<p>It&#8217;s easy to overthink what other’s might say or think on the other end of a screen during meetings, and this is especially true in a <a href="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/what-its-like-working-at-hov/">fully remote job</a>. We can&#8217;t gauge other peoples body language because we aren&#8217;t physically with them and words often get mistranslated.</p>
<p><img class="size-medium wp-image-2335 alignleft" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-4-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-4-300x300.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-4-1024x1024.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-4-150x150.png 150w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-4-768x768.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-4-231x231.png 231w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-4.png 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>We tend to be defensive, jump to conclusions and judge a person by whatever they say before asking for clarifications. Heartbeat quickens and our mind begins to race—first in search of an explanation for the assault and then for a retort to rationalize whatever actions are in question.</p>
<p>So, now I’m trying to see <a href="https://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-give-and-receive-constructive-criticism-at-work">criticism</a> as an opportunity to learn. Even if it’s not delivered in the best way or if it’s unfounded. Instead, maybe we should view it in the sense that it gives us a window to understand other people’s perspective.</p>
<p>Perhaps we should give the benefit of the doubt — it’s also difficult to give feedback to another person. So maybe the person giving you feedback is nervous or may not express their thoughts perfectly.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s time to start training my crooked mind to not go into fight or flight mode, and I encourage you to do the same! <strong>Be</strong> <strong>optimistic</strong>. Be open to stuff you hadn’t thought about earlier, be open to better ideas. And say thanks to the person giving feedback as well. <em>Perhaps, it wasn’t easy for them either</em>.</p>
<p><img class="size-medium wp-image-2336 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-5-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-5-300x300.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-5-1024x1024.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-5-150x150.png 150w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-5-768x768.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-5-231x231.png 231w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Untitled-5.png 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p><strong>Listen to understand—not to respond. This is the best way to take positives out of criticisms.</strong></p>


Receiving criticism

<h1>Have you ever heard of a color-blind designer?</h1>
<p>Uhm.. Hi? Yep, that’s me.</p>
<p><img class="size-medium wp-image-2286 alignleft" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/rancy-blog-pic-1-300x234.png" alt="" width="300" height="234" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/rancy-blog-pic-1-300x234.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/rancy-blog-pic-1.png 706w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>But I’m not totally color blind, I have this partial<a href="https://enchroma.com/pages/types-of-color-blindness"> Red-Green color blindness</a> which is one of the more common ones. Being color blind doesn’t mean I cannot see at all; it means some hues and colors are very hard to distinguish when combined with another color or even itself.</p>
<p>It took me 20 years to realize and discover that I was partially color blind, because it eventually became noticeable when I started working. Especially while being in the design industry.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h1></h1>
<h1>But how did I even manage to stay in the design industry being slightly color blind?</h1>
<h3>Accepting it as part of yourself</h3>
<p>When I discovered I was color blind, I thought I had two choices: either I hide the fact and be afraid of it, or speak about it every time I met someone new. I realized I had a third choice, to just accept it for what it is. So now, if you’ll ask me then I’ll answer. That’s just it, I don’t wanna be <a href="https://www.hov.co/blog/post/landing-your-first-design-role"><strong>extra</strong> <strong>dramatic</strong> </a>about it.</p>
<p>I remember initially I used to memorize some of the hex code values just to stay aligned and make the color blindness less obvious. It was tough, especially while working on a certain project that required some color consistencies, but I managed. Now I recognize that it isn&#8217;t a big deal, I can just say I’m <em><strong>built different.</strong></em></p>
<h3>Seeing things from a different perspective</h3>
<p>As a designer with partial color blindness, I became more mindful about the product users. I realized that there are could be others who struggle using things that I or other designers build. <em><strong>“A good design is inclusive and works for everyone in every situation.”</strong></em></p>
<p>Instead of trusting colours alone, I put some effort into extending the reach of my design by <strong>using patterns and textures to emphasize the contrast between objects</strong>. <strong>Adding icons</strong> into some of the elements might be helpful too, just to give a bit more context on what message you’re trying to convey. And sometimes, <strong>you don’t have to break design conventions if you don’t have to</strong>. You’re designing for the clarity of your customers not to impress other designers or yourself.</p>
<h1>Resourceful links</h1>
<p><a href="https://webaim.org/">https://webaim.org/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/732603254453395948/Stark">https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/732603254453395948/Stark</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/cat-noone-accessibility-inclusion/">https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/cat-noone-accessibility-inclusion/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://colororacle.org/">https://colororacle.org/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://enchroma.com/pages/test">https://enchroma.com/pages/test</a></p>


