Ethical Design, what matters most?
Imagine we are building a product to encourage users to make purchases, we need to ask ourselves: What are they buying? What is the benefit that this action will lead to? Do benefits decrease or increase when actions are taken in large quantities? How is success measured? For each action, there should be a cared-for consideration about the impact these actions would have on the person taking in. A company's profit goals and quarterly targets for growth shouldn’t be enough. As designers and makers, it is our duty to bring a more conscious process to the products we work with.
What is ethical design?
Ethical design is the type of design that aligns with good beliefs, morals, and values.
As a product designer, my job is often to make apps useful and widely successful, following most companies’ goals of expansion, retention, and profitability. Depending on the product, this sometimes has felt counterintuitive with my values, and what would seem healthy for users.
One of the great stressors apps and especially social media apps have on our lives these days, is the amount of time we spend on them, what we are exposed to through algorithms, and the unintentional actions we take while in them. This happens in great part because these apps are not only ‘very easy to use’ but also because they are designed to keep you in them for as long as possible. While the social media era is relatively new, we are beginning to get the grips on how to navigate it, and beginning to learn more every day about the effects that it has on our day-to-day life and mental health. Lack of intention and conscious actions can leave us feeling drained, tired, and with a sense that we have lost control, and hindered our daily routine.
The User Experience
An easy user experience is one of the most required skills to design products nowadays. Things become ‘easy’ to use when friction is removed, and in the majority of cases, this is a good thing. When things become easier to use, we would generally have a better experience; for example, an easier-to-operate electric oven, an easier-to-drive car, a friendlier computer operating system, an app to easily order goods or to track your health, etc. But this doesn’t always directly translate to all products. In digital products, especially in products with a social element, or that broadcast content, because they work so ‘intuitively’, it becomes more difficult to know where the controls are, taking us from one experience to another without noticing the change. This can in some cases lead to fatigue, anxiety, and have a negative impact on our mental health. Then the easier a product is to use, will not necessarily always result in the best user experience. So I began wondering, what about intention? what about friction? what about, if apps could have the right amount of resistance to encourage users to take more conscious actions?
How is think ethically designed?
Think App is an app for the mind, therefore mental health is at the forefront of every product decision. For this reason Think App doesn’t contain features that can cause addiction, trigger comparison, harassment, or fatigue. The user experience has been designed to benefit the users’ intentionality, sense of purposeful action, and consequently their mental health.
Think is for private use, with a social touch. Below are some of the main product choices that align Think App to our beliefs and values.
No social comparison triggers
Everything you can quantify, you can compare, and humans are culturally wired to do so. Therefore Think App has no likes, no comments, no user profiles, and no algorithms.
No algorithms
By showing things as they are published chronologically, users are exposed to new ideas that they may not always generally like. And because Think App is an app to stimulate thinking and to challenge your own perspectives, being exposed to varied points of view is something that we want to encourage.
No profiles
Sometimes our egos can get the better of us, and sharing usually goes hand in hand with our identity. Because Think app is a platform to entertain thinking and ideas on its raw shape, I wanted to remove the need ‘to be noticed’ and allow people to freely share what’s on their minds without identity identification. Think App is a safe place to explore ideas without social pressure.
User experience
You may find while using Think App, sometimes you would need to make some ‘extra taps’ to take an action. This is done on purpose. This is where intention comes into play. By taking the user onto a longer route to achieve their goal, we are allowing the speed of information intake to be more aligned with a paced mind, better attention, and more conscious use.
Who is ethical design for?
Ethical design is for the ones that believe and care beyond the set standards, for those who celebrate ethical practices and the user’s wellbeing at its chore.
