Design Ethics in Practice – Points of Departure

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Recent years have seen an increased interest in ethically responsible design of technology in society at large as well as among design practitioners. While design ethics is a well-established research area, few studies have enquired into how design practitioners understand ethics. Through semi-structured interviews we have explored practitioners’ approaches to ethics in design. Our findings show noticing, reflecting and reacting as three ways that ethical matters are approached. This ties into dynamic and participatory views on ethics, rather than viewing ethics as a set of formal frameworks and deductive reasoning practices. Practitioners need approaches that tie in to existing work practices. Our results provide practice-led suggestions and points of departure of when and how it might be suitable to infuse design ethics into design practice.