Designing on a different hue

<p>Last year was such a challenging time for everyone. It seems all of our plans were put on pause and all of us have a story to share on how we kept and still keep pushing during those times.</p>
<p>Before being a designer at HOV, I was just a fresh grad completely unsure what path to take. Back in my Senior year in college (2020), I had no idea what I wanted to do once I graduated. As an IT student, we were conditioned and told we could be web developers, software developers, or some type of programmers after graduation.</p>
<h2><em>We have been conditioned on what we should be, instead of finding what we could be.</em></h2>
<p><img class="size-medium wp-image-2257 alignleft" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/photo-1541829070764-84a7d30dd3f3-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/photo-1541829070764-84a7d30dd3f3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/photo-1541829070764-84a7d30dd3f3-768x513.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/photo-1541829070764-84a7d30dd3f3.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>Straying away from a common IT career path (programming) seemed to be kind of a waste for me back then since I had spent five years studying skills and concepts.</p>
<p>But by that time, I had also developed a keen interest in getting into the UI and UX path. Being different didn&#8217;t sit well with me whenever we talked about our post-graduation options. Most of my peers wanted to join the mainstream, traditional roles but a few wanted to be in the design side of the field.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s when I stumbled upon an article that said&#8230;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote>
<h2><em>D</em><em>o what you excel the most at, be great and improve yourself on it rather than doing something you&#8217;re average at and don&#8217;t see yourself in for the long run.</em></h2>
</blockquote>
<p>This has become my college best friend and my mantra &#8211; to be focused on what we want to be and find happiness at the same time.</p>
<p>Covid-19 came just before we graduated and of course this added to the pressure because how do you begin when you&#8217;re stuck in quarantine? There were so many businesses shutting down the idea of getting a job seemed really difficult and daunting. I took this horrible situation as an opportunity to give myself a break and took almost 3 months of reflecting on what I would really wanted to be doing.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>I started to create my UX case study</strong> and build my own design portfolio. Doing something without any professional guidance is frustrating and worrisome as you don&#8217;t know if you are doing the right thing. But forget that! <strong>I just kept trusting my gut.</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>I attended a conference. One of the topics was entitled &#8220;<em>Trust Your Gut.&#8221;  </em>The talk basically said that sometimes trusting your own gut is a good thing. It can make you get out of your zone, do impossible things, break barriers and get one step closer to your goal.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Attended FREE UX events and workshops </strong>Conferences, <a href="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/covid-webinars-a-new-world-for-knowledge-sharing/">seminars</a> and workshops are quite pricey especially when you&#8217;ve just graduated and aren&#8217;t working yet. But there were SO many free conferences and sessions out there, I even got my first conference ticket on a major UX conference just by joining a giveaway contest on Twitter. Free online tutorials and courses have been my companion, then and now.</li>
<li><strong>Built my Portfolio</strong> I compiled all my works to build my first portfolio. It basically contained a variety of contents from UX case studies, UI landing pages, and graphic design illustrations I created to practice myself. A portfolio, even for non-designers, is really helpful. It is also a proof that you as an individual are driven and enthusiastic about what you are doing.</li>
<li><strong>Kept applying to design agencies / IT companies</strong> Keep on trying! I submitted my CV and <a href="http://www.designzbyjamz.com/the-importance-of-a-portfolio-for-designers/">portfolio</a> to countless number of companies. I got rounds of interviews but didn&#8217;t get the final position. It&#8217;s OKAY. Rejections are tough, especially for fresh graduates but keep your faith and courage to show your interest and drive.</li>
<li><strong>Showed interest and enthusiasm in interviews </strong>Always have lively and enthusiastic energy whenever talking about your personal projects. Walk the interviewers through your own thoughts and design processes and discuss how as someone without professional background, you built your projects and your portfolio. <em>Be confident but not arrogant.</em></li>
</ul>
<p>Having such drive and thinking helped me get a position here at HOV. Looking at those simple steps I did as a beginner, I am always proud of myself as I never actually studied design in college.</p>
<h2><strong><em>Trust your self</em>.</strong> Trust the process and never stop.</h2>


Landing your first design role

<p>Looking back around 2000-ish when I was in high school, Friendster was the first social media app that was trending at the time. Similar to Facebook, Friendster was a place you could create an account, post anything on your wall, add friends, and even customize your profile page. People used different themes on their profile pages, others designed and built something unique from scratch.</p>
<p>Back then, you were considered a professional when your profile was customized with snappy graphics and silly animations. I remember being so excited about the endless possibilities to spice up your profile, so of course I decided to try everything out. For the first time ever, I installed and used Adobe Photoshop (I was using version 8 CS at that time), began studying simple photo edits and manipulations, and did some research on how to do HTML and CSS.</p>
<p>Every time I remember this from the past, I consider it to be the first time I found myself absolutely in love with designing.</p>
<p>Years passed by and I enrolled myself in a tech school for my college degree. The school offered engineering, computer, and design courses. I took a BS in IT with a specialization in digital arts, so I had tech courses with a major in design.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a LOT to learn in the design field &#8212; from photography, creating 2D and 3D graphics and animations, editing photos and videos, building websites and mobile applications, and so many more things! All of the courses I had taken taught us more about introductions, tools to use and just the basics.</p>
<p>Four years later, I graduated and began the hunt to find my very first design job. I thought anything related to my degree was fine and worked for me. But turns out, it really wasn&#8217;t. There were so many job openings for design graduates, but I couldn&#8217;t seem to find anything that fit my skills and the experiences I had. At that moment, I was sure I was having a quarter life crisis and I went as far as to start questioning if I was on the right track (the story of every fresh grad, really). I was so overwhelmed with the skillset requirements that I thought, how am I supposed to know any of this?</p>
<p>I started to analyze and check every skill and ability that I had, until I remembered the moment and the reason why I chose this career path. That&#8217;s when I felt clarity on what I wanted to do.</p>
<p>I created my portfolio, took more online courses on designing websites and applications and then I started submitting CVs again. After being unemployed for months, I finally landed my first job as a junior web designer.</p>
<p>Regarding the question: Should you go to design or tech school? I honestly think it doesn&#8217;t matter. I believe it depends on the person and how they want to learn; whether they want a structured way by direct access to learning with professors and classmates or are hugely motivated to push at self-learning, the importance is the <strong>willingness to discover a new set of skills</strong>. Some might prefer learning through experience rather than through education.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a plethora of different paths and ways to get training experience &#8211; you can take online courses, watch masterclasses, attend conferences and try new tech tools. Others have limited access to education: it might be expensive or difficult to manage in time. Others might be thinking to switch careers.</p>
<p>In my case, I entered tech school to learn extended areas of the design space, choose what field to focus on, and continuously learn my specific skills in UI design. If you&#8217;re applying for a job, what people might want to see is the experience you have.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there&#8217;s no answer on what exactly you should do to become a designer. The advice I will give: don&#8217;t hesitate to try things on your own. You will find joy by doing the job you love and see yourself grow by continuously learning.</p>


Design vs. Tech School?

