values hierarchy

https://www.slideshare.net/philengtech/ibo-fpetvsd
Ibo van Poel: Value Sensitive Design: Four Challenges 48
Importance of Stakeholders

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 STAKEHOLDERS IN AN INDUSTRIAL PROJECT

Industry
(Other firms)
Clients Profession
Consumers (Societies)

Engineering firm
Family,
Relatives, Engineer Colleagues
Friends Society at Large
(Private Sphere)

Managers
Nature Academia/Resea
rch institutes 50
 STAKEHOLDERS IN A RESEARCH PROJECT

International
Academic research
community Professional
Research Organizations
Communities Societies

Academia Financing
bodies
Family, PhD Research
Relatives, Student group
Friends
(Private Sphere)

PhD
Society at Large
Industry/Busin Advisors
Nature
ess
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 Domains of Ethics:
Micro – Meso – Exo – Macro

The domain-based view in the analysis applicable to different types of

problems – organization of society, sustainability of cities, ecology,
economics, ethical aspects etc. Source: American Psychological Association
New Technological Challenges

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 New Technological Challenges

- Big data (Discuss: Cambridge Analytica, Strava tracking app)

- Internet of things – internet of everything
- Intelligent cities
- Autonomous cars (Discuss: Uber Arizona crash)
- Autonomous intelligent software in control systems,
information systems etc.
- Cyberphysical intelligent systems
- Adaptive (machine-larning) systems (such as ambient
intllignce, traffic, decision-making)
- Sustainability (Environmental, Social, Technological,
Cognitive) & Circular Economy
References

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 MY ETHICS COURSES

https://www.chalmersprofessional.se/sv/utbildningar
tags=generic_skills&id=4409#.VNDpTcbvMgO Research Ethics &
Sustainable Development (Chalmers GTS course)

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590/
Professional Ethics course at MDH

http://www.idt.mdh.se/~gdc/work/20160421-TRANSDISCIPLINARY-
COURSE-SCHEDULE.html Transdisciplinary Research Methods at GU
http://www.idt.mdh.se/~gdc/work/presentations.html

http://www.idt.mdh.se/%7Egdc/work/publications.html
Initiative seminar on Digitalisation: Security
& privacy | Machine Intelligence

https://www.chalmers.se/en/areas-of-advance/ict/events/
Digitalisation2018/Pages/default.aspx

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