Here's a thought experiment. I mean no disrespect to anyone or any
organization; I'm just posing what I think is an interesting question.
Say company X releases product P. It's a "radical" (but not dangerous)
reconceptualization of some existent product class.
P is successful.
After a year or two, X releases the next version of P. It's significantly
different from v1.
The changes between v1 and v2 are easily traced to two basic sources:
1. feedback from v1 users on what they liked and didn't like, and
2. X's strategic goals to gently encourage certain user behaviours that
would benefit X.
One might well argue that X's customers were experimented on with v1 of P
without the users' knowledge.
One might also argue that this is just how "product development" is done
and that a systems analysis of how the user community interacts in the
"real world" with various organizations that provide products and services
is pretty much just "how things are."
If the former case is the best model of the situation, one might extend
this reasoning to propose that all design is fundamentally an experiment
done on users without their knowledge/consent/whatever. (I personally
disagree with this stance, but that's not the point.)
So, which of these 2 models is the "best" representation of the situation?
Is the situation itself a good one, or is it flawed (e.g., a false
dichotomy)?
\V/_ /fas
*Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.*
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
On 20 June 2015 at 08:25, Gunnar Swanson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > On Jun 20, 2015, at 1:30 AM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > The New York Times Sunday Review has an interesting article for those
> who design products and services. It is an useful discussion piece for
> seminars in the ethics of design, as well as for seminars on research
> ethics.
> >
> >
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/please-corporations-experiment-on-us.html
>
> "Research ethics" seems to be the same as "biomedical research ethics" in
> too many minds. Slate had an interesting twist in the Alice Goffman 'On the
> Run' saga:
>
>
> http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/06/alice_goffman_s_on_the_run_is_the_sociologist_to_blame_for_the_inconsistencies.html
>
>
> Gunnar
>
> Gunnar Swanson
> East Carolina University
> graphic design program
>
> http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Gunnar Swanson Design Office
> 1901 East 6th Street
> Greenville NC 27858
> USA
>
> http://www.gunnarswanson.com
> [log in to unmask]
> +1 252 258-7006
>
>
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