Interaction 16

Ethics are a difficult topic for designers to discuss. We do not have the language, structure, or common understanding needed to define our moral boundaries as a professional community. Attendees of last year’s IxD conference made this clear as they brought up ethics repeatedly during conference conversations. This workshop will help participants articulate their own personal code of ethics as well as collaborate with others to create communal Designers’ Oaths.

Participants will start the workshop with a gameful role playing icebreaker to get them out of their traditional mindsets regarding design and ethics. This experience will allow participants to role play through situations to define their personal understanding of ethics and learn strategies for discussing ethics in a group environment.

We will introduce the Designer's Oath project and share the project's transformation. Participants will follow the project’s journey from mad-lib ethical guideline into a conversational tool used by designers around the globe.

Participants will break into small groups to collaboratively write and illustrate a Designer’s Oath representing their group’s understanding of the responsibility we have as designers to those we design for. These Oaths will be shared with the IxDA community.