Man wearing black headset surrounded by books and technology gadgets by Ola Dapo | Pexels License
I hate design thinking.
I hate the notion of “How might we…” central questions.
I hate reducing challenges down to an overused “design thinking squiggle” that is miraculously transformed into a linear line — yea, this thing…
Champions of design thinking claim to leverage the methodology to address “wicked problems” that exist in the world; however, once we get past all the sticky notes, Mira boards, sparkling water, and snack table — all design thinking does is perpetuate the status quo of society.
Designers and our participants sit in a design thinking or a brain steering workshop, working toward ideas and solutions from a place of privilege — a privilege that often goes unchecked. Those involved in the working sessions walk away feeling as though they have done a good deed or made a true contribution toward change, but in reality, while it may seem like the right thing to do, too often we have failed to do things right.
Rarely do we see the solutions of these activities are riddled with bias. Never do we discuss how technology that may be implemented is amplifying historical data which is detrimental to BIPOC individuals or people with accessibility needs. Not for a moment do we pause and consider that our solution to bring a positive benefit to our community is derived from a mindset of designing FOR people and not WITH the people we intended to have a positive impact on.
I say “we” because now I am one of the designers charged with elevating the principles of design thinking as part of my agency’s Customer Experience (CX) practice. I have recently taken a job at one of the most premier global brand and customer experience agencies, VMLY&R, where design thinking is very much a part of our company deliverable. Part of my role as a Director of Experience Design is to facilitate this thinking internally and with clients.
While in meetings discussing technology-driven solutions, customer journeys, and business expectations — I am hit with a constant reminder of why I find design thinking, in the traditional sense, not as impactful as it could be or the hype makes it out to be.
As of late, I find myself troubled because my disdain for design thinking may hinder me from being more impactful at my job. While I feel my colleagues and our clients have the best intention in solving challenges, seeing that I am often one of the few, sometimes only, Black people in the room — -it is overwhelming to always be the voice of those often excluded. Chalking it up to someone’s unconscious bias, the unfamiliarity of the issues, or “blindness” is no longer acceptable, and frankly, it never was.
Today, just as it has always been, technology is an integral part of the advancement of human civilization. It is through technology, we humans have reshaped the world around us. Technology is also intrinsic in how we design experiences. But, we must change how we design.
No matter if we are designing packaging, technology product, an organization, or a business, if the hope is for an innovative outcome, then we must design these innovations responsibly.
Responsible Innovation (RI) sits at the intersection of technology and morality. It is built on the very premise of ethics by design. RI is about transformation in society through the amplification of inclusivity across systems of governance, networks, and sustainability initiatives.
I define responsibility as a way of acting by taking accountability for the consequences of our actions, desired or not, anticipated or not, specific and measurable, and by including external factors. An integral part of this understanding of responsibility is the acknowledgment of human bias in behavior and how it affects integrity in research and innovation.
Acting responsibly is to act intentionally toward the prevention or avoidance of undesired consequences from the actions of individuals or the community, and taking the necessary actions to correct these consequences as soon as they become more apparent.
Considering our future is being designed with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), or the fact that our analog world is becoming more in sync with the digital thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Extended Reality (XR) — -it is necessary to have a deeper understanding of the moral implication of these technologies and the impact they have on people, especially those of us who are historically excluded.
Machine learning is built on data sets that mirror the real world; however, I wonder whose world is being reflected?
This mirror is flawed if the data does not reflect the current society and situation. Decisions based on incomplete and biased historical data help to perpetuate the discrimination of the past rather than prepare us for the future. We couple this with the fact those in the room designing and developing these systems — typically this room is over-indexed with white people, usually white males, and they often are, or claim to be, blind to this implication.
Or their privilege will not allow them to believe it is a valid concern to address.
Advertisers pushing engagement through social media should pause for a moment and question how a Snapchat filter may be biased toward people with darker skin or how Tic Tok’s algorithm flags Black Lives Matter as a negative connotation, but not tags title “white supremacy.”
If our clients engage us for innovative ideas that leverage facial recognition technology, then we must understand the implication this may have on people with higher melanated skin, Down syndrome, significant facial surgery, or craniofacial syndromes such as children with cleft lips or Goldenhar.
If part of our solution involves autonomous driving cars, then we have to understand the decision process of the AI in a way that can be easily explained in the event the vehicle decided to run through a crowd of people in an effort to protect its occupants from harm or mistakes a person with mobility issues as a stationary object.
We have to understand how the solutions we ideate impact not only the needs of people today, but the needs of future generations — expanding upon the definition of sustainability.
As powerful as these technological advances are and the impact they are having in the field of design, we have to ensure the solutions we develop are done so with moral ethics, inclusivity, and sustainably.
I’ve been very transparent with my colleagues about my opinion of design thinking and customer experience. I believe these concepts are of yesteryear and annotated with the status quo of the past. In order for us to have experiences, human experiences (HX), that are more equitable — we have to embrace a deeper understanding and appreciation of responsibility.
Governance is necessary to have established frameworks in place to ensure we are designing and developing solutions that help mitigate risk as it relates to technology. Without such a set of frameworks in place, we will continue to design solutions that fail as they relate to equity and inclusivity.
Responsible Innovation is supported by three pillars: Ethics, Inclusivity, and Sustainability.
Ethics frameworks will address policy and procedures; risk registers which drive the types of elements that will be integrated and types of features; and define use cases.
Through this pillar, we will implement a framework on Explainable AI (XAI), which is focused on ensuring AI decisions are easily understood by humans and not developed in a black box.
Transparent data is a framework around the transparency of data sets used to train machines.
Inclusive Experiences will focus on systemic opportunities. By becoming more intentional about the systems that exist within our organization, we can address where exclusion may happen.
Under this pillar, we will focus on the diversification of our teams responsible for design and development. This includes being intentional about diversifying leadership within this area of the business. We will adopt the Persona Spectrum, which focuses on designing solutions for the people in society who are most excluded or mismatched. In approaching design this way, the solutions that are created will naturally benefit the larger population.
Through this intentional act, we will train and educate employees to understand RI in their day-to-day work — which, in time, will place the responsibility to think more inclusively not just on the shoulders of those of us who are often excluded but on everyone.
Lastly, we will redefine sustainability. Aligning with the ethical duties of Responsible Innovation for the organization, we will view sustainability through the lens of inclusion by elevating social (people), environmental (planet), and economic (profits) factors.
This pushes beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and transforms the concept to Creating Shared Value (CSV).
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. ~ James Baldwin
In order to address the inequities and disparities that are apparent throughout our global community, we have to face the challenge head-on. We cannot change the history of how our society was shaped, but we can change how we decide to move forward in our future. There is not an instance in our world where design was not present, therefore in order for us to reap the benefits of responsible innovation, we must accept as truth that change happens by design.
Innovation is not about simply leveraging emerging technology or design to formulate new ideas. Ultimately it is about generating new benefits.
It is up to us to design a future that is built on equity and one that strives to become void of exclusion. We have to reframe our central question to “How might we design experiences that foster a sense of belonging for all people including those who have been historically excluded?”
I believe the answer starts with approaching design and technology, responsibility.
The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article we publish. This story contributed to World-Class Designer School: a college-level, tuition-free design school focused on preparing young and talented African designers for the local and international digital product market. Build the design community you believe in.
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