<p><img class=" wp-image-1883 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen_Shot_2021-04-20_at_2.11_1-300x130.png" alt="" width="623" height="270" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen_Shot_2021-04-20_at_2.11_1-300x130.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen_Shot_2021-04-20_at_2.11_1-1024x444.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen_Shot_2021-04-20_at_2.11_1-768x333.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Screen_Shot_2021-04-20_at_2.11_1.png 1249w" sizes="(max-width: 623px) 100vw, 623px" /></p>
<p>You’ve probably seen this flat illustration style everywhere from Google, Facebook, Airbnb to pretty much most of the tech companies.</p>
<p>Facebook was one of the first big companies to push out these new illustrations throughout their site. The illustration system, developed by an L.A.- and Brooklyn-based design firm called <a href="https://buck.tv/#/">Buck</a>, is simplistic usually vectorized flat, minimal art style, of joyful cartoon people who are always in motion, running, dancing, or doing something creative.</p>
<p>The characters are depicted by disproportionately shaped bodies. Huge feet, small heads and hands, a variety of bright pastel color skin, sometimes holding a big object like a paintbrush. The designers from Buck called it “Alegria,” which is Spanish for “joy”.</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-1882 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Music-Events_Dancing-QP_v4_1-300x112.png" alt="" width="477" height="178" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Music-Events_Dancing-QP_v4_1-300x112.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Music-Events_Dancing-QP_v4_1-1024x384.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Music-Events_Dancing-QP_v4_1-768x288.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Music-Events_Dancing-QP_v4_1.png 1249w" sizes="(max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Facebook needed a consistent illustration system that signals positivity, is inclusive, conveys the messages that they want to spread, and is cheaper to produce. Considering production timelines and tighter budgets, editorial illustrations were just not the right move.</p>
<p>The flat, minimal style would be ideal for the sake of replicability, meaning, many artists can work and contribute while keeping the look and feel of the characters consistent.</p>
<p>Soon, other companies adopted this trend and started using the <em>Alegria</em> style because of its simple, scalable nature.</p>
<h2>The growing discontent</h2>
<p><img class="wp-image-1880 alignleft" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Group_1-300x245.png" alt="" width="394" height="321" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Group_1-300x245.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Group_1-1024x836.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Group_1-768x627.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Group_1.png 1249w" sizes="(max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px" />Because of the somewhat unsettling spread and adoption of the style among bigger tech companies, it was soon referred to as <strong>Big Tech Art Style, Corporate Art Style, Corporate Memphis,</strong> or <strong>Globohomo</strong> (<em>global homogenization</em>) art style.</p>
<p>With the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other immoral misconduct by other large organizations, the <em>Alegria</em> style with its cheerful minimalism was masking something more sinister. The <em>Aelgria</em> style was an easy way to appeal to the growing public awareness and discontent towards &#8220;Big Tech&#8221; and its &#8220;Comedy Mask&#8221;, bu hiding the companies true intentions and pushing hidden agendas.</p>
<p>For some, now it seems to suggest a culture of anti-individualism, or interchangeability, which from a corporate view is pretty much how consumers are perceived. Now associated with large companies and sociopolitical organizations that push for a globalized and homogenized society devoid of social and cultural identity, a perfect consumer&#8230;</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-1881 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Delivery_Dance_0-20_screenshot-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="497" height="280" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Delivery_Dance_0-20_screenshot-300x169.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Delivery_Dance_0-20_screenshot-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Delivery_Dance_0-20_screenshot-768x432.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Delivery_Dance_0-20_screenshot-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Delivery_Dance_0-20_screenshot.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px" /></p>
<p>Recently, some companies started to move away from the <em>Alegria</em> style, and are trying to disassociate themselves from the negative political predicament.</p>
<p>It seems that the new squishy 3D style is no exception to critique, most notably the <a href="https://www.distractify.com/p/grubhub-commercial-meme">GrubHub commercial</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not <em>Alegria&#8217;s</em> fault for the growing hate. It&#8217;s certainly not badly designed, it&#8217;s everything you expect for a modern graphic design. In the end, it&#8217;s how it&#8217;s used and who is using it.</p>


