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The Little Book of
Design
Research
Ethics
The Little Book of Design Research Ethics
By IDEO
1st Edition © 2015
ISBN 978-0-578-16303-1
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution, NonCommercial, No derivatives 4. 0 International license
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full text of this license is available here.
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommerical — You may not use this material for commercial purposes.
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Preface
This book is a guide on how to seek and share insights about people’s lives in an ethical way. Though it was originally created for IDEO
designers, we realized it offers practical guidance to a wide range of situations where people’s trust and respect are at stake.
We hope you’ll find it useful.
For more information, visit llbodre.ideo.com.
“
In the early days, when I created the little company that would become IDEO, we relied on trusted friends and family to try our prototypes and tell us what we needed to fix. It was an open, natural, and enjoyable way to make sure we were making stuff that worked for other people. Now we’ve grown, and so has the reach and scope of design. The range of people who inspire and inform us has expanded way beyond folks we already know. But we’ve kept that same spirit. We strive for that same trust-based way of collaborating with people.
— David Kelley
The Little Book of
Welcome
7
About This Book
9
Design
The Principles
Research
Respect
13
Ethics
Responsibility
15
Honesty
17
The Guidelines
Planning and Preparation
22
Gathering Information
31
Using and Sharing
39
Guidelines at a Glance
44
Closing Thoughts
Explore and Evolve
50
Reflections
51
Welcome
elcome to another Little Book. This one is about ethical Wpractices in design research. It covers the principles that guide our interactions as we search for insight. It’s written for everyone at IDEO and for all the people we work with—those we learn from, and those we teach.
These principles aren’t new to IDEO. Trust and collaboration are essential to our work; so respect, responsibility, and honesty have always been core to our culture. Empathy and cultural sensitivity are routine practice—we’re human-centered designers after all!
What is new is the concise format you now hold in your hands.
Constructing this book has been a major undertaking, with lots of soul-searching to strike a helpful balance between guidance, rules, and tools.
Across multiple locations, organizations, and disciplines, many more than 100 IDEO colleagues have given input to this book. We’ve distilled lessons learned—as you’ll see, sometimes 7
Welcome
the hard way—from more than a quarter-century of experience and dozens of stories from the field. We’ve integrated advice and recommendations from external sources too—from ethicists and from existing codes of ethics in related professions, such as journalism and market research.
As IDEO’s activities scale to create impact across the world, what’s important to me is keeping a positive human experience at the heart of our purpose. Not only in the change we create, but also in the way we seek precious insight to inform that change. Beyond the basic tenet of doing no harm, we aspire to make people’s experiences with us as enjoyable and mutually beneficial as possible.
Ideally this book will encourage us all to openly reflect on the issues that arise as we navigate the evolving and complex terrain of design research. And knowing that no set of guidelines can possibly anticipate all the challenging moments ahead, I’d like you to remember this:
If you’re feeling uncertain, or nervous, or even just a little weird about something, know that you don’t have to handle it on your own.
Instead, reach out for support and advice from experienced colleagues, your design research leads, or IDEO’s legal counsel, so that you can be confident your interpretation reflects the spirit at IDEO’s core—
the human-centered culture we’ve built together over many decades.
May your insights continue to enlighten us all!
Cheers,
Jane Fulton Suri
8
About This Book
“Well,” you might ask, “if we’re already embracing the principles, why do we need a book?”
Here’s why:
To support great work
The quality of our work depends in large part upon people’s willingness to share their time and energy as well as their deepest thoughts and feelings. This access is a privilege founded on trust—
a fragile existence we betray at our peril. Being explicit about our ethical principles and guidelines helps to preserve this trust.
To make the abstract concrete
Respect, responsibility, and honesty sound great. But they’re big abstract ideas that seem completely clear until we’re asked to define and apply them in the complicated, messy, human situations of real life. This book aims to provide practical guidance we can use in the work we do every day.
97
About this book
To provide a shared reference
Common standards and language help us communicate our ethical priorities and think through the inevitable dilemmas that arise.
An ongoing conversation that provides the opportunity to reflect together over time—not just during high-pressure moments when something doesn’t feel right—allows us to leverage our shared knowledge and experience.
