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I came across the interesting term "responsible applications" used in an article, which proposes that an application that is responsible to the users is one that both responsive and accessible.

It could be argued that a responsive website caters for a range of devices and interactions, while an accessible website caters for users of different abilities and therefore both aspects encourage diversity and inclusion.

However, for a design to be truly ethical, and for the resulting application to not be harmful to the user, is that enough to cover all the bases? Do we need anything else?

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The term 'responsible' is pretty broad, but 2 things come to mind

  • Inclusiveness/accessibility
  • Ethical aspects

Accessibility Being the more straightforward aspect to address from the 2, I think this covers only a few factors of accessibility. The interaction design foundation has a complete list of accessibility factors that should be considered.

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/accessibility

Types of Accessibility Issues You should consider the number and types of potential accessibility issues users will have. These are common barriers:

  • Visual (e.g., color blindness)

  • Motor/mobility (e.g., wheelchair-user concerns)

  • Auditory (hearing difficulties)

  • Seizures (especially photosensitive epilepsy)

  • Learning/cognitive (e.g., dyslexia)

    Ability barriers can also arise for any user:

  • Incidental (e.g., sleep-deprivation)

  • Environmental (e.g., using a mobile device underground)

A few other aspects that come to mind that I'd also consider if you want to be inclusive are

  • Catering for left-handers
  • Providing support to change to the user's language

Then there's the ethical aspect. Of course solutions to many of these are not so straightforward and are more complex. These also really depends on the mindset of the creators. Things like the authenticity of the content, or for example making it hard for users to read terms and conditions while making it easy to sign and proceed, or unethical use of design patterns(dark patterns) in general.

I guess this is a step in the right direction by providing a guide to the most straightforward factors that can be solved.

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Ameen seems to have covered the accessibility side of things well, so I'll talk a bit about the ethical side of "Responsible".

In designing software, there are a few things we owe our users:

  • privacy
  • safety
  • compassion

Data & Privacy

Beyond the legal ramifications of GDPR/CCPA, we need to be cognizant of the data we're collecting and why we're collecting it. Facebook got into hot water by selling user data to Cambridge Analytica, and again for allowing companies to target only white men for job postings.

Be aware of the data you're collecting, what it's used for, and who it's benefiting. Stand up to your product owners if you see something untoward - no one else is going to stand up for the users.

Safety

Can the information we're collecting cause a user harm? Is the app itself detrimental to the user's physical or mental health? We know that social media companies have gotten negative publicity due to the number of addicted users they have - but that addiction was the app's intent.

As UX designers, it's our job to notice when our goals are damaging, either intentionally or not, and call them out.

Compassion

Using respectful terminology, actively empathizing with users, and making sure that all users voices are heard covers the Compassion side.

We know in the medical industry in the United States, poorly designed algorithms often lead to people of color having detrimental experiences, such as when their skin color being under studied and thus under represented, resulting in misdiagnoses. If anyone involved in that team had taken a moment to think about who their users actually are, and try to think of their experiences, this might not be the case.

...and more

Broadly, outside of our users, we should consider the impacts our designs have to the world at large, such as:

  • environmental impact

    • Is there a way to minimize the number of API calls to reduce the electrical costs?
    • Rather than using a brand new device, can we make our software compatible with older phones, creating less waste?

  • systemic impact

    • What other systems are at play? Does our product create a bad precedent that will be followed by others?
    • Are there things we're not taking into consideration at a higher or lower scale? How can we find out about them?

For hard takes on design & ethics, I'd recommend the following books:

  • Ruined by Design, by Mike Monteiro
  • Tragic Design: The Impact of Bad Product Design and How to Fix It, by Cynthia Savard Saucier and Jonathan Shariat
  • Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, by Kat Holmes
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