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New multimodal, large language, generative AI models, such as those developed by #OpenAI and #Google, are powerful game changers. Their ability to generate novel output by recombing vast sources of data from the web will have profound, as yet unimagined impacts on our economy and society. One of the most profound will be the ways it reshapes the labor market: the jobs that are available (or not) and the skills they require. Because of their ability to produce a variety of graphic, text, audio, and visual outputs, the jobs most likely to be impacted are those in design and other creative professions. Whether these jobs are eliminated or just reshaped will depend on local situations: the demands of a particular set of tasks, for a particular project or job, as they are overlaid on the capabilities of these models. But designers and creatives will be affected. And no doubt, employers will look for opportunities to eliminate jobs when possible, given the way our economy is structured. Whether or not you, as a designer, become redundant depends on how you define, think of, and represent “design”. To avoid being laid off, you must have a deep understanding of both your profession and the capabilities of these AI systems so that you know how to work with them, so that you can emphasize the differences between your capabilities and theirs, and so that you can sharpen your unique capabilities, relative to these systems. Furthermore, you must be able to articulate your unique capabilities to employers and clients. In this article, I will give you a high-level description of the systems most relevant to design: generative multimodal large language AI models. I will help you think about their capabilities and shortfalls. And I will help you think about and maybe rethink the uniquely human, in-the-world capabilities that designers bring to a task and how you can fine-tune these capabilities and emphasize them with your employer and clients. I will help you think about design and our design profession as the uniquely human way to create the world that we want. As Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon puts it, the capability to take us from the current situation to a preferred one, the capability to make the world a better place. What are the Current Capabilities of Multimodal Large Language AI Models? I say “current” here because these models are self-learning and always improving their ability to do their current task set, as they interact with users. In addition, it is very likely that OpenAI, Google, and others, will release subsequent models with additional capabilities, as they compete for market share. These systems are started with certain algorithms, with millions or billions of data points, and with some guardrails. They are then trained on these data sets by humans and/or by self-training. But because they continue to self-learn, based on their interactions, they develop capabilities that the developers don’t fully understand. So, we can only make assessments of their capabilities as we observe their current behaviors. What are these capabilities? Generative First of all, these models are generative. That is, they act by analyzing the words in a prompt, for example, and drawing on their analysis of the data they’ve been trained on to respond with, in the case of #Chat GPT, a unique string of words that constitute syntactically and semantically reasonable sentences and paragraphs that address the prompt request. These are surprisingly sophisticated and human-like responses that would impress any ad copy writer. For example, I prompted #Chat GPT4 with: “List four reasons why a client should hire a designer”. And within seconds, it responded, word after word, line by line, with four numbered reasons: Professional expertise, creative problem solving, branding and identify, and time and efficiency. It ended by saying: "Overall, hiring a designer ensures that the client's design needs are met with professionalism, creativity, and expertise, resulting in visually compelling and impactful designs that support their goals and objectives." Chat constructed a unique response; it did not merely reproduce a passage that it found somewhere on the web. The response directly addressed my request both in substance and form. It made four cogent points and then went on to elaborate on each. Each point was made from the client’s perspective, specifying the advantage that the designer provides to the client’s business. And then it went beyond my prompt, concluding with that summary of the points, even though I didn’t specifically request it. Multimodal But text is not the only mode it works in and this is where AI has significant implications for designers and other creatives. While Chat GPT was built on the vast text resources of the Web, other models use data sets of images, music, chemical structures, etc. Generative programmed transformers (GPTs) work just the same with these symbolic data sets as they do with words. That is, they analyze them looking for interconnections and patterns and then match patterns to those they analyze in prompts, whether the data are words, images, musical notes, computer code, etc. The first of the multimodal models that came to the public’s attention was OpenAI’s #DALL-E, which was introduced in January 2021. DALL-E analyzes patterns among millions of image-text pairs scraped from the Web and is able to generate a unique set of images, given text input. For example, I gave DALL-E 2 the prompt: “A photograph of a smiling housewife using ‘Tide’ laundry detergent.” It returned this group of rather unimpressive images for me to choose from: There are problems with the hands, as well as other artifacts, and with the text within the image (perhaps there is