The rise of the “Globohomo” art style

<p>Do you ever feel like you have no idea what you&#8217;re doing, that you&#8217;re faking it to keep your job, and that any achievements you&#8217;re credited with are creating a false ideal of your abilities? Do you ever worry that someone will discover that you aren&#8217;t as capable as others believe? That&#8217;s your impostor syndrome talking.</p>
<p>But first, let’s talk about why so many of us experience it. The condition was first identified in 1978 by the psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes. It has been estimated that 70% of people feel like an impostor at some point in their careers. But, in my opinion, it all starts long before we join the workforce. It may soar to new heights as you advance in your career, but it begins much earlier. Impostor syndrome doesn’t suddenly appear overnight.</p>
<p>It begins in childhood, when we are first told — and begin to believe — that we are in some way insufficient. That what we&#8217;re doing or what we&#8217;ve done isn&#8217;t enough. To fit in, be accepted, and make friends, you would have to be someone different. That in order to be successful, you must act and be perceived in a certain way.</p>
<p>Impostor syndrome is common in technical and academic fields, but women are disproportionately affected. It&#8217;s a major career roadblock because, if left unchecked, it prevents them from applying for promotions, submitting papers to conferences, or doing anything else that would draw attention to themselves. That&#8217;s not surprising, given that women still face a lot of criticism in these fields, and their achievements are often undervalued.</p>
<p>Impostor syndrome is both good and bad. It’s bad in that it stops many people from progressing and sharing their capacity and talents with the world. On the other hand, impostor syndrome is also a symptom of breaking out of your comfort zone, and that’s where growth happens. Next time you experience this feeling, know that there are plenty of reasons to embrace it.</p>
<p>In the field of UX design, there are actually a lot of people who experience impostor syndrome simply due to the leap from informing design to actually designing. That invisible bridge between the two is filled with the stuff that can make people fear the fail or try and bluff their way to success. UX and &#8220;design&#8221; are different things. UX is closer to a research project riddled with experiments and design is closer to art and craftsmanship, in my opinion. The research should inform the design.</p>
<p>But UX people get into this weird situation where they&#8217;re not only asked to do the research, but they&#8217;re asked to basically craft the thing on some level. Why? Because companies might ask the UX guy to also do design and then the UX guy might not actually use fresh real data to support his/her design (after being asked to do that part) because the company doesn&#8217;t have the desire to fund him/her to do all that extra work and because of his or her own tunnel visioned bias.</p>
<p>Buttons and widgets will be in places due to seemingly applicable design patterns, an efficiency achieved through someone else&#8217;s research, but this approach also carries a risk since every situation has some uniqueness to it. But this risk shouldn&#8217;t be where we do UX without buying. Any risk should be brought up to the customer so that they can make the decision about it. There&#8217;s also the misconception that business have where they think they can bring in a UX person and s/he will draw pretty pictures and designers will make everything better just from that. And some folks might be pushed into that situation against their better judgement too, which doesn&#8217;t help things.</p>
<p>I kind of feel that the only people that don&#8217;t feel like an impostor sometimes are the ones that don&#8217;t realize how much there is still left to learn. Impostor syndrome is nothing more than your brain saying &#8220;you might know more than those that acknowledge you, but you have a long way before you know everything you could/should know&#8221;, which is a good thing.</p>
<p>In other words, impostor syndrome is a symptom of a mind willing to learn, which is the best feature someone working on any design or technology field can have. Surround yourself with people smarter than you, and keep learning.</p>


