Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It

by Mike Monteiro

You are lucky enough to be a designer at a time when design is taken seriously and when design has power. With that power comes responsibility. You are responsible for what you put into the world. You are responsible for the effect your work has on the world. Right now, designers (I define this term broadly, as a reminder. Prick up your ears, developers and engineers!) are creating new inroads in all manner of things. We’re designing software for self-driving cars. We’re designing software which intimately touches people’s lives. We’re designing software which puts people in strangers’ cars. We’re designing databases which track immigrants for eventual deportation. All of these things need to be designed with the strictest ethics in mind. Some of these

The work we do lives in the world. We make it. It affects the people who come in contact with it. It’s our solemn duty to make sure it’s well thought out, beneficial, and as free from error as possible once it’s in their hands.

By political, I’m talking about caring who our work is affecting. I’m talking about caring about who it’s helping and who it’s hurting. I’m talking about who’s making design decisions, and who’s being left out of them. I’m talking about increasing our definition of design beyond aesthetics and into ramifications. I’m talking about what we’re willing to support and what we’re willing to lay the tools down for.