Universal Methods of Ethical Design: 100 Ways to Become More Ethically Aware, Responsible, and Active in Your Design Work

Cultivate a socially responsible design process with Universal Methods of Ethical Design, the first comprehensive survey of ethically centered design practices.

Are you eager to make a positive social impact through your designs? Join the growing number of practitioners and third-sector organizations who are using ethics-focused design methods to resist dark patterns and other unethical practices by incorporating value-centered approaches. Universal Methods of Ethical Design gets you started with a collection of design supports for ethical awareness, action, and reflection to build socially responsible features, products, and services. These supports appear in this book in varied forms, including methods, theoretical frameworks, conceptual frameworks, and principles.

Explore an expansive landscape of resources across different designer intentions, including:

• Breaking your design and evaluating outcomes
• Identifying and applying values
• Finding new user and stakeholder perspectives
• Aligning your team in building ethical consensus
• Building a sense of responsibility toward the impact of design work

In this book, you'll find diverse methods that include a focus on ethics or values, which can support designers and technologists to engage in more ethically aware or value-sensitive design practices. Universal Methods of Ethical Design contains accessible formats to engage with critical concepts such as feminism; design activism; privacy, security, and legal policy; and governance perspectives.

Each method is presented in a two-page format. The left-hand page contains a succinct definition, a full description of the principle, examples of its use, and guidelines for use. Sidenotes appear to the right of the text and provide elaborations and references. The right-hand page contains visual examples and related graphics to support a deeper understanding of the method.

This landmark reference is the standard for designers, engineers, managers, and students who seek to broaden and improve their ethical design expertise.

The titles in the Rockport Universal series offer comprehensive and authoritative information and edifying and inspiring visual examples on multidisciplinary subjects for designers, architects, engineers, students, and anyone who is interested in expanding and enriching their design knowledge.

Author: Sai Shruthi Chivukula, Colin Gray
Publisher: Rockport Publishers
Published: 04/01/2025
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780760393086

About the Author

Sai Shruthi Chivukula is a design researcher with her research and teaching interests at the intersection of design, human-computer interaction (HCI), design practice, and ethics & values. She is an assistant professor of the Information Experience Design Graduate Program at the School of Information, Pratt Institute, New York. Shruthi takes a pragmatist ethics lens to describe and translate ethics and tech regulation in HCI and design practice and education.

Colin M. Gray is a researcher and designer focusing on human-computer interaction, design, and education. They are an associate professor and director of Human-Computer Interaction Design in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University, and are also appointed as guest professor at Beijing Normal University, China, and visiting researcher at Northumbria University, United Kingdom. They have consulted on multiple legal cases relating to dark patterns and data protection and work with regulatory bodies and nonprofit organizations to increase awareness and action relating to deceptive and manipulative design practices. Colin's research and engagement activities cross multiple disciplines, including human-computer interaction, instructional design and technology, law and policy, design theory and education, and engineering and technology education.