To build from in the future
Written principles and guidelines give us points of reference for the ethical challenges that accompany new opportunities for research.
For example, the rise of social media offers a host of opportunities to track people’s behavior; but those opportunities also raise new challenges around privacy. And new sources of information, such as sensors monitoring activity and habits, will challenge us to remember that real people stand behind what those devices reveal.
Adapting to changes like these will be vital.
The book contains three principles and a set of guidelines.
The principles—respect, responsibility, and honesty—are persistent and fundamental.
The guidelines are the recommended actions embodying those principles. They guide us throughout a project—from planning our search for insight, to conducting activities in the field, to communicating what we’ve learned, to finally safekeeping the materials we’ve gathered.
To illustrate the principles in practice, there is a collection of real-world stories about challenges we’ve faced and the lessons we’ve learned.
10
About this book
An important note about what this book is not…
It does not provide legal advice. In general we’d expect to hold our ethical behavior to a higher standard than the law requires, but there are local
laws that apply to our work. For example, there are laws regarding individuals’ data protection, interactions with children, health and medical information, and, in some countries, information regarding an individual’s sexual orientation or religious or political beliefs. Your local legal team and design researchers will be able to advise on this.
Neither does the book offer specific advice for best practices in different cultures and geographies around issues such as consent forms or compensation. If you’re visiting an unfamiliar country or region, seek input from IDEO design researchers worldwide with experience working in those locations.
11
The Principles
Respect
Responsibility
Honesty
the PrinciPles
Respect
We honor participants’ limits
and value their comfort.
13
Consider:
Am I treating our participants as people—as collaborators—rather than subjects? Am I aware and considerate of the cultural expectations and sensitivities at play? Are my actions thoughtful and kind?
the PrinciPles
Responsibility
We act to protect people’s current
and future interests.
15
Consider:
Am I confident that our research isn’t harmful to our participants?
Are participants aware of the consequences of what they’ve shared with me? Do I have their informed consent? Am I safeguarding information that might compromise a participant in some way?
the PrinciPles
Honesty
We’re truthful and timely
in communication.
17
Consider:
Am I doing my best not to mislead participants or leave them with false impressions? When and how should we identify ourselves, what we’re doing, and the intended outcome of their participation?
The Guidelines
Planning and Preparation
Gathering Information
Using and Sharing
The Guidelines
The following guidelines are the recommended actions that to the best of our collective knowledge embody respect, responsibility, and honesty in practice. They are organized roughly in the sequence of a project to make them accessible to everyone developing business, scoping projects, and doing the work.
Although they are tried, tested, and recommended, please understand, these guidelines should not be slavishly followed.
They are not exhaustive, and will not address all the possible situations we’ll face. Our work is dynamic and edgy—encompassing a broad range of industries, cultural contexts, and project types—
and there’ll always be a need for flexibility and judgment. Methods, tools, and cultural norms vary across time and geography, and our practices will evolve to fit.
As we work, let’s use these guidelines to step outside our immediate concerns and reflect on a fundamental question: Is what we’re doing respectful, responsible, and honest? And if it feels off, let’s seek help and consensus to design an approach that feels right. An approach we can be proud of.
21
the Guidelines
1Planning and
Preparation
We start our projects by designing research activities that will inform and inspire both our team and our client. At this early stage, applying the principles of respect, responsibility, and honesty creates conditions that provide a positive experience for everyone involved.
22
PLANNING AND PREPARATION
Keep the entire team accurately informed Ensure that the team—made up of IDEO team members, contractors, and clients—is fully aware of how we conduct the research and protect the information gathered. The entire team needs to be clear about the rules around confidentiality and sharing information.
In particular, our clients must understand exactly what can be shared with them, and what stays within IDEO.
Why It Matters:
IDEO’s ability to gather the best information depends, in part, on our team acting in concert. We build trust by speaking clearly and consistently, and by working together to ensure the entire team respects and protects our participants at every point in the process.
This also helps our clients communicate the process to their internal stakeholders and partners.
Seek support to clarify ethical ambiguity Sometimes ethical questions occur about the best route to take on a project. Don’t pretend to have all the answers. Instead, seek support from within the IDEO community, specifically our seasoned design researchers or IDEO’s legal counsel.
