ID lecture | Ethics in Design

The Industrial Design department welcomes George Aye, cofounder and director of innovation at Greater Good Studio, as he makes the case for designers to practice judgment over craft.

The design industry’s relationship to the field of business has long been established and continues to become further entangled each year. But designers aren’t just satisfied with disrupting the business sector—they’re keen to disrupt the social sector too. Unfortunately, the weaknesses baked into our discipline (that have been present from the start) are readily exposed when designers enter into complex social issues and treat them like any other human-centered innovation challenge. The lack of a moral framework, let alone a set of ethical guidelines, puts designers at great risk of doing more harm than good.