I recently attended a Belfast Design event with a talk from Rachel Sloan on “Inclusion as an Ethical Practice”. The talk raised a number of interesting points, one which was the idea “designing before regulation”. This was the idea that we should be baking in ethical practices throughout our work as a standard, and not as a checkbox after thought. I think I can see how the existence of regulations and acts that provide guidelines for ethical systems could become more of a checkbox exercise in this format. It’s almost like that typical thing of “I’ll like doing it if I choose to do it but if Ill find it dull if I’m told to do it” that many of us encounter in everyday life. By incorporating ethical choices, especially around design for children, we can design systems that are ethically balanced and provide enough transparency for users to feel comfortable using our products, while also being ahead of any future regulations.
A smaller point raised in the talk, but one I thought was important to me at this stage of my major project, was the idea of designing inclusive interfaces. An example Rachel showed was her work on Bioliberty; a glove and app to help rehabilitate stroke victims. She talked about affordances that had to included to ensure usability, which may have made for an unconventional interface. The inclusive of big buttons, and the ability to flip the interface to different sides of the screens all impacted the interface to allow anyone to use it. I found this really interesting, and thought it’s something worth considering as I start my major project. I think it will be important to consider every type of user and what affordances will need to be included to make the system usable by all.
This was a really interesting talk and has given me a lot to think about. The consideration of inclusive design and future regulation, as well as fully inclusive interfaces will be important or my major project.