The document discusses the ethical challenges in design, emphasizing that true ethics involve actively preventing harm rather than merely avoiding evil. It critiques organizational efficiency that dehumanizes individuals and highlights the dangers of top-down design, which neglects individual differences. To create an ethical framework, the author advocates for inclusivity and flexibility within systems to accommodate human complexity.

1. Whats so ethical about design anyway?
Jesper Bylund .com

2. You may have seen tech giants
in the news lately?

3. Why is it so hard to be ethical?

4. Before we talk about that,
we need to agree on what Ethics are

5. Ethics verb:
actively not doing evil.
Jesper Bylund .com

6. Not acting still makes you evil.

7. So where does evil come from?

8. Is it business?
(Capitalism!)

9. Two people consensually trading with
each other, while suspect, is not really evil.
(It’s not business…)
Jesper Bylund .com

10. Is it people?

11. Most people want to do good
things.
(Even when we can’t predict the consequences…)
Jesper Bylund .com

12. Predict turns out to be the key word.

13. Evil sneaks in,
at scale.
Jesper Bylund .com

14. Scale begets stupidity

15. “Organisations focus so much on efficiency that
they fail to be effective.
Instead of their core goal, they pay attention to
cutting costs and reducing inconvenience to staff.”
— Charles Handy paraphrased in the Economist
How?
Through The Curse of
Efficiency
Jesper Bylund .com

16. The purpose of education is to prepare kids
for later life.
But visit most schools and you’ll find children
being prepared for exams.

17. Healthcare professionals don’t have time
for patient wellbeing.
They need to solve specific health issues.

18. And Stupidity begets evil

19. In our struggle to do our jobs well, we
inadvertently start turning humans into things.
How?
Through Dehumanising
Jesper Bylund .com

20. Management:
“It would be easier to organise this company
if roles were clearly defined, and human
resources could be replaced when needed.”

21. Sales & marketing:
“It would be easier to work with segments
and aggregates to create pipelines and arrive
at average customer satisfaction numbers.”

22. General staff & Consultants:
“It would be easier to avoid arguments and
roll with the decisions already made, we can
fix it down the line, besides I’m to busy today.”

23. We have now created evil.
Jesper Bylund .com

24. But wait,
there’s more!

25. The ultimate dehumanising
behaviour:
Top Down Design

26. Structuring organisations, cities, even
entire societies to efficiently push
humans through the process of life.
Jesper Bylund .com

27. Everyone should have a 9-5 job.
Everyone should have 1.8 kids.
Everyone should have a house in the
suburbs, and drive to work.

28. The many individuals who do
not fit in are not forgotten in
our rush to implement our plan.

29. We see them as outliers, anti social, or
even destructive to the order of things.
In short, they are a threat.

30. This is evil.
And we are all complicit.
But there is a way back to an ethical life!
Jesper Bylund .com

31. Make room for individual difference.
Inclusivity.
(But not to groups! Only humans.)

32. Always keep a bit of margin in processes
touching humans.
Buffers for the round individuals in the
square holes.

33. Design it with exceptions.
And design becomes the ethics
department.

34. And always beware of the trap:
There is no perfect system.
Top Down Design is reductive,
humans are not.

35. Don’t be a tool of Evil.
When someone offers you efficiency
at scale; give it some human leeway.
Jesper Bylund .com