Building an Ethics-Focused Action Plan: Roles, Process Moves, and TrajectoriesDesign and technology practitioners are increasingly aware of the ethical impact of their work practices, desiring tools to support their ethical awareness across a range of contexts. In this paper, we report on findings from a series of six co-creation workshops with 26 technology and design practitioners that supported their creation of a bespoke ethics-focused action plan. Using a qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis approach, we identified a range of roles and process moves that practitioners and design students with professional experience employed and illustrate the interplay of these elements that impacted the creation of their action plan and revealed aspects of their ethical design complexity. We conclude with implications for supporting ethics in socio-technical practice and opportunities for the further development of methods that support ethical engagement and are resonant with the realities of practice.2024CGColin M. Gray et al.Indiana UniversityTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)CHI
Scaffolding Ethics-Focused Methods for Practice ResonanceNumerous methods and tools have been proposed to motivate or support ethical awareness in design practice. However, many existing resources are not easily discoverable by practitioners, and are often framed using language that is not accessible or resonant with everyday practice. In this paper, we present three complementary strands of work with the goal of increasing the ability of design and technology practitioners to locate and activate methods to support ethically-focused work practices. We first constructed a set of empirically-supported "intentions" to frame practitioners' selection of relevant ethics-focused methods based on interviews with practitioners from a range of technology and design professions. We then leveraged these intentions in the design and iterative evaluation of a website that supports practitioners in identifying opportunities for ethics-focused action. Building on these findings, we propose a set of design considerations to evaluate the practice resonance of resources in supporting ethics-focused practice, laying the groundwork for increased ecological resonance of ethics-focused methods and method selection tools.2023CGColin M. Gray et al.AI Ethics, Fairness & AccountabilityParticipatory DesignPrototyping & User TestingDIS
"Be Gay, Do Crimes": The Co-Production and Activist Potential of Contemporary FanzinesOnline creative communities are increasingly a space for marginalized groups to build solidarity and engage in activist work, encouraging the exploration and articulation of intersectionally-marginalized identities through processes of creative production. One such context for creative production includes community-driven sites such as \textit{Archive of Our Own}, which by their design are intended to leverage and effectively support voices that are marginalized on other social platforms. In this paper, we build upon work on creative production and fan communities to further describe the work of fanart and fanzine collectives. We share the results of 1) an interview study with fanzine producers and 2) a two month remote co-design study where we further explored fanzine culture and the potential of future archival support. We used a range of qualitative methods to investigate themes of activism co-production in relation to the fanzine work of these producers, seeking to identify characteristic barriers and opportunities for community support as these artists seek to promote their work, encourage the co-production of work with other artists, and navigate the constantly shifting legal landscape associated with fanart. We conclude with implications for creative community support that amplify marginalized voices and facilitate archival work at the intersection of visual art, folksonomy, and legality.2021AAAlyse Marie Allred et al.Coordination and CollaborationCSCW
End User Accounts of Dark Patterns as Felt ManipulationManipulation defines many of our experiences as a consumer, including subtle nudges and overt advertising campaigns that seek to gain our attention and money. With the advent of digital services that can continuously optimize online experiences to favor stakeholder requirements, increasingly designers and developers make use of "dark patterns"—forms of manipulation that prey on human psychology—to encourage certain behaviors and discourage others in ways that present unequal value to the end user. In this paper, we provide an account of end user perceptions of manipulation that builds on and extends notions of dark patterns. We report on the results of a survey of users conducted in English and Mandarin Chinese (n=169), including follow-up interviews from nine survey respondents. We used a card sorting method to support thematic analysis of responses from each cultural context, identifying both qualitatively-supported insights to describe end users' felt experiences of manipulative products and a continuum of manipulation. We further support this analysis through a descriptive analysis of survey results and the presentation of examples from the interviews. We conclude with implications for future research, considerations for public policy, and guidance on how to further empower and give users autonomy in their experiences with digital services.2021CGColin M. Gray et al.Privacy and SecurityCSCW
