Ethics and
Information
Architecture
The 6th Academics and Practitioners
Roundtable
at the Information Architecture Summit 2018
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Sarah Rice (lead organizer)
Bern Irizarry
Stacy Surla
Keith Instone
Andrea Resmini

OVERVIEW
What is the Academics & Practitioners Roundtable?
This years topic: Ethics & Information Architecture
Next Steps
Q&A
ORGANIZERS
Sarah
Rice
Lead
Bern
Irizarry
Stacy
Surla
Keith
Instone
Andrea
Resmini

REFRAMING IA
2013
TEACHING IA
2014
MASTERWORKS:
WHAT MAKES
GOOD IA GOOD
2016
DEVELOPING A
LANGUAGE OF
CRITIQUE
2015
MAPPING THE
DOMAIN
2017
Reframe-ia.org
#reframeia on Twitter
Academics & Practitioners Roundtable
Held before the IA Summit each year, this pre-conference activity exists to
support the community in defining and supporting Information
Architecture as a profession.

ETHICS&IA 2018: Ethics & Information Architecture
Information architecture is not neutral.
Organizing information for discovery and use makes it accessible but also adds a lens through which people will
experience it. Practicing IA means making and imposing value choices, which positions the work and study of
information architecture in the realm of ethics.
The M3 Model

LIGHTNING TALKS
Arturo Perez
Ontological and Epistemological Notion of Being
Hobbes & Fenn
Wicked Ethics in Design
Stacy Surla
Towards a Feminist IA
Kat King
Personal Ethics and Ethical Codes
Dan Zollman
Boundaries and Relationships in IA Practice
Jeff Pass
Everything that Rises must Converge
Anne Gibson
Your Ableism is Showing
Dan Klyn
Training AIs

ETHICALPRINCIPLES Principles:
Do no harm
Equal access to information
Community ethics
Gather a variety of points of view
Protect (and respect) difference
Helping some can help all
Give a damn (about accessibility)
Represent/consider the user in your IA
Take an action (don’t just think about it)
We exist in context. Embrace it.
“Improve the system”
Ethical problems are cognitive non-routine problems
We know what we see, hear, feel, etc. (sense).
Design above reproach
Views that don’t value the diversity of views should not count.
It’s important to provide social value, not just monetary worth.
Gather feedback (from users & stakeholders)
Solve a problem
Use tools to get your job done
Review what we make before we release it
Don’t wait til it’s perfect
“Make IA great again”
Values:
Free speech, free expression
Access to information
Human rights, Human dignity
Empathy
Balance, “meet in the middle”
Accuracy
Value
Advocacy
Trust
Ethical Pluralist
Honesty
Civility
Accountability
Agency (control own destiny)
Privacy
Harmony
Ecosystem well-being
Transparency
Equity
Equality (gender)
Truth
Space for open/free thoughts

INFORMATIONPROBLEMS Frameworks for decisions are not named:
Ethical frameworks in metasystems are
derived from business discourse
IA is not part of developing PAPA thought
security and control is.
Understand the impact of information
choices:
The prioritization of public space online
IA literacy
Bridging practitioner and academic expertise
Information literacy
Who “owns” data
Information filtering
Externalities
Must understand how information is created,
managed, used to engage on ethics
All models are wrong
Information is a process
How to bring ethical philosophy to practice
What counts as diverse?
Design and IA are considered a “privilege”
Assumptions
Empathy could be a problem
Assumptions that 2 people would have the
same response to a problem
Include vs. exclude
No desire to change the system
“We can’t raise the boats faster that we
can raise the water.”
We each have a different definition of
“good”
Visible and transparency
Multiple stakeholders
Responsibility distributed among actors
Consent
Who is an actor in the system
Don’t know the real problem
Transparency
Don’t see the problem (don’t or can’t
acknowledge it exists)
Power perspective and lens selected
Conflict and how to resolve it
Hostile work environment
We have our own lenses
Who makes the decisions?
Is “tolerance” too toothless?
Only one point of view (mainstream)
Who has the power
“All built by men”
Filter troubles
Complexity driven by tech
VR
AI
Emergent properties of complex human
and info systems
Systems are complex
Complex politics
“Good” vs. “Successful”
Goal is only making money and not
human well-being
Dark Practices
Fake news
Not considering the user
Are dark patterns for good still ethically
wrong?
Mentioning user perspective to check
off the “ethical box” in design process
Qualify users exclusion through biz
requirements to limit access for people
with disabilities
Access to technology
Access to information
Personal information not treated as
personal property
Accuracy - no attention to detail or
concern that information is accurate
Information is not treated as private
Ability to contest or disagree what info
about me that is out there
How do I know what data is out there
about me? When? For whom?

STORIES
& A PLAY
The results of a day’s work

A SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY
THAT
MAXIMIZES GOOD AND
MINIMIZES HARM
Shelley Cook
Keith Instone
Stacy Surla

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla
How this fits into the M3 model Watch Stacy explain the storyboard
YouTube video: A Sex Offender Registry that
Maximizes Good and Minimizes Harm (3:03)

FACEBOOK AND FAKE NEWS
Arturo Perez
Amy Rosenthal
Carole Smith
Tim Whalen
Anne Gibson

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla
Values included in this story Watch Sue explain the storyboard
Facebook and Fake News
(3:03)

KILL ‘EM RIGHT
Dan Zollman
Jeff Pass
Jason Hobbs
Andrea Resmini
Building a system to carry out the death
sentence in Texas

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla
Video goes here - imbed? Or link?
Ethical principles involved
Decision tree:
Should I do this project?

Building a system to carry out the death
sentence in Texas
(14:13)

INFORMATION THERAPY
FOR FACEBOOK USERS
Clai Rice
Kat King
Stuart Maxwell
Jackie Wolf
A play in one act, as seen by video.
Link to video

Story came from scenario provided during the roundtable. Scenario written by
Sarah A. Rice, 2018.

Information Therapy for Facebook Users
(14:13)

MAKE-A-THON
DAY 2
Create digital or physical artifacts showcasing Ethics and Information
Architecture discussed during Day 1 of the Roundtable.

CASCADING
CONSEQUENCES
Amy Rosenthal
Marianne Sweeny
Shelley Cook
Addressing the impact of design decisions
for information and data

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla

ETHICS BOARD FOR DESIGN
PROJECTS
Jeff Pass
Stacy Surla
Arturo Perez
Jackie Wolf
How to spot ethical issues in project work

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla

ETHICS GAME
Clai Rice
Bern Irizarry
Bram Wessel
Ethics and IA: Helping people consider long
term impacts and trade-offs

MEDITATION
Stacy Surla

POSTER

QUESTIONS
& ANSWERS
Ask about the Roundtable...
Talk about ethics and information architecture...

OUR ASK
Who is interested in helping to
organize the next roundtable?
What topic would you like to
discuss & make?
goo.gl/BybjHg

THANKS

PAST ROUNDTABLES
Not workshops!
Reframing Information Architecture
Teaching Information Architecture
Developing a Language of Critique for Information
Architecture
A Discussion of Masterworks--What Makes Good
Information Architecture Good
Mapping the Domain -- Navigating to a Discipline
Ethics and Information Architecture
See reframe-ia.org for more about the history of the
Reframing IA series of roundtables.
Track #reframeia on Twitter for another view.