New Zealand Journal of Computer-Human Interaction ZJCHI (2018) V3, I1 Ahmad , Al-Sa’di

Ethical Issues in Interaction Design

Esraa Ahmad1, Nesreen Al-Sadi2

1Faculty of health, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Auckland, New Zealand.

Minister of Education,Amman , Jordan

Esraa.ahmed@aut.ac.nz , nesreensadi@yahoo.com

Abstract. Designing information technology could risk building specific metaphors and
models of human actions into the technology itself and into the organised activities, work
systems, organisational cultures and social identities of those who use it. This paper is
motivated by the recognition that the theories about human activity used to control the
design of appropriate technology are made active, in use, by the interaction design of that
technology.
Keywords. E-Commerce, Knowledge Base, User Interface.

1 Introduction

Interaction design is defined as a subject of study that centres itself around a user’s
interaction with the designs of interactive digital products and services. Good interactive
designs have strong and defined goals and purposes, and an interface which users can easily
rely on their intuition to use. To accomplish this, the design process has to work through and
understand ethical issues that surround their design. Ethics is essentially moral principles
that rule a user’s behaviour or the way they do things. The issues in reference would be the
type of ethics that influence the design, and how to establish an ethical point of view. There
are numerous ethical issues that can be discussed but the main section focuses on 4 types of
ethical issues. Firstly, cultural, which is understanding the representation of human
activities in designs, Social – which focuses on the impact the designs have on society, moral
– which questions whether a design may offend, is it right or wrong to design a type of
behaviour into the product/service, and lastly legality - Does the design meet legislation,
does it conform to privacy laws, and health and safety laws.

2 Culture in Ethical Decision Making for Interaction Design

When designing for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) we risk constructing
particular representations and prototypes of human actions into the technology, work
practices, organisational cultures and social identities of the users. These representations

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New Zealand Journal of Computer-Human Interaction ZJCHI (2018) V3, I1 Ahmad , Al-Sa’di

and models of human activities are assumptions of Human-Computer Interactions (HCI) that
are made by developers. Making these assumptions without appropriate research can mean
that developers standardise a model of human behaviour that may not be suited to everyone.
Culture is a relatively new aspect when thinking about interaction design, it essentially
describes a shared way of life and doing things, a sum of the values, attitudes, goals and
practices shared by people in society or organisation. It changes over time periods, and
therefore is evolving, and reflects the moral and ethical beliefs and ideas of how people behave
and interact with each other. It is a shared assumption of human activity that is used to
guide the designs of certain technologies and is made active when used by the interaction
design (IxD) of that technology. The ethical issue surrounding this topic is the cultural
sensitivity of IxD, and the benefits it provides to a business/community.
New Zealand’s IITP Code of ethics for IT Professionals states in its first Tenet about Good
Faith that “Members shall have…. consideration for the values and cultural sensitivities of
groups within the community affected by their work”. When computers were first being built
and until recently neither computer scientists or users really thought about the cultural
issues being faced in IxD. ICT users have now become more culturally diverse, and software
development globalised; this in turn has brought new challenges. The variety of different
cultural backgrounds of users and developers from different parts of the globe have their own
range of values, skills and preferences, thus have their own expectations, and ways of
designing digital environments, systems, products and services. In order to collaborate and
provide an enjoyable user experience, cultural understanding of colleagues and users is key.
Firstly, we will focus on the organisational culture and work practices, and how IxD has
changed to incorporate research that accommodates for the cultural complexities involved.
In the past decade we have experienced a technological boom, the high quality user
experience is now what sets apart the competition in product development. Organisations
have shifted their focus now more on User Experience because they recognise the central
importance of this factor. User experience varies globally, and to form an understanding of
this has meant that large tech companies like Apple and Intel have hired teams of Social
Scientists to form user experience and interaction research teams. These research teams
study user behaviour, passions, and desires, which is assessed by adopting good qualitative
research methods from social sciences. Good research methods can involve interviews,
narrative research, ethnography and data coding. When this is accomplished and
implemented into a product whether it be a webpage, application, device or service; it can
provide a wide variety of benefits for business that include trust, brand recognition, customer
loyalty, user satisfaction, higher numbers of successful customer interactions, usefulness and
also provide a positive impact on user’s lives.
In summary businesses/organisations need to look more in depth into their IxD, specifically
into the culture of their users and developers. When they understand the culture they are
able to provide tailored, and enjoyable user experiences for their products/services, thus
avoiding any ethical issues regarding overgeneralisation or bias opinions of their target
audience.