Dark Patterns and the Legal Requirements of Consent Banners: An Interaction Criticism PerspectiveUser engagement with data privacy and security through consent banners has become a ubiquitous part of interacting with internet services. While previous work has addressed consent banners from either interaction design, legal, and ethics-focused perspectives, little research addresses the connections among multiple disciplinary approaches, including tensions and opportunities that transcend disciplinary boundaries. In this paper, we draw together perspectives and commentary from HCI, design, privacy and data protection, and legal research communities, using the language and strategies of "dark patterns" to perform an interaction criticism reading of three different types of consent banners. Our analysis builds upon designer, interface, user, and social context lenses to raise tensions and synergies that arise together in complex, contingent, and conflicting ways in the act of designing consent banners. We conclude with opportunities for transdisciplinary dialogue across legal, ethical, computer science, and interactive systems scholarship to translate matters of ethical concern into public policy.2021CGColin M. Gray et al.Purdue UniversityPrivacy by Design & User ControlDark Patterns RecognitionCHI
Identity Claims that Underlie Ethical Awareness and ActionHCI and STS researchers have previously described the ethical complexity of practice, drawing together aspects of organizational complexity, design knowledge, and ethical frameworks. Building on this work, we investigate the identity claims and beliefs that impact practitioners' ability to recognize and act upon ethical concerns in a range of technology-focused disciplines. In this paper, we report results from an interview study with 12 practitioners, identifying and describing their identity claims related to ethical awareness and action. We conducted a critically-focused thematic analysis to identify eight distinct claims representing roles relating to learning, educating, following policies, feeling a sense of responsibility, being a member of a profession, a translator, an activist, and deliberative. Based on our findings, we demonstrate how the claims foreground building competence in relation to ethical practice. We highlight the dynamic interplay among these claims and point towards implications for identity work in socio-technical contexts.2021SCShruthi Sai Chivukula et al.Purdue UniversityTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignCHI
Tensions in Enacting a Design Philosophy in UX PracticeDesign culture is increasingly present within organizations, especially with the rise of UX as a profession. Yet there are often disconnects between the development of a design philosophy and its translation in practice. Students preparing for UX careers are positioned in a liminal space between their educational experience and future practice, and are actively working to build a bridge between their developing philosophy of design and the translation of that philosophy when faced with the complexity of design practice. In this study, we interviewed ten students and practitioners educated within design-oriented HCI programs, focusing on their design philosophy and evaluating how their philosophical beliefs were shaped in practice. Building on prior work on flows of competence, we thematically analyzed these interviews, identifying the philosophical beliefs of these designers and their trajectories of development, adoption, or suppression in industry. We identify opportunities for enhancements to UX educational practices and future research on design complexity in industry contexts.2020CWChristopher Rhys Watkins et al.Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesPrototyping & User TestingDIS
What Kind of Work Do "Asshole Designers" Create? Describing Properties of Ethical Concern on RedditDesign practitioners are increasingly engaged in describing ethical complexity in their everyday work, exemplified by concepts such as “dark patterns” and “dark UX.” In parallel, researchers have shown how interactions and discourses in online communities allow access to the various dimensions of design complexity in practice. In this paper, we conducted a content analysis of the subreddit “/r/assholedesign,” identifying how users on Reddit engage in conversation about ethical concerns. We identify what types of artifacts are shared, and the salient ethical concerns that community members link with “asshole” behaviors. Based on our analysis, we propose properties that describe “asshole designers,” both distinct and in relation to dark patterns, and point towards an anthropomorphization of ethics that foregrounds the inscription of designer’s values into designed outcomes. We conclude with opportunities for further engagement with ethical complexity in online and offline contexts, stimulating ethics-focused conversations among social media users and design practitioners.2020CGColin M. Gray et al.Dark Patterns RecognitionAlgorithmic Fairness & BiasDIS
