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Research
Synthesis
1:1 Interviews
Survey
Diary Studies
Workshop Facilitation
Affinity Maps
Insight Translation
Jobs to be done
Archetype and Mindsets
Design
Strategy
User Journey
Design Criteria
Solution Framework
Prototyping
Market Analysis
Opportunity Matrix
Blue Ocean Strategy
Business Model Canvas
Problem
With the increasing ethical risks in today's society, designers have a responsibility to develop ethical awareness to create a better future for themselves and society.
Every design professional's value system starts molding at their academic level. The current US design curriculum still lacks training in design ethics and needs reform.
Research Finding
There has to be a systemic intersection of ethics in design education such that it's not lost in translation. Ethics must be integrated seamlessly and consistently in collaboration, with a non-prescriptive, systems thinking, bottom-up approach.
To bring it into practice, there must be room to slow down, immerse, internalize, reflect, and then apply.
Target Audience
Solution
Pause is an organization that provides a platform for design universities to sign up and integrate ethics in a systemic approach for their students.
The platform adopts a bottom-up approach, recognizing that change is best facilitated by creating an enabling environment with opportunities and motivation rather than imposing it.
Pause provides design students with a secure platform to express themselves, learn from the world, and bring design ethics into practice.
They get to immerse in a diverse ecosystem and thought-provoking conversations with experts, reflect on their values and principles and collaborate to consciously integrate ethical pauses into their professional practice and design work using pre-designed tools.
Let's dig into the scrappy process!
Data Collection
Survey
This was the only quantitative research method for this project. The survey was designed in sections to personalize the questions for each stakeholder group. Grad students and professionals were directed to one section, and the leaders and educators were directed to the other.
67 Responses
34 Graduate Students
18 Design Educators
9 Design Professionals
3 Ethics Leaders
Click here to view the survey
Diary Studies
Number of Participants: 2 Students
Length of Study: 12 Days
Of all the research activities, this one failed to collect the right quality and quantity of data. Here are some of the reasons behind its failure:
1. Time Constraints of Grad Students
2. Lack of Motivation for Participants
3. Insufficient Activity Directions
Participant feedback:
1."The activity template was good for them to get their thoughts rolling, but it wasn't good enough to follow as a structure: It felt tedious and time-consuming."
2."I felt the need to be guided more."
Workshop
11 Participants
In-person group session: 2
Virtually, 1:1 on Miro Board: 9
The workshop consisted following activities:
1: My ethics lens: Image Sorting
2: When facing a dilemma: Whiteboarding
3: Start, Stop, Continue (For self): Co-creation
4: Start, Stop, Continue (For University): Co-creation
This method was used to collect data on the current understanding of students in design ethics, their expectations from their university to gain awareness and understanding, and their aspirations as a responsible design professionals.
Contextual Enquiry
11 Participants
Virtual, 1:1 zoom sessions
Recruitment: Survey, LinkedIn, Design slack channels,
design communities and groups, emails
4 Students
Design Management Graduate students at SCAD
3 Design Educators
Design Management Professor, SCAD
Professor of Design, Ohio State University
Graphic Design Professor, California State University
3 Industry Professionals
Principal product designer, Express Scripts
Service Designer, Intuit (Data Ethics)
Organization learning leader, Synchrony
1 Ethics Lawyer
Professional Responsibility Attorney
Data Synthesis
Affinity mapping
Synthesized data from Survey, Interviews, Workshop, and a seminar and collected
950 Data Points
950 data points synthesized to reveal
8 Key Insights
Ethics has to be a direct and explicit part of design education such that its not lost in translation.
Designers need to be made aware of the value of ethics and it's benefit to the entire ecosystem.
There should be room for flexibility and a way to maintain and update our principles sustainably.
Ethics can be brought into practice by having a systems thinking approach and empathy for the entire ecosystem.
Immersing in diversity and absorbing from different stories helps develop the ethical thinking muscle.
Reflection and slowing down are essential attributes for bringing ethics to practice.
Ethics must be integrated seamlessly and consistently in collaboration, with a non-prescriptive, bottom-up approach.
Ideal form of learning ethics is which helps you internalize, reflect and apply, it has to be interactive, experiential and immersive.
Click here to read user stories behind each insight
Archetypes
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SINCERE LEARNER
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NERVOUS NAVIGATOR
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INFORMED ADAPTER
Opportunity Analysis
Opportunity Reframe
Initially, in my opportunity statement, I identified a need for practical training in ethical decision-making for graduate-level design education. However, my primary research and data synthesis uncovered insights that reframed the opportunity scope. The insights emphasize the significance of a systemic bottom-up model that is value-generating, efficacious, and evolving. It must be sustainable even in a fast-paced professional world. I learned that to design an impactful solution I must explore alternatives beyond the traditional curriculum-centric approach to "training".
Concept Generation
Solution Frameworks
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After brainstorming multiple system frameworks, and ideas, and conducting user testing sessions, I arrived at the final solution frame.
The "Pause" Framework
The framework justifies almost all the key design features.
The Solution
Pause is an organization that provides a platform for design universities to sign up and integrate ethics in a systemic approach for their students.
The platform adopts a bottom-up approach, recognizing that change is best facilitated by creating an enabling environment with opportunities and motivation rather than imposing it.
Pause provides design students with a secure platform to express themselves, learn from the world, and bring design ethics into practice.
They get to immerse in a diverse ecosystem and thought-provoking conversations with experts, reflect on their values and principles and collaborate to consciously integrate ethical pauses into their professional practice and design work using pre-designed tools.
Click here to read more about the Product, User Journey Map, Brand and Product Strategy, Business Model, and Success Metrix
Gratitude
Although this was a solo project, there are so many people who indirectly played a role in making this project a success. Sincere thanks to my project mentor: Prof. Christine Miller for sharing her wisdom and inspiring me. Heartfelt gratitude to my parents, and close friends for always checking on me and motivating me. Special thanks to Gwen Krage for being my guiding light, and my biggest cheerleader.
Last but the most important:
A big thank you to all of my research participants, for your time and invaluable insights.
Reflection
Despite significant constraints of limited time and resources, I undertook a challenging project to address a complex problem independently. Wicked problems require time, resources, and collaboration. It was extremely challenging to execute the project from research to synthesis, to prototyping to business strategy, all independently with limited time and resources. But that is exactly what makes this project so special. It challenged me like never before, and allowed me to fail fast, and learn faster. I embraced the challenge and focused on laying small but impactful foundations to tackle a larger systemic problem.
Learnings: 1. Trust the Process, 2. When feeling overwhelmed with the overall scope, zoom into the manageable tasks and focus on each step at a time. 3. Embrace ambiguity 4. Seek support whenever required 5. Value the two most powerful words: PIVOT and REFRAME