Jointly grasping the possible in design
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-11-2013-0049 |
| Date | 04 March 2014 |
| Pages | 14-17 |
| Published date | 04 March 2014 |
| Author | Chuck Huff |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Jointly grasping the possible
in design
Chuck Huff
Department of Psychology, St Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, USA
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the contribution of Christiansen attempting to reintegrate
ethics into the process of design.
Design/methodology/approach – It situates her attempt in the context of the history of the
participatory design movement, and the way ethical concern has been jettisoned leaving only a
pragmatic toolbox of techniques.
Findings – Christiansen is successful in finding ethical encounter residing of necessity at the heart of
design. Design imposes a vision or narrative on the world and participatory design makes that
narrative negotiable.
Practical implications – All design is of necessity ethical endeavor, and Christiansen helps us to
understand why.
Originality/value – This response situates Christiansen’s approach within the Heideggerian
understanding of the “ready to hand” assumptions that lie in the ways we approach objects in our
world. This language may help provide a structured way to talk about the encounter.
Keywords Collaboration,Philosophy, Complexity, IT ethics,Human-comp interaction,
Socio-technicalsystems
Paper type Viewpoint
Christiansen (2013) has identified a crucial dialogical moment in the process of software
prototyping and design: The turning point where those in charge of design find
themselves aware of (if not necessarily open to) alternatives. It is in part of course,
a designed moment. The participatory designer is expecting it, even hoping for it, and
plans encounters that will lead to it.
But it is also a deeply ethical moment, a moment when an encounter between
alternative claims on the world meet and the designer has the chance to see the
opportunity and to respond appropriately. The designer must have long practice in
recognizing these moments in order to seize the opportunity to respond to them.
And she must also have the ability to respond in a way that shapes a better design, one
suited to the multiple constraints of those in the situation.
In this way, the extent to which the design process leads to such fruitful ethical
encounters becomes a measurement of the success of doing good participatory design
work: design becomes ethical encounter. And the extent to which the designer embodies
the virtues needed in good design constrains the outcome of these encounters: ethics
becomes design.
Reflections on utopian aspirations
What we call ”participatory design” today has been stripped of most of its revolutionary,
democratic roots (Bødker et al., 2000, Spinnuzi, 2002). It began with a commitment to
democratic empowerment of the users of technology, based in union politics. This
commitment was seen as being in opposition to the power of management to constrain
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
Received 26 November 2013
Revised 26 November 2013
Accepted 26 November 2013
Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society
Vol. 12 No. 1, 2014
pp. 14-17
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-11-2013-0049
JICES
12,1
14
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