Understanding Parenting Stress through Co-designed Self-TrackersNew parents often experience significant stress as they take on new roles and responsibilities. Stress management and mental wellbeing are two areas in which personal informatics (PI) research has gained attention, and there is an opportunity to investigate how parenting stress can be mitigated through PI practices. In this paper, we present the results of a co-designed technology probe study through which we deployed individualized self-trackers with new parents. We investigate the stress management topics new parents are interested in tracking and how and with what goals---they engage in self-directed PI practices. Our findings indicate that PI practices can potentially enable parents to: re-discover positive aspects of their everyday lives; identify better-suited stress management strategies; and facilitate spousal communication about shared responsibilities. We discuss how self-tracking experiences for the mental wellness of parents can be better designed.2020EJEunkyung Jo et al.Purdue UniversityEarly Childhood Education TechnologyMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCHI
Dimensions of UX Practice that Shape Ethical AwarenessHCI researchers are increasingly interested in describing the complexity of design practice, including ethical, organizational, and societal concerns. Recent studies have identified individual practitioners as key actors in driving the design process and culture within their respective organizations, and we build upon these efforts to reveal practitioner concerns regarding ethics on their own terms. In this paper, we report on the results of an interview study with eleven UX practitioners, capturing their experiences that highlight dimensions of design practice that impact ethical awareness and action. Using a bottom-up thematic analysis, we identified five dimensions of design complexity that influence ethical outcomes and span individual, collaborative, and methodological framing of UX activity. Based on these findings, we propose a set of implications for the creation of ethically-centered design methods that resonate with this complexity and inform the education of future UX practitioners.2020SCShruthi Sai Chivukula et al.Purdue UniversityTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Prototyping & User TestingCHI
A Practice-Led Account of the Conceptual Evolution of UX KnowledgeThe contours of user experience (UX) design practice have been shaped by a diverse array of practitioners and disciplines, resulting in a diffuse and decentralized body of UX-specific disciplinary knowledge. The rapidly shifting space that UX knowledge occupies, in conjunction with a long-existing research-practice gap, presents unique challenges and opportunities to UX educators and aspiring UX designers. In this paper, we analyzed a corpus of question and answer communication on UX Stack Exchange using a practice-led approach, identifying and documenting practitioners' conceptions of UX knowledge over a nine year period. Specifically, we used natural language processing techniques and qualitative content analysis to identify a disciplinary vocabulary invoked by UX designers in this online community, as well as conceptual trajectories spanning over nine years which could shed light on the evolution of UX practice. We further describe the implications of our findings for HCI research and UX education.2019YKYubo Kou et al.Florida State UniversityUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Prototyping & User TestingCHI
Analyzing Value Discovery in Design Decisions Through EthicographyHCI scholarship is increasingly concerned with the ethical impact of socio-technical systems. Current theoretically driven approaches that engage with ethics generally prescribe only abstract approaches by which designers might consider values in the design process. However, there is little guidance on methods that promote value discovery, which might lead to more specific examples of relevant values in specific design contexts. In this paper, we elaborate a method for value discovery, identifying how values impact the designer's decision making. We demonstrate the use of this method, called Ethicography, in describing value discovery and use throughout the design process. We present analysis of design activity by user experience (UX) design students in two lab protocol conditions, describing specific human values that designers considered for each task, and visualizing the interplay of these values. We identify opportunities for further research, using the Ethicograph method to illustrate value discovery and translation into design solutions.2019SCShruthi Sai Chivukula et al.Purdue UniversityTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignCHI
Ethical Mediation in UX PracticeHCI scholars have become increasingly interested in describing the complex nature of UX practice. In parallel, HCI and STS scholars have sought to describe the ethical and value-laden relationship between designers and design outcomes. However, little research describes the ethical engagement of UX practitioners as a form of design complexity, including the multiple mediating factors that impact ethical awareness and decision-making. In this paper, we use a practice-led approach to describe ethical complexity, presenting three varied cases of UX practitioners based onin situ observations and interviews. In each case, we describe salient factors relating to ethical mediation, including organizational practices, self-driven ethical principles, and unique characteristics of specific projects the practitioner is engaged in. Using the concept of mediation from activity theory, we provide a rich account of practitioners' ethical decision making. We propose future work on ethical awareness and design education based on the concept of ethical mediation.2019CGColin M. Gray et al.Purdue UniversityUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)Research Ethics & Open ScienceCHI