a guardrail prohibiting the use of registered trademarks). But these models are constantly improving. Other similar applications, such as #MidJourney and #Stable Diffusion, have come out since DALL-E’s introduction and they allow the option to use of a reference image (as DALL-E 2 does now) along with text as promotes. They also provide a variety of built-in filters and adjustments to generate sophisticated, high resolution images. The quality of these images is coming to match or exceed the quality of human generated art. Some systems, such as #Runway’s #Gen2, even allow you to generate animations based on text or graphic input. Google’s #MusicLM and OpenAI’s #Jukebox are tuned to generate background music or even original songs. And in software design, applications of generative AI, such as Chat GPT4 with GitHub Copilot, take text input and generate lines of operable code. Future trends These generative models are beginning to be integrated into existing applications and this trend will continue, especially for those applications that deal with multimedia. For example, Adobe is integrating its generative text to image model, #Firefly, into #Photoshop such that users can add, subtract, or replace portions of their photos with pieces of AI generated images by using the selection tool and a text prompt. Future applications will be specifically developed to augment various AI models and stich them together, with application programming interfaces, to make suites of tools that are even more powerful and easier to use than the separate applications. This trend might result in something like this hypothetical example, which pulls together various AI models to create an environment that allows for code generation based on natural language voice commands. Another trend is that large language models are becoming specialized using large data sets specific to particular domains. An example of this trend are models trained on databases of chemical structures, contributing to significant gains in the design of new drugs. As this tend plays out, other models are likely to be trained on specialized data sets in architecture, fashion, engineering, scholarly research, and so on, supporting major breakthroughs in these fields. Yet another trend is the use of AI in the design and production of physical products, such as kitchen appliances, shoes, and cars. These designs can be supercharged by connecting generative AI systems with other applications and devices. For example, multimodal AI models are currently being used to aid in product design during the conceptualization phase. The results of this conceptualization phase are mere images but they can be connected to a CAD package for generating the production specifications of the product and then to a CAM application to actually produce the product. Current Limitations of these AI Systems? Again, the word “current” must be used here, since these systems are ever-evolving and novel applications are constantly being produced. This means that, no doubt, there will be other trends that emerge that we can’t yet imagine. But at least for now, there are significant limitations among AI systems. Designers need to know these limitations because they often correspond to the unique strengths that humans can bring to the process. Here I will not address the myriad issues and problems with AI associated with “the apocalypse”, security hacking, the invasion of privacy, intellectual property, deep fakes, etc. Rather I will address issues in a much narrower sense, those most closely associated with the design process. Lack agency and executive function The biggest limitation is that generative AI models cannot make executive decisions. That is, they don’t know what needs to be designed, they can’t start the design process on their own and they don’t know when it is done. While they have a lot of general knowledge, they don’t understand the local situation and they have no idea of what the preferred situation is, to us Simon’s terms. They don’t know which problem can be addressed by what kind of design: Can the design goal be achieved with a physical artifact, a service, a motivational campaign, or what? Nor do AI systems know which of the many problem situations are top design priorities. All these issues need to have been addressed before AI models are employed and need to be represented in the prompts. Limited by the data they are trained on. Generative models can be very creative in their responses. But this creativity is based on finding patterns in the data they have access to and that they are trained on. They can’t go beyond the data. Chat GPT, for example, has access to vast amounts of data scraped from the Web. At the same time, the data it draws on are very noisy. Consequently, the likelihood of generating many off-target combinations is very high. The noise is also likely to include biases in the results and misinformation. Some of these limitations can be addressed by the careful wording of prompts. Others require careful review and assessment of the output. Accepting the results of a request to generate product ad copy, for example, without careful review would be risky. In addition, the database is often time limited. As far as Chat GPT is concerned, the database was locked as of September 2021. So, it cannot comment on or include in its analyses anything that happened after that. Untrustworthy. A related issue is that the produced results can be inaccurate, not based on reality, or even outright bizarre. Beyond the kind of “hallucination” produced by Kevin Roose’s conversation with Microsoft’s Bing, the more-disconcerting results for designers are those that sound reasonable but are totally made up. For example, a legal brief filed by an attorney using Chat GPT cited legal cases in his argument that, as it turned, did not to exist. Chat GPT and other text models are trained to produce results that sound like reasonable, even authoritative, human speech. And as tempting as it is to cut and paste such reasonable sounding outputs, it is essential to check the accuracy of any factual statements. Unfortunately, this necessity can significantly reduce the productivity gains from Chat GPT, adding to the temptation to skip a review. Lacks local context knowledge. Large language models, such as Chat GPT, have a lot of general knowledge about the world and about language. But they have no context knowledge of the immediate local situation. Yet knowledge of the local situation—knowledge of your client, of those who might use and benefit from your design, of their needs and problems, their physical and social context, etc.