Ethical design – at the core – is about doing no harm, and about showing fundamental respect.
This ambitious goal is achievable by following the 3 core principles of ethical design in innovation, strategy and product development:
Equality
Prioritise diversity and inclusion to guardrail against unintended bias, exclusion and negative consequences for the customers/ users and society.
transparency
Use non-manipulative design practices and honest communication to build trust, credibility and long-term relationships.
privacy
Respect user privacy in data collection, storage and processing to maximise security, credibility and ethics in all services delivered.
Ethical design adds tremendous value to your business, products and services.
It increases customer satisfaction and loyalty, improves brand perception and creates long-term profit.
But it is not a silo activity.
To be successful and impactful, the principles of ethical design must be prioritised across the organisation and at all levels.
Here are some examples.
In the work processes:
Mitigate internal risks, apply an ethical governance framework and identify opportunities and challenges. This will
enable the ethical transformation that is required to make significant, lasting change.
In customer involvement:
Focus on respect-driven design by applying human-centered design, design with empathy and a laser focus on diversity and inclusion.
In business:
Connect the ethical design practice to the measurement model and set up relevant KPI’s to measure the ethical design progress.
In product design:
Design products that meet best practices for trustworthy design and accessibility, use non-deceptive patterns and ethical data models.
Want to find out how you can use ethical design in innovation?
