Ethical Design Practices for Impactful Work and Inclusive Environments

Gabriela Lucia Lorenz at UXDX Community: Enhancing Product Teams with Ethical and Universal Design Principles. Video: https://youtu.be/NCxkk-_MAHg

Readable transcript: edited from the recording's captions for readability (fillers and false starts removed, punctuation and section headings added). Wording is the speaker's own. Timestamps are positions in the video. Names marked [?] could not be verified against the audio.

Design, ethics and wanting to change the world

[00:00:00] Hello everyone. I'm happy to be here today for this session about design and ethics. I am Gabriela Lorenz. I identify myself as a woman and my pronouns are she and her. I'm a design director, and today I would like to share with you my experience working in the tech industry in international and multicultural teams for the past over 10 years. I'd like to share with you all my thoughts about the intersection between design and ethics, and some ideas about how we can foster a more ethical design practice. I hope you'll find it interesting.

[00:00:35] My goal for today is not to teach you anything, but actually to share my thoughts, hoping to spark even more interesting thoughts in you. Because I need to say something: I am here today to change the world. I became a designer to find creative solutions for the problems of the world. At least that's what I thought when I was a kid. I wanted to change the world, I wanted to make an impact. Who wouldn't?

[00:01:06] So what are we going to be talking about today? First I would like to introduce two concepts: ethics and morality. Ethics, also called moral philosophy, is a discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, and morally right and wrong. Morality is the group of moral beliefs and practices of a culture, community or religion, or a code or system of moral rules, principles or values. Behaving ethically means to act according to our values, to what we consider is beneficial for the society we live in. It's seeking to do good. But the question is, can we as designers always do that?

[00:01:51] Here is this definition. It's in a great book by Trina Fal[?] that states that exercising ethical design means creating products and services in a way that treats everyone involved with fairness and respect, regardless of their role.

Growing up in a rural town in Argentina

[00:02:09] Let me start from the beginning of my story. I come from Argentina, actually from a little rural town in the middle of Argentina. It's called Carhué[?]. I'm not sure if you know it, maybe not, but it's a rural town, really nice, very nice for a weekend for example. I always like to recommend visiting it. The people are nice, we have an inland salty lake. It's nice for a weekend, for example if you are searching for any plans for next weekend. There's plenty of nature there, there are a lot of cows, lots of flamingos in the lake.

[00:02:43] Anyway, I was born to a middle class family. Both my parents worked all their lives, and their parents also worked their whole life, and our savings were used to go on family holidays or to repair our house. That's actually me in a painting session with my family. Things like heritage and investments were mostly unknown concepts for me.

[00:03:10] At the same time I was raised with the deep awareness of the wealth inequality in the world. Living in a country where a medium salary can be three or four thousand a year, I was watching American movies with teenagers getting their own cars when turning 16, and at the same time knowing that some of my classmates were going to bed every day without having dinner. The older I grew, the more I found out problems in the world. My village, my town for example, almost got flooded when I was around 10, although today we call that climate change. That's the town next to mine, Epecuén, and that is how it looked after the flood.

[00:03:56] Also at the global level, the ozone hole was getting bigger and bigger. That was a big threat some years ago. And there were lots of wars in every corner of the world. No wonder I didn't want to grow up, but well, I couldn't avoid it, it happened to me as well.

University, design studies and the problems I was seeing

[00:04:14] Then I had a chance to go to university. It was a great privilege being able, as a woman in a developing country, to attend university without paying any fees. That is something that we sometimes take for granted, education. We need to remember that in 2020 not even one billion people attended university, out of 8 billion people of the total world population, and that is about 11%. So I chose to study design because I wanted to design solutions for the problems I was seeing in the world.

[00:04:53] Early during my studies I already started doing some logos for friends and family, or laying out the magazine for an NGO, doing small things just for fun, trying to help friends. But I was also seeing other problems in my world. I was living in a country with a strong neoliberal influence, looking strongly to external role models and forgetting about our national culture. The system was broken. There was lack of trust in institutions and politicians, a lot of corruption, democracy was always under threat. That created a great sense of individuality, a sense of every man on their own.

[00:05:31] And talking about men, there was only a little space for women in my world: less women than men as professors, or featured as great designers, or in leadership positions. And I was seeing social inequality every time I turned on the TV, or every time going outside home. In 2001, maybe you've heard, Argentina had a great crisis that led us to a huge work instability, and poverty was rising and rising and rising.

[00:06:05] So at some point in my youth I started volunteering in an NGO called The Alliance Clubs[?]. I was taking part of charity activities like volunteering, but also was doing things related to communication and design, like designing magazines or running communication campaigns for charity events. I was really committed to it because I had a tangible result. I was doing things for my community, so I could really see it. But I wanted to make even a bigger impact.

