A practical framework for ethics - The PD-net approach to supporting ethics compliance in public display studies (original) (raw)

ethics in the making

Design Philosophy …, 2005

Applied ethics in research is no longer regarded as a concern exclusive to the medical field. Exemplars in ethics from other fields such as design are, however, meagre, as are relevant practical and design applied guidelines. The more ethically grounded a given area of research is, the greater the chance it can contribute to long-term, meaningful breakthroughs in knowledge. An improved ethics in design can enable a critical questioning that in turn leads to entirely new research questions.

Ethical Issues for User Involvement in Technological Research Projects

Contemporary Ethical Issues in Engineering, 2015

In recent years, it has become common for users to participate in the development of new technologies for health and quality of life. This development requires ethical issues to be taken into account. In this chapter, the researchers review the important recommendations and directives both worldwide and in European legislation in order to guide technological researchers. All research with human participants that poses any risk to them must be supervised by an external multidisciplinary entity. In addition, the participants must decide whether or not they want to participate, having been provided with all the information about the experiments and the risks of taking part. The privacy of the participants' personal data is another important issue.

SIENNA D6.3: Methods for translating ethical analysis into instruments for the ethical development and deployment of emerging technologies

2021

In this SIENNA deliverable we present five general methods for translating ethical analysis into frameworks and methods for the ethical guidance of new emerging technologies. These are: a multistakeholder, coevolutionary strategy for ethically responsible development, deployment and use of new technology, a step-by-step method for the development of ethics guidelines and ways in which guidelines can be operationalized, a general approach for Ethics by Design, that works for all technology fields, suggestions for ethics and human rights projects on new and emerging technologies for engaging with policy-maker, and finally a method on how research ethics committees can support ethics in new emerging technology research.

Situational Ethics: Re-thinking Approaches to Formal Ethics Requirements for Human-Computer Interaction

Proc. CHI 2015, 2015

Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics review for their evaluation or field trial protocol. Although this process varies by country, the underlying principles are universal. While this process is often a formality, for field research or lab-based studies with vulnerable users, formal ethics requirements can be challenging to navigate – a common occurrence in the social sciences; yet, in many cases, foreign to HCI researchers. Nevertheless, with the increase in new areas of research such as mobile technologies for marginalized populations or assistive technologies, this is a current reality. In this paper we present our experiences and challenges in conducting several studies that evaluate interactive systems in difficult settings, from the perspective of the ethics process. Based on these, we draft recommendations for mitigating the effect of such challenges to the ethical conduct of research. We then issue a call for interaction researchers, together with policy makers, to refine existing ethics guidelines and protocols in order to more accurately capture the particularities of such field-based evaluations, qualitative studies, challenging lab-base evaluations, and ethnographic observations.

Surveying the Landscape of Ethics-Focused Design Methods

arXiv (Cornell University), 2021

Over the past decade, HCI researchers, design researchers, and practitioners have increasingly addressed ethics-focused issues through a range of theoretical, methodological and pragmatic contributions to the field. While many forms of design knowledge have been proposed and described, we focus explicitly on knowledge that has been codified as "methods, " which we define as structured supports for everyday work practices of designers. In this paper, we identify, analyze, and map a collection of 63 existing ethics-focused methods intentionally designed for ethical impact. Building on results of a content analysis of these methods, we contribute a descriptive record of how these methods operationalize ethics, their intended audience or context of use, their "core" or "script, " and the means by which these methods are formulated and codified. Building on these results, we provide an initial definition of ethics-focused methods, identifying potential opportunities for the development of future methods to support ethical design practice. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Interaction design process and methods; • Social and professional topics → Codes of ethics.

Ethool, a tool to enable ethical and legal decision-making in research involving humans using new technologies in Europe: design and usability validation

Research Square (Research Square), 2023

Human participation in technological research projects has become more frequent in recent years. However, most of the technological researchers who organize such experimentation are unaware about the various ethical and legal implications involved. Further, when it is a medical device prototype that is being evaluated, the ethical and legal implications may be even more complex. A review of the laws, standards and recommendations in Europe has been drawn up regarding human participation in new technology co-design, development and evaluation, focusing on technological research for assistive and medical devices. An easy-to-use tool, called Ethool, which acts as a guideline for European technological researchers has been designed and developed. In this manuscript, the iterative usability evaluation of Ethool is explained as well as the improvements made, following participants' feedback. Ethool was rated as acceptable and usable by participants obtaining a SUS score of 93.0 in its last evaluation. The tool is currently available to be used by any interested parties with the aim of gathering additional feedback.

Interactive to Proactive: Computer Ethics in the past and the future

ETHICOMP 2005: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference - Looking back to the future, 2005

The integration of mobile technology, wireless networks, ubiquitous computing and artificial intelligence with thousands of embedded devices such as sensors and actuators may result in networks that can proactively monitor and respond to human behaviour without human interaction and with little supervision. Decisions that can influence or alter the environment will be made at faster-than-human speeds. Ethics as applied to current interactive computer systems will not be adequate. The paper proposes that the principles of clinical ethics can be applied to proactive computing, and argues that removal of the autonomy of the users of proactive systems may make such systems inherently unethical. We note that clinical ethics is accepted in the medical profession but that no such institutionalization and internalization exist in the computer industry. We conclude that although possible principles exist, significant change in the community is needed to apply them in practice.

Ethical design: a foundation for visual communication

2016

The central original contribution to knowledge proposed by this thesis is the setting forth of a conceptualisation of ethical theory specifically in relation to design, with a focus on visual communication design. Building on earlier work by design theorist Clive Dilnot in the area of design ethics and on philosopher Giorgio Agamben's formulation of the philosophical concept of potentiality, a way of thinking about the relationship between design and ethics is proposed which concludes that design is in fact always inherently ethical. However, this conception of ethical design purposefully leaves questions of the qualification of good and bad unresolved, stating only that the ethical is the prerequisite condition in which both good and bad become possibilities. Design's significantly unethical capability to suppress and anaesthetise individuals' ethical experience is highlighted through a proposal of a process of an/aesth/ethics. Observation of the relationship between design and ethics in the real world through a series of interviews demonstrates something of the complexity of design's relationship with ethics and the diverse range of positions, beliefs, attitudes and paradoxes abounding within the design profession when it comes to addressing the question of "good" design practice. Six "sites" of ethics within contemporary design discourse are introduced and discussed. The ethicality of design practices in relation to these sites are then analysed through the lens of the proposed ethical framework: identifying strengths, weaknesses and potentials within these observed strategies. The way of thinking about ethical design proposed here demonstrates potential in contributing to designers' ability to critically consider the ethicality of their own practices. From this foundation they may be better equipped to begin addressing the question of the qualification of the "goodness" of design. In conclusion, proposals are made for how this framework could be practically developed and used to support and encourage ethical design in the real world.