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New Zealand Journal of Computer-Human Interaction ZJCHI (2018) V3, I1 Ahmad , Al-Sa’di

3 Social Perspective on Ethical Decision Making for Interaction Design

A previous predisposition in cooperation configuration could be a part of shared outline work

used to ground an investigation of various answers for one of the specialized issues that
emerge when innovation is utilized to bolster comparative work over separation. The
contention is made that a few answers for outline issues are superior to anything others since
they empower human cooperation in various ways. A few arrangements improve the
conceivable outcomes for human office; others decrease it. This implies there can be an ethical
premise for picking between option association plan choices that may somehow be viewed as
comparable as far as the usefulness and ease of use of the innovation. Designing of interactive
products to Mediate support people in their everyday lives requires the considerations and
effects of social ‘norms’ and what society would classify as being helpful and won’t look down
upon at the same time.
Building and designing information technology comes with the risk of designing an
interchangeable and almost identical model of human animation, then the question is asked
of whether the design of support and mediation of such is ethical and morally correct. We just
assume that design process is not giving its conformation and structure by natural causes
and we assume that it is given its form and structure by designer’s own beliefs and concepts,
which could then be taken into the fact that the specific designer is influenced by many
existing factors around them, some of the factors being people’s practises and habits, meaning
what they are used to, factors that are affected by society and the social norm. The design is
deeply enrooted in influences in values and ideals, which would eventually lead to or away
from these values. Interactive Design as the bigger picture would be a more active process in
this attempt to make the world a better place, in the light of the dynamics, would have social,
consequences. In order for the designer to be able to be creative and utilise of what explicit
theories/models there may be the designer has to remain in a critical mind state, thinking
about the bigger picture and the purpose the design may serve. An idea in the IT field
assumes that the timeline demands an issue to be clearly broken down and understood before
the formulaic solution can be brought up. A vision is shaped at the primary contact with the
design situation. This vision will be adjusted, reprimanded and perhaps dismissed for some
other vision, but with its presence will certainly have an effect on the thinking and beliefs of
the designers, it gets as far as influencing what the design situation and fundamentals of the
work, with limited time being of the essence requiring certain decisions to be made, the vision
would influence all of them.
Considering not every idea is an issue- proof and runs perfectly and smoothly another issue
designer introduce into society is that the technologies have lasting consequences for society
as a whole, a clear example being a cause of the growing tension between a want for constant
technological advances and innovation. Every day, a huge number of practical tablets, cell
telephones, and other innovative, intelligent gadgets are considered out of date. Poisons from
their transfer stream into the planet's waste streams, frequently sent to nations without the
framework to handle huge measures of tainted material. The current pressure around
natural issues might be an unavoidable result of specialised development. Then again, if new
architects, producers, advertisers, and technologists imagine long haul impacts, past price
and utilise, maybe toughness and recyclability could be key elements planned into
contemporary intelligent gadgets.
While communication outline techniques have progressively drawn in clients and connections

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New Zealand Journal of Computer-Human Interaction ZJCHI (2018) V3, I1 Ahmad , Al-Sa’di

of-utilization, these strategies ordinarily have been either sceptic on the measurement of long
haul systemic impacts or concentrated on the short-term. From this perspective, the effect of
interactive technology on the world is not exclusively dictated by the innovation's outline and
the proposed use but formed by people and society everywhere, and by its shape and
substance, technology can be appropriated in various ways. We set a specific sort of
commonality shared by the vast majority by ideals of their humanity. Such commonalty
originates from the way that as human creatures we exist in human bodies with human
personalities that shape how we encounter the world. Not to disregard context in human
experiences and culture how activities and related basic qualities show in particular context
may fluctuate. A look at the values standards can help designers take the more balanced
view, envisioning both positive and possibly negative effects of a projected technology.
One of the 5 tenets of ‘Goal driven design’ is to define one specific use for your product (Alan,
1999) so being considerate of who the end user is going to be and considering all factors or
problems they may face using the system, looking once again at the environment in which
the designer is in and hence showing the importance of the overall effect of the social factors
that affect the ideas and theories of the designer.

4 Morality in Ethical Decision Making for Interaction Design

An interaction designer has to decide what morals to follow when developing a product for
people to use in their everyday lives. Because this choice has to be made by the interaction
designer, it is quite often their ideas of right and wrong behaviour that are present in the
final products. As morals are not a standardised list of rules that apply to all people, there
are differences that can become problematic. Morality is an important part of interaction
design as it has to be very seriously considered to make use of all devices and software fair
for everyone. If morals are not considered during the process of interaction design the product
would not be considered ethical.

Morals are standards of behaviour, or the principles of right and wrong; for something to be
considered ethical it must follow good morals. The Institute of Information Technology
Professionals (IITP) code of ethics has eight tenets that have to be followed for something to
be considered ethical. The good faith tenet states that people should be treated with “dignity,
good faith and equality”. For this to be followed properly the product would have to be
considered morally correct and therefore ethical. For something to be considered morally
correct it would have to not discriminate against anyone or anything, while still including
people of all backgrounds. An example of this would be Apple’s Siri voice recognition service;
if Siri said “yes, master” as opposed to “yes, [your name]”, as Siri uses a female voice it would
be considered sexist as it could be viewed as discriminatory to females as it treats them
unequally. This would result in Siri not meeting the IITP code of ethics and therefore be
considered unethical. Because of the morals the developers have decided upon Siri is in fact
ethical.