Geneva, Zurich and learning from a diverse team

[00:06:40] After my studies I had the chance to move to Geneva, here in Switzerland. How I got there is another story, but the fact is that I started working for a web agency whose main clients were international organizations of the UN. And I thought, how cool, I was designing for a good cause. I thought I could make a bigger impact with my designs. But the truth is that after some time I realized that there was actually more distance between me and the people that my design was impacting. I was actually designing for intermediaries.

[00:07:13] So I thought, it's time to move on, and long story short I ended up working in Zurich for a software development company. I was fascinated by working in a different environment and mind. I was learning a lot about investments, wealth planning, about stock markets, and at the same time I was working with colleagues from different countries in Europe, from Asia and from Australia as well. We formed a very diverse team and I learned so much from all of them. I got to know about their countries, about their culture and everyday worries and challenges, and that helped me to understand that we had different communication styles. Many times I was the translator, we can say, between different colleagues, and that was a great opportunity and training to empathize with other colleagues and facilitate communication and mutual understanding with the team.

[00:08:10] This is a great video explaining the difference between empathy and sympathy, an explanation by Brené Brown. I can leave the link in the chat later. It talks a lot about developing your leadership style through being vulnerable. You might want to check it out, it's very interesting.

[00:08:29] So I empathized with my team members, understanding them by knowing their personal lives, learning about the context they live in and what they worry about, the challenges they face every day, and so on. This was very important since most of my team was working in less privileged countries, or in regions threatened by natural disaster, for example in a society where women and minorities are strongly oppressed. Because the first step towards trying to be ethical is being socially aware and engaged. That's a quote by Lucan Roberts[?], who wrote that great book.

Small actions inside my own team

[00:09:13] But while living in Europe, working for a big company in an international environment, I also saw similar problems to the ones I saw back in my childhood. I saw for example that there were less women than men in our team, so I started spotting out talented women when recruiting, to gender balance our team. I put special attention to give opportunities to minorities and candidates whose documents were non-standard for an HR dossier, especially with regards to nationality, which is a huge barrier here to work in Europe.

[00:09:49] But I could also feel there was a lack of trust. I felt that when I was younger, so I prioritized fostering collaboration in our team, setting up common goals to attain together, and not only focusing on individual growth that would make us only compete amongst each other. At the same time I tried to empower my colleagues, especially if they were women or part of a minority. And with minority I don't mean that they are part of a smaller group, but a group with less power.

[00:10:21] So I strove to create a fair working environment, giving visibility to their skills and high quality work, to help them receive the recognition they deserve, to help them not to dwell thinking that they are in the shadows of their senior colleagues. I tried to create a safe environment for everyone to feel comfortable to express themselves as they are, to show their most authentic version, to express their needs and wants. And I also noticed that many junior designers were sometimes struggling defining their career path, so I offered some free time in my week to have conversations with them. I'm no guru, but I guess I was just acting as a mirror for them. I was actively listening to them and asking questions, and that would allow them to find their own answers.

[00:11:11] But I still felt the distance between my design work and the final user, because my stakeholders were my product managers, and I realized that there were things that I wanted to propose in my design work that I was just not able to do, because I was again designing for intermediaries. So I thought I needed to create that change first in my direct stakeholders, in my POs. That's how we — now it was more a we, because there was much more of this feeling of being in a team, so much more traction and engagement from us all. So we brought to the table conversations to create awareness and understanding about things that are maybe not so frequently mentioned, like diversity, gender identity, gender pronouns, gender privileges.

[00:12:02] And of course these weren't one-time conversations, so the journey was a great training about communication skills and public speaking. I was always thinking one day I would have the chance to talk to the right person to make a real impact, so I needed to be prepared for that day, and I kept practicing and engaging in these conversations. Even when designing products for stakeholders whose values were not aligned with mine, I took it as a chance to practice how to talk to them, to persuade them, to ensure I am heard, that I managed to get my message through, even when facing people that might undervalue me or my colleagues, or just think that my voice is not important. Improving my communication skills gave me the chance to handle difficult conversations in a more effective way.

Realizing my everyday work was making zero impact

[00:12:55] But at some point I realized that my everyday design work was making zero impact on the problems I initially saw, the ones that brought me to study design. Imagine me, coming from a small rural town in the middle of La Pampa in Argentina, going to school with kids that many times had to go to sleep without a meal. Me, that had that great privilege of going to uni, and that had the mission of fighting against the problems in the world. I was now well educated, having all my basic needs covered, house, food and so on, having a stable work, and I thought, what the heck am I doing? Designing for whom? I'm not tackling the global problems, I'm not fighting against corruption, I'm not reducing poverty in the world.