Embracing your Imposter Syndrome

<p>In the first part of this series, we tried to define what it means to &#8216;design ethically.&#8217; We concluded that things start to get blurry pretty fast and there is no single definite answer. So what if we try a different approach &#8211; Is it perhaps easier to define what <strong>unethical</strong> design means?</p>
<h1>Privacy</h1>
<p>For a lot of people, privacy is what first comes to mind. Here&#8217;s a good quote from designer and activist Aral Balkan:</p>
<blockquote><p>“When a company like Facebook improves the experience of its products, it’s like the massages we give to Kobe beef: they’re not for the benefit of the cow but to make the cow a better product. In this analogy, you are the cow.” Aral Balkan</p></blockquote>
<p>Or maybe you&#8217;re more familiar with this simplified version:</p>
<blockquote><p>“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”</p></blockquote>
<p>You are the product, and your value is in your personal data. When you bring up this argument, there will always be someone who says something along the lines of &#8220;if you&#8217;re not doing anything illegal and you don&#8217;t have anything to hide, why worry?&#8221; But things aren&#8217;t that simple. Let&#8217;s take a look at what happens with your data that gets collected.</p>
<h3>Companies use this data to sell you more</h3>
<p>They analyze your interests, habits, and vulnerabilities and then use that to persuade you with ads in order to make you a better consumer. To be fair: companies greatly exaggerate how smart and powerful their targeting is so they can sell more ads, but it&#8217;s still a problem.</p>
<h3>Data gets sold to third parties</h3>
<p>You may have given access to one company, but it can end up in an entirely different place, which is not something you signed up for. Your health records, social security numbers, banking details, location history; all of this gets bundled into neat little packages and sold.</p>
<p>These packages present a simplified model of a person and contain their private, intimate details. There are systems that make automated decisions based on that data which can greatly limit someone&#8217;s choices, opportunities and life-chances. The way these systems work is often non-transparent, arbitrary, biased, unfair, and unaccountable.</p>
<p>What does this mean in practice?</p>
<p>For example, there have been cases where employers have been tracking the location data and search history of employees so they could <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/24/how-amazon-prevents-unions-by-surveilling-employee-activism.html">stop them from forming unions and fighting for better working conditions</a>.</p>
<p>Or, your government could use your location history and social media content to mark you as &#8220;undesirable&#8221; or &#8220;terrorist&#8221;, like <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-protest-safely-surveillance-digital-privacy/">during the protest around the globe in 2020.</a></p>
<p><img class="wp-image-1697 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screenshot_2021-03-10_at_19.43.33-300x179.png" alt="" width="521" height="311" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screenshot_2021-03-10_at_19.43.33-300x179.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screenshot_2021-03-10_at_19.43.33-1024x611.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screenshot_2021-03-10_at_19.43.33-768x458.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screenshot_2021-03-10_at_19.43.33-1536x916.png 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screenshot_2021-03-10_at_19.43.33.png 1636w" sizes="(max-width: 521px) 100vw, 521px" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is why &#8220;I have nothing to hide&#8221; is a naive point of view — it takes for granted that there is a benevolent, objectively good force running everything from corporations to governments behind the scenes. Nothing is black or white.</p>
<h3>Your data is not secure</h3>
<p>Even if we imagine that governments and companies will never abuse collected data, security is still an issue. There are regular people behind those systems who have access to your data and can leak it or dox you. There are hackers who can steal your data for profit or just for fun. As long as it&#8217;s there, somebody can abuse it.</p>
<h1>Accessibility</h1>
<p>Another way you can create an unethical design is through accessibility. When you&#8217;re designing, you&#8217;re always making compromises:</p>
<ul>
<li>Who benefits from your design?</li>
<li>Who gets left out, intentionally or unintentionally?</li>
</ul>
<p>When you say &#8220;accessibility&#8221;, designers usually mean designing with high contrast and making sure the design can be used via keyboard. But there&#8217;s so much more to it than that.</p>
<p>Clubhouse has been the hot new app for quite some time now. It&#8217;s described as &#8220;drop-in audio chat&#8221;, and some of the most important tech discussions and networking happen there. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenaquino/2021/02/08/clubhouse-is-a-club-so-exclusive-it-excludes-disabled-people-by-design/?sh=26b5e2ea6008">But here are a couple of different ways it&#8217;s inaccessible:</a></p>
<ul>
<li>It&#8217;s hard to use by visually impaired people because of low contrast and no keyboard support</li>
<li>It&#8217;s impossible to use by hearing-impaired people because of the lack of live captioning of audio</li>
<li>It&#8217;s invite-only, which excludes people who aren&#8217;t connected to the elite tech-bro early-adopters</li>
<li>It&#8217;s iOS-only, which excludes Android users</li>
</ul>
<p><img class=" wp-image-1699 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE1-300x188.jpg" alt="" width="383" height="240" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE1-300x188.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE1-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE1-768x480.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE1.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 383px) 100vw, 383px" /></p>
<p>The team behind Clubhouse is clearly communicating that they only want people who can see perfectly, hear perfectly, own iPhones, and who are &#8220;culture-fit&#8221;. Everybody else gets left out.</p>
<p>You could argue if that&#8217;s intentional or unintentional, but there are some real-life examples that are definitely intentional.</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-1698 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE2-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="442" height="294" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE2.jpg 639w" sizes="(max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is an example of <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/HostileArchitecture/">hostile architecture</a>. The idea is to design objects in public with such a balance so it does its job but makes it impossible for homeless people to use it to survive. A popular example are benches that are kind of okay to sit on, but impossible to sleep on. Or ventilation shafts that homeless people cannot use to stay warm. They&#8217;re pretty clear about who doesn&#8217;t get to benefit from their design.</p>
<h1>Dark patterns</h1>
<p>When you compare something like an axe or a TV to digital products, there is one big difference. An axe or a TV just sits there and waits until you interact with it. But now, tools are the ones starting the interaction. They&#8217;re always on, always bombarding you with notifications, emails, SMS, begging for your attention. They don&#8217;t care what <strong>you</strong> want at that moment, they want your focus right now, and ideally all the time. And this is causing massive anxiety.</p>
<p><img src="https://frontend-design.slite.com/api/files/8YY3v8AMYB/image.png" alt="https://frontend-design.slite.com/api/files/8YY3v8AMYB/image.png" /></p>
<p>This is what the industry calls a <a href="https://www.darkpatterns.org/">dark pattern</a>, a trick that designers use to make the things you don&#8217;t want to. This is just one example, but there are dozens:</p>
<ul>
<li>Roach motel: Designers make subscribing ridiculously easy, but unsubscribing next to impossible.</li>
<li>Confirmshaming: Guilting users into choosing something that benefits your company by using labels that shame them into compliance.</li>
<li>Forced continuity: When a free trial ends, the user silently starts getting charged.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Not anticipating negative behavior</h1>
<p>While dark patterns are mostly there intentionally and used to reach business goals no matter what, sometimes it seems people working on the product didn&#8217;t realize that their product can be used for harm. This usually happens when there&#8217;s a lack of diversity on teams, and in tech, which is still mainly white, male, straight, and neurotypical, that&#8217;s often the case. Sometimes they imagine the world as a perfect, happy place, where nothing bad ever happens, a view which clashes with reality.</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-1700 aligncenter" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE4-273x300.jpeg" alt="" width="389" height="427" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE4-273x300.jpeg 273w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DE4.jpeg 733w" sizes="(max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Here are some potential problems to keep in mind:</p>
<ul>
<li>Mental health: How is your FOMO design affecting people who are struggling with depression, or ADHD, or anxiety?</li>
<li>Traum: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8315897/facebook-on-this-day-nostalgia-app-bringing-back-painful-memories">Is your &#8220;On this day&#8221; feature showing your users a celebratory reminder that their friend committed suicide</a>?</li>
<li>Addiction: Is your addictive, habit-loop app ruining users who have problems with addiction psychologically and financially?</li>
<li>Abusive relationships: Are your &#8220;Find my friends&#8221; and location tags helping abusive partners track and control their victims?</li>
</ul>
<h1>Consequences</h1>
<p>So what are the consequences of using unethical design? Why do we keep seeing this sort of behavior again and again?</p>
<h3>Big tech companies that embrace unethical design have lower usability, frustrated users, and a loss of trust&#8230;</h3>
<p>But they are so big and popular that people have no option but to ignore the issues and keep coming back. Yeah, you could put photos of your dog and breakfast on your personal website, but who&#8217;s going to see them there?</p>
<h3>Sometimes, companies have to pay&#8230;</h3>
<p>But it&#8217;s usually a symbolic amount compared to how much they earn from their unethical practices.</p>
<p><img src="https://frontend-design.slite.com/api/files/fYTcvojLNG/image.png" alt="https://frontend-design.slite.com/api/files/fYTcvojLNG/image.png" /></p>
<h3>Or they just get scolded</h3>
<p>They apologize, promise not to do it again, and then turn around and keep doing the exact same thing. How many times have you watched a congressional hearing where Mark Zuckerberg had to stand in front of old people who don&#8217;t understand anything about technology and pretend he&#8217;s sorry for something that&#8217;s literally the core of his business model?</p>
<p>The truth is, our current system doesn&#8217;t really punish this kind of behavior. We&#8217;re still celebrating companies and people who do this. It&#8217;s up to you to decide if you want to accept it and be a part of it. You can&#8217;t really expect to change the underlying system on your own, but you have to start somewhere. And at least you&#8217;ll sleep better knowing you&#8217;re not actively ruining people&#8217;s lives.</p>
<p>In our last part of this series on Design Ethics, we&#8217;ll talk about all the part you can play in being more &#8216;ethical.&#8217;</p>


Design ethics II: What does it mean to be unethical?


