The most common question I get on responsible design: ‘How do I actually embed ethical considerations into our innovation process?’ (They don’t actually phrase it like that, but you know… trying to be concise.) Although I don’t love cramming a multifaceted field like ethics into a linear diagram, it’s helpful to show a simple process map. So here’s my attempt.

Artefact is proud to introduce The Tarot Cards of Tech: a tool to inspire important conversations around the true impact of technology and the products we design. The Tarot Cards of Tech encourage creators to think about the outcomes technology can create, from unintended consequences to opportunities for positive change. The cards are our way of helping you gaze into the future to determine how to make your product the best it can be.

Consequence Scanning – an agile practice for Responsible Innovators A timely new business practice; Consequence Scanning fits alongside other agile practices in an iterative development cycle. This is a dedicated time and process for considering the potential consequences of what you’re creating

Pyramid of Users' Needs - Aarron Walter, the author of Designing for Emotion, used a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to create the pyramid of user needs. At the bottom of this pyramid, you can see the baseline characteristic of any product — functionality (does this product work?). Next comes reliability (is this product reliable?), usability (is this product easy to use?), and, finally, pleasurability (does this product makes us feel good when we use it?). Pleasurable products connect with users on an emotional level, and this feature makes them want to use it more and more.

soap with a toy inside to motivate hand washing for kids

Ride-hailing apps have allowed more binging—and increased demand for bartenders

soap-infused sticks of chalk

2 excellent case studies

This video explains a campaign with Brazil’s biggest football club asking people to become an immortal fan by becoming an organ donor. The campaign reduced the wait list for organs to zero.

Convinced Masai elders to do away with cutting but to keep the rest of the coming of age ceremony

Andrex has become a great case study in modern marketing, because it represents the logical outcome of two dominant trends: the mission escalation trend and the conversation trend. Both are waves of brand thinking that have swept all before them in recent years, and it’s not exactly Andrex’s fault that they have been caught up in it. It’s just that the nature of their business means stretching both trends to breaking point. First, there’s the mission escalation trend. This is the homeopathy of marketing. It involves taking the functional purpose of any given product, diluting it to a slightly more abstract level, then diluting it again and repeating the process until you reach a level of abstraction so remote that any sense of specific purpose has been lost entirely. So if your product is a bar of chocolate, it’s not about giving people something chocolatey to eat, it’s about giving them a tasty treat. And it’s not about giving them a tasty treat, it’s about giving them a treat in a wider sense. And it’s not about the treat as such, but the enjoyment you get from that treat. And it’s not about the physical enjoyment, but the emotional enjoyment. And it’s not about the emotional enjoyment, but joy itself. And it’s not about experiencing joy, it’s about believing in joy. And now your brand purpose is more closely aligned to Buddhism than it is to chocolate.

Gamification offers advantages over other types of physical activity campaigns due to its ability to bypass the perceived barriers to becoming active. Gamified design can deliver health through stealth by encouraging people to play a fun, free game rather than take part in a fitness scheme.

Redefining the problem can help to redefine the solution.