[00:13:49] Okay, I'm a bit ambitious, but still, I realized I was not tackling the problems I saw in the world when I decided to become a designer. I was actually only enjoying my privileges. And what was the result? I was feeling completely empty of purpose in what I was doing.

Looking back and finding what I had actually done

[00:14:07] So at some point I looked back, reflected on my values, reflected on my actions of the last years, and to my surprise and moral recovery, I have to say, I discovered that for the past years I'd been doing small things in my team, in my everyday job, that were actually fighting all these things of the world that I wasn't happy with.

[00:14:30] I saw that I had empathized with my team members, understanding them, knowing their personal lives, what they were worried about. I was empowering my colleagues, especially if they were women or part of a minority. I fostered diversity when recruiting, giving opportunities to minorities, trying to stay out of unconscious biases and discriminations within the team. I practiced communication skills with different stakeholders, trying to get ready for that day, for making the big impact. I started conversations to create awareness and understanding. I mentored junior designers. I was actively listening to my colleagues. I shared my experience and encouraged others to do so. I reflected on my values and actions.

[00:15:22] And true, it was all at a very small scale, only in my team. But I'm convinced that when we do something, even if it's apparently a very small action, it's like a drop falling on a pond. It's producing in an expansive way and might get much, much further than what we can imagine. And still I thought, hey, what else can I do? There must be something. And the good news is that there is actually a lot we can do.

A few more ideas for a more ethical practice

[00:15:55] Here are a few more ideas, in these three last minutes. Commit to self-care. It's very, very difficult to commit to a continuous ethical practice without sustaining our mental, emotional and physical health. Be mindful of your privileges. As citizens of the world we have different advantages that we should be aware of, whether it's our gender, physical abilities, race and so on. Being aware of them is the first step in addressing the systemic inequalities that many communities and minorities face.

[00:16:32] Establish an ethical lexicon. Language is a great tool to communicate, but it also shapes ideas and beliefs. It helps us empathize and be respectful and engaged with whom we are talking to. Consciously enriching our glossary with terms related to social, political and ethical aspects can help us bring up those topics in a mindful conversation.

[00:16:57] Watch your words. Let's consciously choose the words we use to communicate. Let's commit to avoid using language that is violent, racist, misogynous, homophobic, transphobic or body shaming. Don't excuse yourself with "it's just a saying", because language really matters. And never assume to know a person's pronouns or gender identity, and adopt the habit of introducing yourself in meetings with new folks along with your own pronouns.

[00:17:29] Get to know the global issues. Challenge your biases. We cannot escape from them, but being conscious about them will help us create safer emotional spaces by maximizing inclusion of all ethnicities, genders, sexualities, bodies and abilities. Model conscious behavior. Regardless of our role, our behavior is always on display, and it's always a good opportunity to be a role model of conscious choices. Get loud about your ethical intentions: bring it to conversations, take the courage to take a stand and share it.

[00:18:13] Champion accessibility. Some disabilities are visible and some others are not, but it's absolutely necessary for any ethical creative practitioner that our work is as accessible as possible. It's not a matter of percentage of affected people, it's a matter of fair inclusion. Create safe and supportive spaces for everyone to feel safe to be part of. Demand diverse teams: we need different points of view, different backgrounds. Understand power and create equity. As designers we have the power to communicate.

[00:18:46] It's crucial to stay on top of the emerging conversations. Knowing about AI for example, or the last technology, is great, but we also need to educate ourselves about topics like circular economy, democratizing finance, intersectionality, systems innovations. Co-create and collaborate: get away from the guru or expert in a certain field and favor supportive co-creation activities. Instill gratitude in audiences: be mindful of who inspired you, who helped you overcome a challenge, who said something that sparked another thought in you. That will show that you value the teamwork, and it will make those who help you feel recognized and encouraged to keep supporting each other.

Change in human behavior is the hardest and the most impactful

[00:19:36] And let me tell you, and with this I'm closing, it's not going to be easy. Change is not easy for nobody. But the most difficult, yet the most impactful one, is the change in human behavior. Let's start with that and see how far the wave travels. I love that quote by Don Norman[?]. That's a great challenge that we have ahead: to change human behavior, to propose creative solutions for the problems created by human behaviors. And the first step towards it is to reflect on our own actions and to design our own behavior in a conscious way, to contribute to what we consider is the most inclusive, fairest and prosperous society.

[00:20:25] There's a lot we can do to foster a more ethical design practice at all levels. It doesn't matter if we feel that our impact is minimum, we should keep doing more and more of these apparently small actions that might change the lives of many, because we never know how far the wave will get. So that was the end. Thanks everyone for your active listening, and over to you, I guess.