<p>Last June 2019, Figma plugins were introduced and have been popularized and used excessively since then. By the looks of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/all">Figma plugins library</a>, it has received overwhelming numbers of submissions coming from developers, also famously called &#8220;builders&#8221; or &#8220;creators&#8221; around the world.</p>



<p>Figma plugins are used to help designers automate their workflows and speed up their design process especially when dealing with repetitive tasks such as multiple uses of components and elements.&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/introducing-figma-plugins/">[s]</a></em>&nbsp;Plugins are critical components to a designer’s workflow that can serve as little power-ups and help extend Figma’s product functionality.</p>



<p>On this list, I&#8217;m going to share with you the plugins that I have been using which helped me speed up my workflow when creating wireframes and mock-ups.</p>



<h2><strong><a href="https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/731627216655469013/Content-Reel">Content Reel</a></strong></h2>



<p>I absolutely love this plugin! Content reel plugin enables you to quickly add text-based, avatars, and icons into your designs. Just select one or more layers in your design, then choose a content type from the Content Reel palette to apply.</p>



<p>Choose from the following content:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Text:</strong>&nbsp;Names, phone numbers, U.S. addresses, numbers, date &amp; time, Lorem Ipsum, email addresses and URLs.</li><li><strong>Avatars</strong>: Male, female, or a mix of both.</li><li><strong>Icons</strong>: Glyph images from Microsoft’s Segoe MDL2 Assets font.</li></ul>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="406" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Figma_plugin_Content_Reel.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d2f8957e-a0a8-479b-a35e-088784c3f08c/Figma_plugin_Content_Reel.gif" class="wp-image-1445"/></figure>



<h2><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/738454987945972471"><strong>Unsplash</strong></a></h2>



<p>Unsplash is a platform where people can easily access and use beautiful images for free. With the unsplash plugin, you can export images to your design without leaving the figma app. Make sure to check out&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/unsplash/unsplash-figma-cf03195e9f9a">Unsplash’s blog post</a>&nbsp;about how they’re simplifying their design workflow with plugins.</p>



<p>This plugin is best for when you need random pictures on your design. The good thing is, unsplash plugin offers categorized images so you can select a specific category that the image you are looking for fits best.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="410" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Unsplash.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/8c55da08-7500-47b6-a44a-619261a75471/Unsplash.gif" class="wp-image-1446"/></figure>



<h2><strong><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/735770583268406934/Google-Sheets-Sync">Google sync sheet</a></strong></h2>



<p>Google sync sheet allows you to sync data from a spreadsheet containing your elements. This is best used when you want to use real, defined, and specific text elements and images to your design.&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/plugins-to-help-you-design-with-real-content/#google-sheets-sync">[s]</a></em>&nbsp;Google Sheets Sync is also really handy because you can still manage your data with all of the benefits and features of a spreadsheet; making it a breeze to leverage formulas or make updates down the road.</p>



<p>To get started, here&#8217;s a pro-tip:</p>



<ol><li>Create a simple component</li><li>Create a set of data in a google sheet</li><li>Arrange your data according to the order you want it to appear in (as I am testing it out, I notice that it fetches the data from top to bottom)</li></ol>



<p>Note: It syncs well when your instances are coming from the same components.</p>



<p>More documentation available&nbsp;<a href="https://www.figma.com/proto/VtXf9HikcehWB7FJrJmApl/Google-Sheets-Sync-%E2%80%93-Documentation?scaling=min-zoom&amp;node-id=3%3A2">here</a>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="345" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Google_Sync.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/2af86e58-12c8-4d4b-8315-d452c05b9eda/Google_Sync.gif" class="wp-image-1447"/></figure>



<h2><strong><a href="https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/740286071386014712/Data-Lab">Data Lab</a></strong></h2>



<p>Data Lab allows you to insert texts and components quickly and easily. This plugin supports numbers, names, dates, addresses, phone numbers, emails, and even lists. You can even upload your own defined set of data lists by uploading your google sheet data. It is easy to navigate and you can even select multiple text layers and then populate them at once.</p>



<p>How to use:</p>



<ol><li>Run Data Lab</li><li>Select text layers or components</li><li>Construct content query with any symbols and variables</li><li>Click Paste data</li></ol>



<p>Advanced features:</p>



<ol><li>Names, Dates and Geo locations in English and Russian</li><li>Upload data from API or shared Google Sheet via LIST variable</li></ol>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="369" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Data_Lab.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/5173545f-d7b3-420b-b8c2-9b9a5203fb12/Data_Lab.gif" class="wp-image-1448"/></figure>



<h2><strong><a href="https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/736458162635847353/Mapsicle">Mapsicle</a></strong></h2>



<p>Mapsicle allows you to quickly and seamlessly place real maps on your designs.&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/736458162635847353/Mapsicle">[s]</a></em>&nbsp;An interactive map lets you pan to the perfect location, or you can search for any place anywhere in the world.</p>



<p>Once you&#8217;ve placed a map in your designs, head back into Mapsicle to adjust the location, style, zoom level and more. Mapsicle uses Mapbox maps to give you a variety of customization options.</p>



<p>If you want to define your own map, you have to create an account and get your own token at&nbsp;<a href="https://account.mapbox.com/">mapbox</a>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="345" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Mapsicle.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d4f238e0-0444-47f5-b00b-a536891d4572/Mapsicle.gif" class="wp-image-1449"/></figure>



<h2><strong><a href="https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/733590967040604714/Brandfetch">Brandfetch</a></strong></h2>



<p>Brandfetch saves you time from searching a brand logo and color scheme all over the internet by letting you export a brand or product&#8217;s latest logo with their respective color scheme and fonts without leaving the figma app.</p>



