13. Ethics

Ethics in Design allow a practitioner to recognize and hold the inherent tension between their morals as a person and how those can influence their design decisions when practicing.

Ethics are principle-based reference points whereas morals are individually held beliefs based on commonly acceptable behaviours in how people conduct themselves in relationships and society. As a practitioner engaging human systems, it is important to be aware of our own moralistic motivators in relation to the ethics of standards of good practice and in correlation with the ethics and culture of the human system we are entering.

In the absence of this recognition, a practitioner may likely default to exclusively referencing their moral standards.   The risk is having a design that does not fit the people, their current circumstances, culture, and that matches where they are ready to go next.

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