“What do you recommend a complete beginner like me to practice?”: Professional Self-Disclosure in an Online CommunityCSCW scholarship has previously addressed how professionals use digital technologies for learning and communication, but limited attention has been paid to professional self-disclosure on social media. Acts of self-disclosure—intentionally revealing personal information to others—are often considered beneficial for communication and formation of relationships, and describing the role of disclosure in professional communication is important to advance CSCW research that focuses on occupations or organizational settings. In this paper, we present a mixed-methods study of professional self-disclosure in an online community focused on user experience design (UX), documenting how acts of self-disclosure may support professional development. We found that self-disclosure was frequently used as an effective rhetorical and content-focused strategy to provoke discussions and request assistance with the goal of developing or maintaining professional competence. Through the identification of these self-disclosure strategies, we discuss professional self-disclosure in relation to professional identity development in online communities.2018YKYubo Kou et al.Disclosure and AnonymityCSCW
Supporting the Complex Social Lives of New ParentsOne of the many challenges of becoming a parent is the shift in one’s social life. As HCI researchers have begun to investigate the intersection of sociotechnical system design and parenthood, they have also sought to understand how parents’ social lives can be best supported. We build on these strands of research through a qualitative study with new parents regarding the role of digital technologies in their social lives as they transition to parenthood. We demonstrate how sociotechnical systems are entangled in the ways new parents manage their relationships, build (or resist building) new friendships and ad hoc support systems, and navigate the vulnerabilities of parenthood. We discuss how systems designed for new parents can better support the vulnerabilities they internalize, the diverse friendships they desire, and the logistical challenges they experience. We conclude with recommendations for future design and research in this area.2018ATAustin Toombs et al.Purdue University, Newcastle UniversitySocial Platform Design & User BehaviorTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignCHI
Supporting Distributed Critique through Interpretation and Sense-Making in an Online Creative CommunityCritique is an important component of creative work in design education and practice, through which individuals can solicit advice and obtain feedback on their work. Face-to-face critique in offline settings such as design studios has been well-documented and theorized. However, little is known about unstructured distributed critique in online creative communities where people share and critique each other’s work, and how these practices might resemble or differ from studio critique. In this paper, we use mixed-methods to examine distributed critique practices in a UX-focused online creative community on Reddit. We found that distributed critique resembles studio critique categorically, but differs qualitatively. While studio critique often focuses on depth, distributed critique often revolved around collective sensemaking, through which creative workers engaged in iteratively interpreting, defining, and refining the artifact and their process. We discuss the relationship between distributed critique and socio-technical systems and identify implications for future research. 2018YKYubo Kou et al.Feedback and Sense-MakingCSCW
The Dark (Patterns) Side of UX DesignInterest in critical scholarship that engages with the complexity of user experience (UX) practice is rapidly expanding, yet the vocabulary for describing and assessing criticality in practice is currently lacking. In this paper, we outline and explore the limits of a specific ethical phenomenon known as "dark patterns," where user value is supplanted in favor of shareholder value. We assembled a corpus of examples of practitioner-identified dark patterns and performed a content analysis to determine the ethical concerns contained in these examples. This analysis revealed a wide range of ethical issues raised by practitioners that were frequently conflated under the umbrella term of dark patterns, while also underscoring a shared concern that UX designers could easily become complicit in manipulative or unreasonably persuasive practices. We conclude with implications for the education and practice of UX designers, and a proposal for broadening research on the ethics of user experience.2018CGColin M. Gray et al.Purdue UniversityMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesPrivacy by Design & User ControlDark Patterns RecognitionCHI