14.2. Shaping the FutureAs humans, we collectively avoid a huge percentage of ethical dilemmas by defining them out of existence. We decide that they are beyond our control and are someone else's responsibility. As an information architect, you can define any or all of these ethical dimensions as "not my problem." Maybe the responsibility really belongs with the client, the business manager, the authors, the usability engineers, or the users themselves. Or, maybe we'll all just wait for a superhero to save the day. Speaking of which, a handful of user-experience superheroes have written books that tackle these thorny issues head on. For example, B.J. Fogg's Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Morgan Kaufmann) includes a chapter about the ethics of persuasive technology. Jeffrey Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards (Peachpit Press) details the ethics and economics of designing for accessibility. And, Adam Greenfield's Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing (Peachpit Press) presents ethical guidelines for user experience design in ubiquitous computing environments. We encourage you to read these books and put their ideas into action so you can help shape a better future. |