The pandemic transformed the way people live and interact with each other. This encompasses all the common social norms—including patterns of behavior, communications, and attitudes. Now people often speak of the ‘new normal.’
As designers and developers, we are obliged to create experiences that are better than normal. For us, it’s important to never lose the wider ethical perspective; seeing changing circumstances not as a drawback, but as an opportunity for a better shared future. This future has to be envisioned and designed, and we hope that everyone will participate. This perspective is especially relevant in as contradictory and mercurial an environment as the web.
Adding a new dimension to design—an ethical one—can address this challenge and embrace the disruption. For the Ethical Issue, Readymag asked five design entrepreneurs and educators to discuss how an ethical approach can provide unique insights on behavior, context, and consumption. With this project, our primary goal is to stimulate thought-provoking impulses and inspire discussion.
“Purpose-driven design is not profitable”:
how leading by example can prove this heading wrong
by Abb-d Choudhury
Tough times call
for experimental social projects
by Fraser Morton
Design ethics
and relationship-centred practice
by Immy Robinson
Why user-centred design
struggles with ethics
by Cennydd Bowles
Dark patterns,
the dark side of design
by Eileen MacAvery Kane