Why It Matters:
Ethics questions are often complicated, so it’s important to work together and align around best practices. IDEO has a strong and thriving community, with a broad range of research experience.
Let’s capitalize on our collective wisdom.
23
the Guidelines
Give our participants
clear explanation
Research should never feel covert or manipulative. We want to help participants make informed choices about what they share with us. We must tell them as early as possible—to the best of our knowledge—what the research is for, and how their information will be used, shared, and protected by IDEO.
The nature of our work means we can’t always reveal certain basic elements of the study at the start of the research; but we reveal as much as possible by the end.
Why It Matters:
Maintaining a reputation for honesty is essential to our work and our clients. Transparent and respectful conduct helps build the best relationship with our participants, many of whom are our client’s current and potential customers.
Seek permission,
not forgiveness
In contrast to our internal convention, when we work with participants, we ask for consent, and encourage them to let us know their limits. Participants should always enter freely into our research, and should never feel pressured. Asking for consent as early as possible is important; and any interactions with a 24
PLANNING AND PREPARATION
participant before they’ve formally opted-in to research should require minimal investment on their part.
Why It Matters:
Because we are often guests in our participants’ world—a privilege easily revoked—we want them to feel empowered, appreciated, and respected at all times.
Our clients have chosen to work with us because they believe IDEO’s human-centered philosophy can improve their organizations and help their customers. When we act with politeness and respect, we show that philosophy in action.
Keep your team lean in the field
It’s important we carefully consider who is present during fieldwork. The study’s demands; the topics being addressed; the space in which work is being performed; the cultural norms involved; participants’ familiarity with our approach—all these should be taken into account.
Experience suggests two observers are generally best, and three a practical maximum. If more than two observers are needed, we ask participants if the larger number is acceptable. If there’s pressure for more, it’s worth considering alternative methods.
Why It Matters:
The comfort and ease felt by interview participants is a high priority during an in-context observation. For most participants, 25
the Guidelines
it’s easier to concentrate and relax with fewer people in a conversation.
Limiting the number of observers allows us a deeper connection with participants to gain higher-quality learning, leading to the most valuable insights for our project and client.
Questions to consider as we begin to plan and prepare:
» Are we setting appropriate expectations?
» Are our planned activities considerate of people’s time and needs?
» When is the best time to share who we are, what we’re doing, and the intended outcome
of people’s participation?
26
Respect in practice
Some forms of research—particularly
those involving less face-to-face
contact—carry a greater burden to
anticipate a participant’s vulnerabilities.
These cases require additional
thought and care regarding
participants’ emotional
investment in the study.
Our client was a start-up developing a cancer treatment that would be an alternative to chemotherapy. To learn about how to communicate the treatment, we ran a large-scale survey with patients and caregivers to discover how they research, evaluate, and make decisions about cancer care. Everything was asked thoughtfully and gathered ethically. But people’s write-in responses indicated that many wanted to know if this treatment was available and how they could enroll in a trial. Since this was a confidential survey, we had no way to follow-up with them. I felt bad that we couldn’t close the loop. Next time, I’d avoid creating false hope among participants by communicating relevant information about the treatment and technology—in this case, the fact that treatment was still more than 10 years away.
COE LETA, DESIGN RESEARCHER
Responsibility in practice
Outfitting participants with sensors
and recording devices allows us to
track their activities and emotions
as they go about their daily lives.
We need to explain best practices to
our participants as they capture
data for us, and to carefully
edit and protect sensitive
information they may
have recorded.
To learn more about how users consume non-professional media content at home and on the go, we asked participants to wear cameras and record video of their surroundings and activities.
This helped us observe behavior directly and later review and discuss these visual diaries with participants. We gave verbal and written guidelines to our participants, explaining how to respect others while using these cameras. For example, we advised them to turn off the camera when interacting with anyone who had not agreed to be filmed, or to stop any time they felt uncomfortable capturing moments that felt too private. Of course, it wasn’t always possible to do that—while people were shopping or driving, for instance—so we found we needed to carefully edit the diaries before sharing them.