—is essential to the design process. All of this relevant information would need to be represented by prompts. But even then, it is not clear that these models would “understand” the complex network of local, interacting factors that affect designs. No emotions or morality. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, these systems have no human emotions or moral grounding. There is significant work being done in which AI systems can at some level “understand” and express emotions. But it is a profoundly limiting factor that AI does not exist in the physical world and cannot directly experience pleasure, pain, desire, etc. that are the basis for human emotions and empathy with the emotions of others. Many psychologists claim emotions are the foundation of moral response among humans. This lack of emotional experience in AI systems limits how they can respond to moral issues and moral situations. The limitation reduces the ability of these systems to understand the affective component of human situations and how they might be able to respond to them. While the outputs of these system often evoke emotions among humans, the systems cannot feel compassion or rage and they do not know what is bad and good. There are built-in guardrails that AI systems follow and their statements may sometimes sound morally authoritative. And researchers are experimenting with AI systems that can reason morally. But these systems operate differently than large language models. They are extremely limited in their capabilities and not nearly able to handle the complex emotional and moral situations in which designers sometimes find themselves. For the foreseeable future, AI systems will be limited in their moral capacity. Finally, related to agency and executive function, these systems don’t have the emotional or moral insight to know what people need, desire, or aspire to nor do they, on their own, have a conception about some ideal or desirable future situation that a design could contribute to achieving. In short, they don’t know what makes a design “good”. What Makes Designers Distinctive (and Your Job Safe) What does this all say about the future of ad copy writers, graphic designers, web designers, app developers, user experience designers, and architects? Functions normally associated with design will continue: ad copy will be written, illustrations generated, websites constructed, apps developed. Products will be produced, buildings designed. But these questions remain: To what extent will these functions be performed by AI systems or by people? And what skills will designers need in the future? At the extreme end, entire sets of functions will be served by AI-controlled systems. For example, one can imagine a fully automated game design process in which given an initial prompt, a generative AI system can come up with a new game concept, implement it in code, distribute it online, continually collect data, and use that to finetune the game. Conceivably, none of this would require human illustrators, programmers, or data collectors or analyzers. At the other end, people will be primarily responsible for these functions, augmented by AI systems. They may even retain their titles: graphic designers, app developers, web designers, etc. But their skill sets will be different; traditional technical skills will be replaced by skills in operating AI systems. However, it isn’t merely by being effective AI tool users that designers will be saved from replacement. It is by emphasizing and fine tuning the distinctions between what AI can currently do, what it can’t do, and the unique contribution people can make. This distinction will establish the worth of designers to employers and clients and, perhaps, even to themselves. Designers are thinking, feeling humans that live in the world and they are great at understanding and acting on complex in-the-world situations. The biggest difference between humans and AI systems is the executive function, the moral compass, and rich local knowledge that humans can bring to the design job. This distinction requires designers and design educators to think very differently about what design is and what it is not, to think quite broadly about design as a process and a profession. Too often design is thought of and taught quite narrowly, as a specialized set of skills and knowledge that address a narrow range of problems defined by disciplines, such as software design, product design, and architecture when the solution may not require the design of software, products, or buildings. Design is not technique. AI systems will dramatically transform creative productions associated with particular artistic techniques. Creatives who spend their education and early career years mastering particular techniques—such as photography, illustration, the mastering of musical instruments, etc.