Ethics In Design

People do not usually think about the impact a designer can have with their work, and the moral dilemmas that they face.  There can me moral, immoral and amoral designs all with their own impacts on human behaviour.  A war poster telling people to join the army, is it moral for getting people to help defend your country, or is it immoral for getting persuading people to go and fight and kill each other, or an alcohol advert telling people to try a new drink.  All design, advertising or informative, can have impacts, good and bad on people and their behaviour.  So where do you draw the line between what you are willing to design.  Designers are agents of mass communication, what we design can be seen by millions of people and some of those will be influence by what you say.

James Montgomery well-known recruitment/propaganda poster created in 1917 is famous around the world and has been adapted several times and is a classic example.  This poster may have been a vital component in the driving force behind the war, getting the solders to recruit to the army and fight for their country, but it might also have sent millions of people to their deaths.

Some designers might say that everyone has a choice, that a poster cannot force someone to do something, but then does design really exist.  Isn’t the whole purpose of designs to influence people, to make a difference?

Another example the fine line in ethics is Google street view, many people feel that this is a breach of their privacy, did they ask for our permission before they took pictures of us and our houses.  Yet no one complains because Google is a big business and most of us use it every day.  The line between what is right and wrong is very blurry.

Designers need to think of themselves as tools of mass communication, everything that has been designed has a value, everything that we design has a value, and everything has some impact and someone.  Think about the personal responsibility when designing, consider the message that you are putting across.  Is it the one you intended?