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# [Brainshot] Design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Do we act accordingly?
- URL: https://www.kevinrichard.ch/design-does-not-happen-in-a-vacuum-do-we-act-accordingly/
- Published: 2020-01-29T22:01:18.000Z
- Updated: 2020-02-04T12:19:08.000Z
- Description: Business value, ethics, and designers’ responsibilities.
- Author: Kevin Richard
- Tags: Brainshot, Design, Ethics, Critical Thinking, Philosophy

## Business value, ethics, and designers’ responsibilities.

Hi everyone, Kevin here.

This week I was synthesizing some work done during a session about **Business Value definition* and I came to think about this (roughly) this way:

> *Thinking in terms of the **value* requires to think about **what* is valued by **whom* in which **circumstances*.*  
>  
> *This demonstrates that \[things\] have **no intrinsic value*, but rather those we give them.*  
>  
> *In this respect, if these “higher goals” are to help prioritize what we should “act upon”, the “business value” is a form of ethics.*

Interestingly, ****normative ethics,** and its branch [****consequentialism**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism?ref=kevinrichard.ch)****,** is really about that: in [**utilitarianism*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism?ref=kevinrichard.ch) ways, the practical consequences of various policies are evaluated on the assumption that the right policy will be the one which results in the greatest **happiness.* A basic transposition of this in the business world is what is seen **as positive* is **valued & promoted* and what is seen as **negative* is **avoided or diminished*.

Nothing revolutionary here, but I wonder how much this is taken into consideration in the ongoing trend around **“ethical design”* and in the ongoing discussions about designers’ responsibilities **\[over what’s produced\].*

Business values **impact* the design as much as the org values or the HR ones **impact* the business (and vice-versa). Doesn’t it imply a strong relationship between all parts?

> *If a business values things (let’s say based on “good intentions”) that turn to be “bad”, is there a way for design to make ethical outcomes in such space? And where (and how) do we draw the boundary of the responsibilities?*

Finally, if the outcomes are the result of the interactions between the parts of a system, isn’t the “problem” on another level?

## What are your thoughts on that?

Do you have strategies that promote virtuous behaviors as a whole? What do you do to take into account the interconnectedness of your organization that leads to the outcomes we see in the world?

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