Key Insights

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  Human-centered designers hold one of the most powerful roles in history with the capacity to solve or create problems.

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  Ethics are defined as moral duties shaped by industry standards and social contexts, historically rooted in professions like medicine and engineering.

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  Medical ethics extend beyond doing no harm to include respect for autonomy, beneficence, justice, and truthfulness.

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  Engineering ethics enforce public safety and require engineers to speak up if their professional judgment is overruled with dangerous consequences.

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  Bad design in technology, such as EMR interfaces, can cause fatal errors, making ethical accountability essential in tech products.

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  Corporate profit motives can pressure engineers and designers to compromise ethics, as shown by Volkswagen’s emissions fraud and Cambridge Analytica’s data misuse.

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  Pluralsight’s ethical approach to learner data involved not weaponizing their product despite enterprise pressures to use assessments for hiring or raises.

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  Finding blind spots through thorough user research and peer consultation is critical to ethical design practice.

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  Taking full accountability includes responsibility for the decisions of team members and the wider impact of design choices.

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  Embedding ethics at company core fosters trust, openness, improved collaboration, productivity, and sustainable business success.

Notable Quotes