The sixth tenet of the IITP code of ethics, titled “Informed Consent”, states that end-users
must be aware of consequences due to the use of the product. This is especially important
because legality comes into play, and as the law is a moral code, it must be followed.

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Applications are allowed to do illegal things, as long as the user understands that they can
get caught and be held accountable. Because developers have different morals, some might
not like to allow the user to do illegal things, whereas some may let the user have free reign
as long as they know what they are doing. An example of this is an app that downloads music
to your phone from the internet. Spotify is a subscription service that lets you do this, legally
as it supports artists. On the other hand, there are apps that let you pirate music, not
supporting the artists and is therefore illegal. Both developers have provided the same
service, juts through different means as they followed different moral codes. Both have been
made ethically, but it is the user's decision on what one to use: legal or illegal.
Interaction designers also have to consider the age of the user. Age restrictions are a big part
of software development because it allows parents to know whether something is appropriate
for their child or not. Because everyone raises children differently, what the children have
been exposed to will vary greatly. So the developer has to consider this when creating an
application as it could expose children to things parents will not want them seeing or doing.
This came to attention with developers letting the user get in game points through credit
card payments without a form of authentication, such as an account password, allowing
children to charge thousands of dollars to parent’s credit cards with ease. Because this was
found to be immoral a password is now required for in app purchases.
In conclusion, morals play a large part in interaction design, because without them many
programs would be considered unethical. Without good morals applications would be allowed
to discriminate, do things without the user knowing the consequences and could expose
children to harmful things.

5 Legal and Ethical issues in Interaction Design

Interaction Design refers to the shaping of interactive products. Companies spend a

substantial amount of money and research efforts in designing an outstanding user interface.
Interaction design and elements are both practices that are affected by the legislation. Data
privacy (data protection & data ownership), accessibility and Health and Safety are the most
predominant issues in interaction design. It is crucial Interaction designers considers the law
of your country and also the countries where the software will be implemented in,
undoubtedly this is an astounding challenge with high probability of an error.
Globally data privacy laws vary as well. Data Protection Act 1998 sets out eight data
protection principles for personal data that must be adhered to. Data consists of information
on individual living people is given the special status by virtue. It also mandates the office of
information commissioner to oversee the operation of the Act. The Act requires you to process
personal data fairly and lawfully which is rooted in the first data protection principle and is
one of the eight principles at the heart of data protection. Fairness generally requires you to
be clear an open with information of the individuals and how their information will be used.
The primary reasons for these principles are to protect the interest of the individuals whose
personal data is being processed. The Act says personal data shall be accurate and, where
necessary, kept up to date.
Carrying out usability testing which falls under the health and safety legislation of software
intended for domestic and office environments is not an inherently anything risky, however
different contexts or novel or porotype equipment is involved safety issues may arise.

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New Zealand Journal of Computer-Human Interaction ZJCHI (2018) V3, I1 Ahmad , Al-Sa’di

Interaction designers are recommended a five-step process from The Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) to carry out which identifies the hazards, quick review on who may be
harmed n how due to good/bad interfaces, evaluates the risks and decides on precautions,
recording findings implementing them and evaluating your computation and updating it if
necessary.
Accessibility, another legal issue in interaction design. The Equality Act 2010 combined pre-
existing legislation to unify unfair discrimination against a list of protected characteristics is
regulated. Age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy
and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation are the characteristics
which are a distinct concern for interaction design. If designers are working on products that
are to be used by children or other vulnerable groups, the provisions of the Safeguard
Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the enhancing Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 must be
respected. Authoritative advice is to be sought before undertaking this work due to the
legislation being complex.
In conclusion, legal and ethical issues play a big role in interaction design. Also it is what
interface designers are relying on in order to create an outstanding user interface. Legal and
Ethical issues are an essential part of user experience. Without Legal issues accessibility,
Health and Safety, and the reveal of private information of the individual users could have
occurred raising security concerns.

6 Results:

Ethics plays a large role in the design of ICT products and services. The main issues discussed
showed that the cultural issues allow for understanding of human behaviour and
collaboration across borders, social impact issues bring about an understanding of how the
design will impact society when implemented, moral issues make sure the design does not
cross any principle boundaries of what is right or wrong, and legal issues ensure that the
design itself is meeting all standards and regulations to be allowed to be implemented and
actioned. Without appropriate discussion or consideration of these ethical issues there is a
high chance of designing a product that will most likely fail, or producing a design that will
never be implemented.
Conclusion:
In conclusion the interaction design process has changed over time, because of the evolving
nature of technology and accessibility to users globally. Due to this, there are more ethical
decisions to make about a design before production, therefore these decision making
processes that involve understanding all ethical issues need to be standard practice in any
ICT business or organisation.

7 References

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