<p>Simply enter a company&#8217;s name and instantly get its corresponding brand assets into Figma. You can find your access token by creating an account (which is very easy and has a smooth process) and then copy/paste your plugin window (limited at 150 requests/month).</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="420" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/BrandFetch.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d4cc3778-f784-4bed-b879-a6e7b383f7f2/BrandFetch.gif" class="wp-image-1450"/></figure>



<h2><strong><a href="https://www.figma.com/c/plugin/744098704933821409/Iconscout">Iconscout</a></strong></h2>



<p>Iconscout allows you to insert millions of high quality icons, illustrations and stock photos right into Figma. Search any item from the large library of icons, illustrations, and stock photos. Search for the right item and click on it to insert it in your design. You may create an account or login as a guest user to get access.</p>



<p>You can download an icon or an icon packs. You can also filter it by relevance, popularity, or latest icons. You may also download free icons and/or stock photos or a premium one. Aside from that, you can select different styles like colored, doodle, dualtone, flat, glyph, and more and lastly, you may have an option in applying specific colors you preferred.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="408" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Iconscout.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/97dd5836-e176-4ae8-8a4a-0ff8dcb972cc/Iconscout.gif" class="wp-image-1451"/></figure>



<h2><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/838959511417581040/Blush">Blush</a></h2>



<p>This is one of my favorite plugins when it comes to illustrations populating purposes. It contains sets of beautiful illustrations that you can add to your design. By just creating an account, you can use any illustration for personal and commercial purposes. If you need SVG-editable layers and more advance functionalities, you can subscribe to their paid plan.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="328" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blush.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/03a2688f-ff6e-4126-b274-676add51fb6d/blush.gif" class="wp-image-1452"/></figure>



<h2><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/833020696010433995/Linky">Linky</a></h2>



<p>This time around, I have this one task to deal with that requires me to provide my workmate all the social media assets and video thumbnails images by collating it in one document. Imagine dealing with 100+ of those images.</p>



<p>So, here&#8217;s my process without linky:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="1024" height="791" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blog-1024x791.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/641dab09-41e6-4128-ab34-b4fcb34fe211/blog.png" class="wp-image-1453" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blog-1024x791.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blog-300x232.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blog-768x593.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blog-1536x1186.png 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blog-2048x1582.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p>Its quite annoying right? But with the help of linky, I can reduce this process into 2 steps (shown in the GIF below). You can even shorten and customize the link! That&#8217;s a bonus point right? (Of course you have to go through a process of opening the plugin itself but after that, all are good and easy 😉).</p>



<p>Note: You need to sign up in order to use the link shortening feature.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="319" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Linky.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/22a1e827-60cf-4507-9f29-a0d649e05282/Linky.gif" class="wp-image-1454"/></figure>



<h2><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/739208439270091369/Blobs">Blobs</a></h2>



<p>This one is one of those plugins that has very simple functionality yet is extremely helpful. Blobs is one of the most popular design pattern &#8211; it&#8217;s used thoroughly on websites, apps graphics, and even assets due to its smooth and fine effects when added as a background.</p>



<p>The plugin allows you to add/customize the complexity and contrast. Complexity is its pattern/shape and contrast means how many points are in your blobs.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="600" height="352" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blobs.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e86e1459-d399-4d21-b10d-110e593048eb/blobs.gif" class="wp-image-1455"/></figure>



<h2><a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/740556241021336678/Pattern-Hero">Pattern Hero</a></h2>



<p>Pattern Hero enables you to place selected elements or frames in a grid to create patterns. If you are a fan of icon/shape pattern designs, then this is the plugin for you! Use it to speed up your workflow and instead of copy and pasting assets multiple times, you can populate assets in just a few clicks with Pattern Hero.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="504" height="279" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/patternhero.gif" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/3b4c3bf7-e970-4442-be1c-c32a3c3479d9/patternhero.gif" class="wp-image-1456"/></figure>



<p>That concludes my list of plugins that I am currently using the most while creating designs. With the help of these plugins, I am able to save a lot of time and ease the pain of thinking dummy data. Lorem ipsum, Joe and Jane Doe is old, let&#8217;s create designs that bring a presentation of <strong>live user experience.</strong></p>



<p>Figma has an extensive offering of plugins that help speed up your workflow when it comes to exporting data, dealing with dummy text, images and placeholders.</p>



<p>I frequently update my plugin list, so if you have any favourite Figma plugins that you think I should check out, share them: </p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/highoutputhq/">Twitter</a>  | <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/highoutput/">LinkedIn</a>  | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/highoutputhq/">Facebook</a></p>



<p>We&#8217;d love to hear from you! </p>


Figma: Speed up your design progress using Figma Plugins


<p>This will be a 3-part series on ethics in design. In the first part, we’ll cover why context matters when we discuss design ethics. Designer or not, this will be an interesting read because anyone who works on a product influences its shape and the final outcome.</p>



<p>Let’s start with a question:</p>



<h2>What is ethics?</h2>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“Ethics is the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad and morally right and wrong.”</p><cite><a href="https://www.britannica.com/"><br>Encyclopedia Britannica</a></cite></blockquote>



<p>We could say that “ethical design” means “designing for good” but as soon as you start to go deeper than that, things start to get muddy. What is “good” and who gets to decide that?</p>



<p>We all know a cliche of a shallow designer who only cares about aesthetics and making things pretty, disregarding anything deeper than that.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img width="977" height="1024" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.13.16-977x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1105" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.13.16-977x1024.png 977w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.13.16-286x300.png 286w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.13.16-768x805.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.13.16.png 1194w" sizes="(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px" /></figure></div>



