"Language, design and ethics" The rise of natural-language user interfaces (Siri, Alexa, Google home) poses several questions to design practitioners: How are we going to design with language? How can we use language to foster inclusion and fairness? CLEMENTINA GENTILE UX Designer, Proximus https://www.linkedin.com/in/clementinagentile/ Clementina works a UX designer at Proximus. She has been a speaker in various international conferences such as EuroIA2016, IA Summit Rome 2016, WIAD Zurich 2017, WIAD Bari 2018.

1. Language,
design and ethics
UX Meetup @Namahn - 19 June 2018
Clementina Gentile
@clementina_g

2. What colour
do you see?

3. The sea in the Odyssey is
described as
‘wine-like’ (oinops)

4. A Namibian tribe speaks a
language that
has no word for blue

6. Language influences our
perception
Joseph Kosuth - One and three chairs

7. “The limits of my language
are
the limits of my world”
Ludwig Wittgenstein photographed by Ben Richards

8. Language influences
our behaviour

9. Futured VS futureless
“It will be cold”
“It is cold”
ENGLISH CHINESE
“To be cold tomorrow”
“To be cold now”

10. Futured VS futureless
Present
=
Future
Present
=
Future
ENGLISH CHINESE

11. Speakers of futureless languages
(e.g. German, Chinese and
Estonian) were more likely:
to save money (+30 %)
to avoid smoking (+24 %)
to exercise (+24 %)

12. What is the link between
design and language?

13. Ok, what?

14. Documents or
information?

15. Language will be
the interface of the future

16. Language will be
the interface of the future
is

17. What is language?
How is it used
in interfaces?
Sociolinguistics
Semantics
Syntax
3
2
1

18. 1
Syntax
Syntax is the study of sentences and their
structure.
Syntax tells us what goes where in a sentence
and how we should say things correctly.

19. Skeumorfism in 2000

20. “Alexa learns to talk
like a human with
whispers, pauses &
emotion”
TechCrunch
Skeumorfism in 2018

21. Chatbots
making jokes…

22. …or running a
political
campaign

23. “Amazon Echo is magical.
It’s also turning my kid into
an asshole”
Hunter Walk

24. The importance of
metaphors
argument = war
Alexa = servant
‘Metaphors we live by’ George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Picture: Marina Abramovic

25. On what extent the language
of our devices mirrors and
influences the way we speak?

26. 2
Semantics
Semantics is the
linguistic study of meaning.
It focuses on the relationship between signifiers
(words) and what they stand for,
their denotation.

27. Word embedding
and machine learning
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2016/08/24/language-necessarily-contains-human-biases-and-so-will-machines-trained-on-language-corpora/

28. Yahoo developed a BOT
that catches online abuse
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601949/yahoo-has-a-tool-that-can-catch-online-abuse-surprisingly-well/

29. Flickr tags failing at
grasping semantics

30. And Google did that too

31. We are biased and our
algorithms are too.

33. HIGH RISK LOW RISK

34. Will we become more
aware of the biases
embedded in our
language or will we
rather strengthen them?

35. 3
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the study of
the effect of all aspects of society
(cultural norms, expectations, and context)
on the way language is used,
and the effects of language use on society

36. Social definition of
‘normal’
Technically wrong by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

37. Social taboos
Technically wrong by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

38. 3
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the study of
the effect of all aspects of society
(cultural norms, expectations, and context)
on the way language is used,
and the effects of language use on society

39. Organisational culture
and language

40. What language should
we use within
organisations?

41. Narrowing language
increases efficiency.
Narrowing language also
increases ignorance.
Little grey book of conversations - Paul Pangaro

42. What does it mean
for designers?
How can we design
with language?

43. Prototype conversations

44. Experiments with
metaphors

45. Be aware of biases,
question the neutrality of data

46. Include diversity

47. Design for transparency,
increase friction

48. Love words, agonize over
sentences, pay attention to
the world.”
Susan Sontag

49. “A sustainable future
hinges on design
practitioners' ability to
choose which futures are
preferable.
What we introduce into
the world will always have
social, cultural, and ethical
consequences.”
Thomas Wendt - surroundingsignifiers.com

50. Clementina Gentile
@clementina_g
UX Meetup @Namahn - 19 June 2018