Comments on Olly Wright - ollywright.org: What I don't think of as ethical design

Key to 'good behaviour' is empathy, and key to emp...

2007-03-30T03:53:00.000+01:00

Key to 'good behaviour' is empathy, and key to empathy is the ability to perceive outside oneself. Brian Eno writes about this in 'A Year with Swollen Appendices': "It's usual to think that human culture starts with language, that this is the great divide. But I think it starts with empathy, and empathy is beyond language, a precondition for it. What connects us is not the ability to speak to each other -- that is just one of the products (a great one) of our ability to imagine what things look like from each other's eyes. Humans have this ability (empathy) to an extraordinary degree. Hundreds of times a day, we inhabit other minds, worlds, sets of assumptions." I agree with this and would add that by living such individualistic lives, we deprive ourselves of opportunities to 'inhabit' others' spaces so to speak. Good behaviour takes time and mental space for self-reflection. More listening less asserting. Are there ways to promote these behaviors? What might such environments be that encourage empathy within interactions across virtual social networks?

One site that comes to mind which encourages good behavior on all kinds of levels is www.kiva.org. It's not just about doing good - the visibility of social interactions promotes empathy and results in desirable behavior.

Hello James. Thank you for the comment. I'll look ...

2007-03-29T18:52:00.000+01:00

Hello James. Thank you for the comment. I'll look up that book by Adam Arvidsson.

The 'report abuse' feature is a good example. I'm very much on the look out for similar ideas and ways to extend these kinds of functions to make them less black and white. Meaning to take into account the many shades of gray of human behaviour.

I just spoke about this subject at the IA Summit, and have a good recording of it. Look out for it in the next few weeks, I'll upload it to google video (and link from here) as soon as I get the chance.

Interesting post. Yeah how do we indeed design eth...

2007-03-29T18:06:00.000+01:00

Interesting post. Yeah how do we indeed design ethically by encouring good behaviour knowing that human behavior can be downright abusive. Devices such as "report abuse" buttons next to user inputs are certainly how we can build in small functionality to promote good behavior. I have even though about creating time based replies to qustions to force users to consider what they are about to input for really important queries. Sites like Craigslist and Ebay have some experience here. Also i suppose ethical design is diverse. Are we talking features or flow? Another thing i found recently was the work of Adam Arvidsson who recently published a book called the ethical economy. His new Actics site shows some promise as a way for people to respond to values of an organization. The IA needs some serious tweaking though.