<p>As a designer, however, you have certain responsibilities. You&#8217;re choosing to impact people who use your products. You can help them or hurt them on numerous different levels. Even if you’re not actively trying to hurt someone, you’re still responsible for what you&#8217;re putting out into the world and can&#8217;t act surprised if it&#8217;s used in harmful ways.</p>



<p>For example, facial recognition technology will always have the biases of the people involved in its development.</p>



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<p>On the other hand:</p>



<ul><li>You need that paycheck at the end of the month</li><li>You have bosses and product managers and OKRs</li><li>It&#8217;s easy to submit to peer pressure</li></ul>



<p>So you&#8217;ll need to balance:</p>



<ul><li>Your own economic survival</li><li>The company you’re working for</li><li>The well-being of your users</li></ul>



<h2>Users and apps</h2>



<p>At the bottom of the barrel, we have companies that fully embrace using unethical design. They persuade and pressurize users to do something they don&#8217;t actually want to; they spy on their users to get more data and cross-sell; they use addictive design patterns to make it hard to stop using the app. That last example has been documented and sold by Nir Eyal in his book “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products”, where he explains in detail how you can use his “hook model” to keep users in a never-ending loop.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img width="1024" height="536" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/hook-model-1024x536.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1107" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/hook-model-1024x536.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/hook-model-300x157.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/hook-model-768x402.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/hook-model.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



<p>Seeing his “hook model” explained, with triggers and variable rewards, immediately brings to mind casinos and online gambling websites, which is a huge red flag. Admittedly, he does cover the ethics of using this approach.. but writing a 200-page book and then dedicating 20 pages to “please use it for good” is simply irresponsible. And it brings us to the question from the start of the article.</p>



<h2>Who gets to decide what’s “good”?</h2>



<p>You&#8217;re probably familiar with mindfulness meditation applications that have gained popularity in the last few years following the trends of “#selfcare” and growing awareness on the side effects of antidepressants.</p>



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<p>At the surface level, these apps are “objectively good” and aim to help people to cope with anxiety and depression. A deeper look into them shows that they too manipulate users into using them. They use streaks to get you to meditate every day and allow your friends to “nudge you” to meditate if they see you breaking your streak. This could create even more pressure and anxiety for some users, instead of helping them cope.</p>



<p>Even worse, there’s been&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acps.13225">some research that shows that around 8% who use mindfulness meditation experience worsening of their symptoms</a>. Hence, marketing it as a cure-all for everyone is simply wrong.</p>



<h2>If all you have is a hammer&#8230;</h2>



<p>One of the issues here is the obsession with using technology to “solve problems.” Before you start working on a problem, you need to ask yourself:</p>



<ul><li>Is this a problem worth solving?</li><li>Does it have to be solved with an app?</li><li>Am I the person who should be solving this problem?</li></ul>



<h2>“Can we do it” vs “Should we do it”</h2>



<p>Before asking ourselves if we can make it, we should ask why are we making it. There are some technologies that just aren&#8217;t worth it. Perhaps they would bring a marginal improvement to people&#8217;s lives and make them borderline more comfortable, but there are trade-offs. Sure, facial recognition will help you unlock your phone faster, and a smart speaker will make it easier for you to play music, but is it worth it if it means selling your data and enabling corporations to use it to target marginalized groups?</p>



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<h2>Question of intent</h2>



<p>Despite working on something you think is harmless, there still exists a risk. Github has been a recent example. On the surface, it&#8217;s pretty neutral: they let you host your code and give you version control for it. In reality, it turned out they have contracts with The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is infamous for denying asylum to refugees, separating undocumented children from their parents and keeping them in inhumane conditions.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img width="1024" height="556" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.17.02-1024x556.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1110" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.17.02-1024x556.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.17.02-300x163.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.17.02-768x417.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.17.02-1536x833.png 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-09.17.02-2048x1111.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



<p>Several of Github’s employees protested and after being ignored by the management, resigned. Those who stayed have different reasons: they think they can change things from the inside, they have to think about their own family, or it simply doesn’t bother them that much. The lesson is: everything you build, no matter how “neutral” or “objective” you think it is, can be used in harmful ways.</p>



<h2>Beyond “users”</h2>



<p>It&#8217;s often suggested that to combat this, you need to use a more empathic approach, such as IDEO’s human-centered design defined as:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>A process that starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor-made to suit their needs</p><cite>https://www.designkit.org/human-centered-design</cite></blockquote>



<p>The problem here remains that the focus is still on “users” and as soon as you’re focusing on something, you&#8217;re also ignoring something else. So if you’re choosing to focus on your users, how will this design affect:</p>



<ul><li>Other people, who are not part of your target audience?</li><li>The society as a whole?</li><li>Non-humans, such as animals and plants?</li><li>Our environment and the planet?</li></ul>



<p>For example, gig economy apps like Uber and Deliveroo brag about disrupting their industry and offering fast and flexible services for their end-users. On the other hand that means their drivers and couriers don&#8217;t get a pension, sick pay, holiday entitlement or parental leave.</p>



<p>Airbnb&#8217;s initial pitch is that it helps travelers book affordable spaces which are connected to local culture, while also giving hosts an easy option to be flexible when renting. This also means it accelerates gentrification and makes it hard for lower-income locals to buy or rent property because it becomes really profitable for rich people to buy a bunch of apartments and rent them day-by-day.</p>



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<p>One of my favorite examples of laser-focusing on one factor while ignoring others is the US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren&#8217;s call to make the military “go green” and work on “environment-friendly missiles”. Because it&#8217;s okay to invade and murder as long as we achieve net-zero carbon emissions.</p>



<p>This brings to mind Mike Monteiro’s quote:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“A broken gun is better designed than a working gun.”</p></blockquote>



<p>When something is designed to hurt people, designing it “well” would just hurting people more.</p>



<p>In the next part of the series, we’ll cover different ways you can hurt people, intentionally or unintentionally.</p>
