Designers can put ethics front and centre in their practice by intentionally acting in ways that share power, knowledge and skills. Nurturing relationships can help expand design BY communities, where knowledge, power, ideas and resources flow.
These three questions sit at the heart of ABCD, so ask yourself before starting a new project:
- What is it that communities can best do? (Design BY)
- What do communities need help with? (Design WITH)
- What do communities need outside agencies to do for them? (Design FOR)
Doing so will help you avoid defaulting to designing TO or FOR. It’s always better to start by understanding what assets already exist, and what communities can do for themselves.
As we slowly unfurl from the pandemic, we face a fork in the road: to return to ‘normal’ or build a new, kinder, more equitable normal. Design can, and must, play a central role in driving this change.
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Shift Design is a British charity that tackles social problems through the power of design thinking. Together with partners, Shift helps transform systems, services and organisations.
This article was first released by the Readymag editorial team as a part of the Ethical Design Issue series on Medium. Now it comes in the form of a flexible design template. Take it to create your next digital publication, or explore the vast collection of Readymag templates.
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