Someone recently said, "All good design is moral design, and only moral design can ever be good." As designers we spend our time thinking about things like usefulness, desirability, learnability, or gamification, and are rarely allowed to go up to that highest level and question the moral value of our designs. Questions like, what do our designs encourage in people? What view of the good life does our work encourage? Do our designs cause people to live better or become more human? In this session we'll ask those questions. We'll start by looking at the implicit moral framework existent in popular digital products today, consider better moral frameworks, and talk about the implications. This talk will be equal parts philosophy and design; while it will be moral, it will contain no moralizing. Questions Answered: -What does it look like to design from a specific moral framework? -What is the implicit morality most of us unconsciously bring to our work today? -What do our designs encourage in people? -What view of the good life does our work encourage, and how can we consciously promote one view over another? -Do our designs cause people to live better or become more human, and how could we get better at this?

10. the things we use change us

11. 80 - 90% of decisions are made
subconsciously by trained networks
of emotional perception

12. Emotional
Perceptions
Actions
Habits
Desires
External Stimulus

13. Emotional
Perceptions
Actions
Habits
Desires
Design
Design

14. Desires

15. 80 - 90% of decisions are made
subconsciously by trained networks
of emotional perception

16. ‘Moral’
Moralitas "manner, character, proper
behavior"
How should I act?
What does it mean to live well?

19. Alex Pang
https://www.flickr.com/photos/askpang/9694967999/

22. UniversalMind™
source: theguardian.com

23. UniversalMind™
Source: Mashable

24. Everything you touch has the power
to change you.
there is no escape from this

25. Everything you touch has the power
to change the things you love.
there is no escape from this

26. Everything you touch has the power
to change the things you do.
there is no escape from this

27. Everything you touch has the power
to change the way you live.
there is no escape from this

29. Moral Design
RJ Owen
@rjowen
Denver Startup Week 2014

30. Who is this guy anyway?

31. RJ OWEN
Director of User Experience
Universal Mind
universalmind.com
rj.owen@universalmind.com
@rjowen
Former Dev
Host of CreativeMornings:Denver
Co-author “The Truth about HTML5”

32. MORAL DESIGN FRAMEWORKS

33. The 7 Lamps
of Architecture
!
JohnRuskin

34. The 7 Lamps of Architecture
Sacrifice
Truth
Power
Beauty
Memory
Obedience
Doing something well for its own sake
Embrace of difficulty, restriction, and
constraint
Tempered and guided by standards
Ornament and decoration
Always moving; never perfect; never finished
Adherence to ancient mastery in design
To the opinions & style of experience
Life

35. 10 Commandments
of Good Design!
!
Dieter Rams

36. should be innovative
makes a product useful
is aesthetic
makes a product understandable
is honest
is unobtrusive
is long-lived
is consistent in every detail
should be environmentally friendly
is as little design as possible
10 Commandments of Good Design

37. Solving for Pattern
Wendell Berry
in The Gift of Good Land

38. 6 Principles

39. moral design
IS Restrained

40. How much is enough?

41. How much is too much?

42. moral design
DOESN’T ACCEPT TRADE-OFFS

43. Are you sustaining or improving
harmony in a system, or are you
simply “disrupting?”

44. Do you create new problems in
solving others?

45. moral design
IS DYNAMIC, REAL, MESSY

46. Are you trying to make something
too perfect?

47. Have you tested your ideas with real
people?

48. moral design
REQUIRES CRAFTSMANSHIP

49. Are you failing too fast?

50. What did you get into this for?

51. moral design
IS HONEST

52. “Design is a Promise”
- Every Designer Ever

53. What are you promising?

54. Is it achievable?

55. Is it articulated?

56. Will it make people better people?

57. moral design
IS ORGANIC

58. MORAL DESIGN is ORGANIC
Treat the user, the designer, the brand, and
the environment as one organism
What is healthy for one must be healthy for
the others; otherwise an imbalance exists
and the solution is suspect

59. MORAL DESIGN is ORGANIC

60. When you “win”, does your customer
win with you?

61. What’s your exit strategy? Does your
user win?

62. What’s the environmental impact?

63. moral design
IS Restrained
doesn’t accept trade-offs
is dynamic, real, messy
requires craftsmanship
is honest
IS ORGANIC

64. IMMoral design
IGNORES CONSTRAINTS
SOLVES & CREATES PROBLEMS
IS OVER-DESIGNED
FOCUSES Only on results
is Dishonest
BENEFITS SOME WHILE HARMING OTHERS

65. Rethink “effectiveness”

66. Moral gamification: optimize app for
the most pleasure, harmony, joy,
peace. Think Stack Overflow.
!
Immoral gamification: optimize app
for “engagement”, i.e. obsession,
addiction, etc. Think Zynga.

67. UX Deliverables

70. Map virtuous circles

71. Customer Hierarchy of Needs

72. Needs
Wants
Joys

73. Useful
Usable
Desirable

74. Useful
Usable
Fulfilling

75. Source: Kevin O’Connor, UXMag
Personas

76. Examples

78. @seamlyco

85. Yes: this is idealistic.
!
YOU’RE A STARTUP.

87. Thank you
Moral Design
@rjowen
rj.owen@universalmind.com

88. Works Cited
Sample persona by Kevin O’Connor, in
UXMag:
http://uxmag.com/articles/personas-the-
foundation-of-a-great-user-experience