Q&A

[00:20:53] Host: Excellent, thank you very much, Gabriela. Love the little llama[?] on your head, I just followed that there. It's an interesting kind of history of where you come from and how you're trying to reflect that in the work you do, so thank you for sharing your story. If anybody has any questions out there, please do write them in on whichever platform you're watching and I'll put those questions through to Gabriela. But I'm actually going to kick it off, because there seems to have been a shift in the last, I'd say, year, year and a half, where I've just noticed in a lot of news articles Google and Meta shut down their DEI departments, a lot of universities are shutting down their DEI departments, and there seems to be a shift away from more focus on diversity and inclusion. Are you seeing that in your sphere, or is it seemingly more a US-based trend?

[00:21:53] Gabriela: Well, no, I think there is some shared trend also here in Europe. I wouldn't go that far of saying that many companies are shutting down their AI departments, or actually using it less, but I think there's a higher concern about an ethical use of AI that will cover —

[00:22:20] Host: Sorry, sorry, it wasn't AI, it was DEI, diversity, equity — what does the E stand for — and inclusion.

[00:22:28] Gabriela: Okay, yeah, no, totally, totally. Sorry, not AI.

[00:22:36] Host: So in the last year Google laid off a lot of their DEI team, diversity and inclusion team, Meta did the same, universities are closing down their departments. So it's a trend that I'm definitely seeing in the US. So yeah, not AI, sorry.

[00:22:53] Gabriela: Yes. Well, I think here at least, here where I know, there's a lot of importance put in diversity and inclusion, and we are even trying to make it better, highlighting what's the difference in the leadership positions, or in the management, and at all levels actually. I think there's still a lot to do and there's still a lot of awareness that needs to be created, because not everyone is actually aware of it, as well as not aware of what the benefits are and why we actually need that, that it will create much better lives for everyone and better products. It has a huge impact. So I still think that we need to do a lot of work there. So far I haven't seen these kinds of trends, the same trend that you're seeing in the US, but I hope it's not coming to Europe, because I actually think that what we need is completely the opposite.

[00:24:12] Host: Really. And you mentioned a lot in the talk that you practice, and you consciously practice those kinds of difficult conversations, just so that you can be prepared for when bigger conversations happen. Are there any tips or techniques or things that you can share with people that you've learned over time, so that you can help them skip ahead a few steps?

[00:24:35] Gabriela: Well, one thing that is very, very useful for me is to exercise actively perceiving what's happening around me. That's one thing. I think it's kind of basic, but sometimes we are so much into a discussion or into our message that we forget to just make a pause, take one second and understand what is happening around us. Are our stakeholders really listening to us, and are they really understanding what we mean, or are we actually using the correct voice, the correct volume of our voice, the correct tone for where we are? I think that on a regular basis it's super useful.

[00:25:19] And another very important thing, especially for when we are working in a multicultural environment, is to understand that everything we've learned, that kind of cultural backpack, might be completely wrong or just not applicable in a specific environment where we are. I moved from Latin America to Europe, different country, different language, and that was every day. I remember this: I cannot assume that people do things like I was taught to do, or communicate things in the same way I was taught to, because of my cultural surroundings. I think that gives us an openness of mind that we really need to start understanding each other, and to assume that, hey, I might be wrong, so I might not be using the correct way of communicating that I need.

[00:26:26] Host: Yeah, brilliant. No, it's good tips there, hopefully it's valuable for people. I just want to touch one last question on, with your picture of your cow in the ocean, your self-reflection. Is there anything that you can share that you found was a good win out of what you've been doing? I know you said it's a drop in the ocean, but is there something that you feel that some of your teammates have shared with you about how they've improved thanks to your help?

[00:26:58] Gabriela: Yeah. I remember I was working with the team in the Philippines. A big part of the team was in the Philippines and some people were here in Zurich, but the communication was different, the communication style is different. I remember once I had a colleague who was junior but was growing very fast as a designer, and several times I tried to push her to take ownership of what she has done, because it was great work and it was almost invisible to the whole team. So I remember I asked her, hey, can you say that it's you who had done this, and can you answer "yes, it was me" whenever anyone is asking who's done this or that?

[00:28:08] And so little by little she started. She thought that that was kind of rude, or kind of taking too much attention, that it was unfair, and I was trying to say, no, look, this is how we communicate, that's how you will gain visibility, and it's what you deserve, it's the ownership of the work you are doing. So little by little she was gaining more and more trust and more and more self-confidence. And many years later she was telling me that she got another position and that she was much more self-confident in taking ownership of her achievements. And for me that was empowering someone, making her, in this case, realize that you need to really enjoy what you deserve and you need to make it visible. When she told me that that was a real change for her, I was really happy.

[00:29:17] Host: Excellent, that's a great, nice positive story to end on. We're unfortunately out of time, but just want to thank you once again, Gabriela, for sharing your story with us.

[00:29:25] Gabriela: Yeah, thank you all for listening.