Unintended Consequences, Tech Ethics & Human-Centered Design
Written by Nina Joshi, an innovation consultant specializing in human-centered healthcare, about our recent livestream conversation. Our partner for the event was TheBridge.
All Tech Is Human asks, how can designers and technologists take a greater degree of responsibility when it comes to ethics?
Entrepreneur Raina Kumra (Partner at The Fund LA & CEO of Juggernaut) and Creative Director Sheryl Cababa (VP of Strategy at Substantial) discuss the future of ethics and human-centered design in tech. They speak to the word “ethics” itself, and the negative connotations that are often associated with it. In an organizational setting, the word “ethics” can feel loaded, come across as accusatory when the subject is broached and can put people on the defense. Raina speaks to the need for “re-branding” and changing the narrative around the subject of ethics in an organization. Sheryl discusses expanding the definition of ethics to embody the ideology of Human-Centered Design, which prioritizes the user’s best interest. This reframing can shift the conversation around ethics from an obligation an opportunity to better serve their end-users.
Three key takeaways from the discussion:
Ethics needs to be integrated throughout the organization. Sheryl and Raina assert that an ethical culture is not enough; organizations should develop an ethical structure with checks and balances in place to ensure its implementation. It is common for companies to devote specific departments or positions (like Chief Ethics Officer) to tackle ethics. Sheryl warns against placing the company’s ethical responsibility in one single department. Ethics should be integrated throughout the organization, and within its key products and services to drive maximum impact.
Current Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were not developed with ethics in mind. Raina explains how success metrics are often measured in terms of quantity (number of clicks) as opposed to quality (behavior of engaged users). She believes this system may be outdated, not conducive to wide-scale progress, and should be examined. Focusing on the metrics around the quality of user engagement may be the push that organizations need to prioritize ethics.
Let “outcome centered thinking” drive product or service design. Design holds tremendous power in influencing user behavior. Design features themselves (like continuous scrolling) are not inherently good or bad. Sheryl suggests asking, “What is going to happen as a result of my design?” to determine potential outcomes. Continuous scrolling has been implemented by various companies who have learned that users gravitate towards randomization and an infinite stream of content. She brings up Instagram’s updated scrolling feed as an example of a company that focused on quality consumption. Since 2018 Instagram has notified users that “You’re all caught up” once you’ve come to the end of posts you haven’t seen.
SHERYL CABABA
Sheryl Cababa is a multi-disciplinary VP with more than two decades of experience. She grew her craft as Executive Creative Director at Artefact and prior to that, was a designer at Frog and Adaptive Path. At Substantial, she works with all sorts of interesting people and companies, conducting design strategy and research. She believes the practice of design needs to be more outcomes-focused, and designers and technologists need to take greater responsibility for their work by considering unintended consequences. She pushes for design to be more transparent, meaningful, and ethical.
Sheryl is an international speaker and workshop facilitator. She has plenty of experience running design strategy workshops and leading projects. In the end, she’s all not just orienting around a human-centered approach to design, but also investigating the understanding of systems and outcomes to improve people's lives.
When she’s not in the office, she can be found at the University of Washington helping educate the next generation of Human-Centered Design and Engineering students or attending a board meeting for Design in Public.
RAINA KUMRA
Raina Kumra is a partner at The Fund LA, an early stage venture firm, CEO of Juggernaut, a brand movement agency an organizational change bureau. As a tech ethics advocate she just launched this course to help makers, investors and consumers to get up to speed on data ethics.
She is a Member of the Ad Council’s Issue Advisory Board and a mentor at Tech Stars LA. In the past she has led strategy and investments for the Technology Ethics portfolio at Omidyar Network and co-founded Mavin, an app engagement platform. She served in The Obama Administration as Co-Director of Innovation at the BBG, and with the U.S. Department of State. Prior to that, Raina led Digital at Wieden+Kennedy New York and spent over a decade in advertising at BBH and R/GA. Raina holds degrees from Boston University, NYU’s ITP and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.