Service Design & Ethics

Aloha!

One of the key challenges that we, as service designers, face today is managing user needs and stakeholders' requirements which may be at odds with each other. This has an implication on how we design services, as every design decision we make has a significant impact on the quality of people's lives. With this in mind, how do we ensure that we design services ethically? What does it mean to design ethically?

We've got two great talks lined up for you to explore the relationship between design and ethics:

1. ISSA TRAP: the future isn’t just a connected fridge
   Alex Fefegha and Akil Benjamin @fxfegha @akilbenjamin @Comuzi_lab

Technology is shaping our society and culture - but what kind of future do we want to build?

The driving force of the future isn’t about connected fridges or fancy home technologies, but the seemingly invisible technologies powering the things you don’t see.

New but invisible technologies like automated decisions and machine learning are influencing industries like banking, advertising, healthcare and security. Understanding the impact of these technologies will be crucial to helping people navigate society in the future.

Chatbots are being called THE next interface for communicating with young people. But there are still big questions around who owns the data shared with a chatbot and how chatbots handle privacy.

So Projects by IF and Comuzi worked together to answer the question: how can we expose the seams of a mental health chatbot to make its actions explainable?

2. Design for Humanity, not humans
   Hollie Lubbock, @hollielubbock

Humanity is feeling the effects of huge changes due to design and technology but often is left out of the considerations when we create that world. What does it mean to design ethically, and how can we do it? Hollie will explore how and why we should switch from a focus on individuals to focus on humanity.

Hollie is a freelance experience design director, she focuses on helping clients create products and services that excite audiences and drive engagement. Over the last ten years, she has worked in the luxury, culture, publishing & tech sectors, collaborating closely with clients to create user-centered designs for a wide range of digital products, from large-scale collections systems to small innovative app projects. Her passion projects are around trends, ethics and how technology affects society.

We can't wait to see you all there! :D

Love and peace
The Service Lab Team
Afsa, Charley, Jenni and Rupert