UX Upskill | Hyper Island
Placebo buttons, dark patterns and deception. Exploring the role of ethics in UX and why it matters.
For the first time, in all my design education, I have a designated module focusing only on ethics. Not just a few hours of GDPR and inclusive design, but 2 weeks on the broader scope of ethics. Still not that long, but long enough to dive a bit deeper on the issue.
Ethics is a system of moral principles that is concerned with what is good or bad for individuals and society. It’s derived from the Greek word “ethikos” which means character or disposition (Wikipedia).
At the start of this module my understanding of ethics in relation to UX was blurry. I knew it concerned privacy issues, inclusive/accessible design and an overall idea to do good and not work for evil companies 😈
After two weeks of lectures, reflection, articles, videos, webinars and related literature my understanding has expanded in all directions, so much that I struggled to find where to begin…
UX Upskill | Hyper Island
There has never been a better time to get to grips with remote working methods than now. The world is changing at a rapid pace due to many reasons, the latest being the pandemic, forcing millions to work remotely. So the timing of this challenge was perfect.
Our lives are becoming ever more complex with lots of useless products increasingly dominating our lives. In this context it’s important that we don’t add more crap, but instead make sure we create useful and needed products. To help us do that we use design thinking. Understanding how to run a problem solving workshop is a key part of this process. Knowing how to do this remotely is now more important than ever.
Challenge
→ Create and facilitate a 30 minute remote workshop.
Ideally, I would start by talking with users and defining problems based on findings from qualitative and quantitative…
Fieldwork UX research | Hyper Island
The goal of this project was to find opportunities for innovation in the “How might we…” statement above by using the first two steps of the design thinking process. Based on our findings and insights, we would then give recommendations to an imaginary company. To do this though we first had to understand our users and their problems. We did this by empathizing with the users and then defining problems to solve or opportunities for innovation.
Design thinking | Hyper Island
Design thinking is an iterative, human-centered approach for innovation and problem solving. “How might we…” (HMW) is a design thinking technique for brainstorming new ideas. By using these methods we will look for ways to improve the experience of giving gifts. This challenge originates from Stanford d.school and is a project they developed to quickly introduce people to the cycle of design thinking.
UX Upskill | Hyper Island
We were advised to document our journey using Medium. A bit daunting, as I’m not a writer, but it’s good practice and a nice way to keep track of all the things we will learn. Hopefully it will also help me develop my writing skills.
It all started because of the ever looming and evolving pandemic. I knew I needed to find something to do that could keep me mentally sane through the coming winter and at the same time help me develop new skills. So this spring I frantically googled for options.
I knew about Hyper Island from way back, but as the vagabond i once were, I had dismissed it as too close to home. At that time, I would rather go study in Australia (the further away the better).
Anyway, I decided to find out what options they had now. That’s how…
Pia Hartvigsen
Visual designer exploring UX. Love illustration, travelling (uhm…when that was still possible), hammocks and cats, based in Oslo, Norway.
