Formulation of guidelines for a more ethical user experience design

Trupej, Klemen (author), Strle, Toma (mentor)

User experience design (UXD) often appears unethical, and creators of user ex-perience do not have guidelines that could assist with moral decisions. Even though there are GDPR regulations (General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Official Legal Text, n.d.) for mobile applications and websites, and platforms specific regu-lations (App Store and Google Play – only for mobile applications), that do not allow applications with insulting nature (App Store Review Guidelines - Apple Developer, n.d.), or are trying to protect privacy, the field is mainly unregulated. This short-coming of thinking about ethics could open doors to unethical practices in UXD, such as creating malicious user interfaces that trick users into clicking certain but-tons, performing ‘behind the scenes’ A/B research inside the mobile applications or websites without users’ knowledge, manipulating users through user-experience, abusing privacy of users, and others. In this thesis, I discuss how disposition to-wards virtuous behavior could lead to a more ethical UXD and create a foundation for guidelines. In the discussion about ethics, I use one of the three contemporary approaches in normative ethics, called virtue ethics, which puts forth the character of a person who is making a moral decision, i.e., an agent (Hursthouse, 2014; Kawall, 2014; Van Zyl, 2018). In the process of UXD, there are more agents included, such as artifact originator (client), user experience designer, user interface designer, de-veloper, copywriter, and user. In my work, I present and stress the importance of all the agents included, and not only artifact originator or user experience designer. To reach the goal of my thesis, I defined the basic steps that could be common to the creation of different UXD artifacts, with a focus on mobile applications, web-sites, and software, and defined the agents involved in this process. Further, I de-fined the responsibilities of each of the agents (e.g., designing the user interface for a user interface designer). Additionally, I presented how UXD could be beneficial or harmful, and I used this knowledge to discuss how disposition to virtuous behavior could lead to more ethical, and avoid unethical, UXD. The result of the thesis are guidelines, presenting concrete examples of how each of the agents, being disposed to virtuous behavior, could contribute to a more eth-ical UXD. The final thoughts will later be published on a collaborative website that would invite other experts from the field to contribute.

• Language: English
• Keywords: user experience design
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 2.09 - Master's Thesis
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Year: 2021
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-128585
• COBISS.SI-ID: 70697731
• Publication date in RUL: 16.08.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Izdelava smernic za bolj etično oblikovanje uporabniške izkušnje

Abstract

Oblikovanje uporabniške izkušnje (angl. User Experience Design – UXD) mnogo-krat ni osnovano na etičnem razmisleku zato oblikovalec uporabniške izkušnje nima smernic, na katere bi se lahko naslonil pri razmisleku o etičnih implikacijah UXD. Kljub temu da trenutno obstajajo npr. GDPR regulacije – za mobilne aplikacije in spletne strani – (General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Official Legal Text, n.d.) in regulacije znotraj platform (App Store in Google Play – samo za mobilne aplikacije), ki ne dovoljujejo aplikacij z npr. žaljivo, brezčutno vsebino (App Store Review Guidelines - Apple Developer, n. d.), ali ščitijo varovanje zasebnosti, je po-dročje v glavnem neregulirano. Ta manko etičnega razmisleka o implikacijah UXD odpira vrata nemoralnim praksam v UXD: ustvarjanju škodoželjnih vmesnikov, ki vodijo uporabnika v klikanje neželenih gumbov, izvajanju A/B raziskav znotraj aplikacij in spletnih mest brez vednosti uporabnika, manipuliranju vedenja uporab-nikov, zlorabljanju zasebnosti, neupoštevanju uporabnikove avtonomije in drugim. V svojem magistrskem delu sem želel razmisliti, kako bi lahko tendenca k vrlinam vodila do manj nemoralnih praks, in s tem postaviti osnovo za smernice za bolj etič-no oblikovanje uporabniške izkušnje. Pri diskusiji etike v UXD sem uporabil sodobni praktični pristop v etiki, etiko vrlin, ki postavlja v ospredje karakterne značilnosti moralnega odločevalca ali t. i. deležnika (Hursthouse, 2014; Kawall, 2014; Van Zyl, 2018). V proces UXD je vpletenih več deležnikov, med drugim naročnik, oblikovalec uporabniške izkušnje, oblikovalec uporabniškega vmesnika, programer, tekstopi-sec in uporabnik. V svojem delu sem želel predstaviti pomembnost karakterja vseh vključenih in ne samo npr. naročnika ali oblikovalca uporabniške izkušnje. Za dosego cilja sem definiral osnovne korake, ki so skupni pri izdelavi različnih artefaktov v UXD (osredotočil se bom na mobilne aplikacije, spletne strani in pro-grame), in ugotavljal, kateri deležniki so vključeni v vsakega od procesov in kakšne so njihove odgovornosti (torej kakšne naloge ima vsak od njih; npr. oblikovanje upo-rabniškega vmesnika je naloga oblikovalca). Raziskal sem, kako UXD vpliva na ljudi, in sicer kdaj je lahko dobrodejen, koristen in kdaj škodljiv. Ta del dela je bil, skupaj z odgovornostmi deležnikov, osnova za razmislek o povezavi med tendenco do vrlin in področjem oblikovanja uporabniške izkušnje. Rezultat dela je predlog smernic, tj. predstavitev konkretnih primerov, kako bi naravnanost agentov do vrlin lahko vodila do specifičnih vedenj, ki bi lahko predstavljala bolj etični UXD. Končni razmisleki dela bodo objavljeni na kolaborativni spletni strani, ki bo k sodelovanju povabila strokovnjake s tega področja.

• Keywords: oblikovanje uporabniške izkušnje