—are the most likely to be replaced by people who do not have these technical skills but have knowledge of AI tools that can be used to generate digital products like those of these creators. This applies less for creatives exercising their craft in the real world, such as live performances in music, dance, and theater. But even here, the employability and income of these creatives will be diminished by the fact that AI-generated music, “actors”, “dancers”, etc. will compete for opportunities in the digital world, opportunities that are currently available to creatives. Furthermore, the creative works of these artists are often used to train generative multimodal models, thus creating a competition between artists and their own works—an intellectual property issue that has yet to be resolved. Even designers who are defined by technical skills that are normally considered safe or even advantaged by technological developments, such as software or app developers and webpage designers, are threatened by AI. Who needs people with sophisticated coding skills in specialized languages if people with high-level programming knowledge but few coding skills are sufficient to produce advanced software products? Art and design schools and their faculty that focus primarily on technique will also be transformed by these AI developments. Curricula that haven’t yet moved away from teaching traditional production and performance techniques and toward digital skills will be forced to do so, as students seek these new, more employable skills. And they are advised to think more broadly about what design really is. Design is not just technique or even primarily about being creative. Design is not about photographic skill, illustration, animation, writing, or coding. Design is about solving important complex problems in the physical, social world. And design is not just about being an imaginative, out-of-the box creator. If your creations are not making a positive contribution to human experience or solving complex human problems, you’re not using your full set of design capabilities. Design is not just the attributes of a good design. Good designs are relatively easy to identify if the criteria are specific attributes of the designed artifact: the color scheme is complementary, the composition is balanced, the design for a building structurally sound, the ad copy is grammatically correct and well-stated, the code is elegant. AI is up to that kind of assessment and can generate some amazing images, building designs, statements, and code. But good design is not only about aesthetics, functionality or look and feel. Design is not just the product, the designed artifact. Design is about solving problems and having a positive impact on the world. And it is about the process for getting there. Therefore, good design, if we use Simon’s definition as a process that takes us from a current state to a desired state, implies a different assessment criterion—not attributes of the product but attributes of its impact on the situation as a result of that process. AI systems are not well suited to make those assessments. The guardrails built into AI systems often tell them what they should not do—not provide information that would knowingly harm someone, not share individual data without consent, not discriminate against individuals or groups, not break the law. But they don’t know what they should do; they don’t know about designs that are good. Designers can make that assessment. Design is about solving complex problems. For the foreseeable future, good design will require human designers if we define design not just as technique, not just as the attributes of the well-designed artifact, but as a process of successfully changing situations that aren’t working, that are problematic, that are harmful into situations that meet people’s needs and desires—designs that solve human problems. These are good designs. Great designs are ones that address problems that are particularly complex, ill-defined and highly constrained. And great designers are ones who can solve these wicked problems, ones who can make the world a better place. What does this involve? What are designers’ super powers? To solve problems, designers need to know a lot about the local design situation: where things are working, where and why they are not, who all are involved in the situation and in what ways, what the constraints are, and what human, physical and financial resources are available. Designers also need to understand the preferred situation, what people need, what they want, what they fear, what they desire, dream about, and aspire towards, things that people sometimes don’t even understand, themselves. AI can’t provide these insights; designers can. Designers need to design with purpose and values and understand the values of the people affected most by their designs. Of course, values vary among people. But there are underlying principles that most people draw on in their lives, even if they disagree on how to get there or what it might look like when they do, principles such as avoid harm, increase happiness and well-being, advance knowledge and agency, address injustice, build relationships. Good designers need to tap into these values, as locally felt, build consensus around them, manage conflicts, and turn these values into articulated, desired outcomes to aim toward. And good designs have the intended impact. So designers must be able to assess the impacts of their designs, both intended and unanticipated, and adjust the design accordingly. And, of course, designers need to know how to get from current situations to the preferred ones. Designers must have the ability to determine if this situation requires a product, that situation calls for a service, yet another would benefit from a built environment. They need to be able to assemble and coordinate the human and digital expertise, knowledge, and skills of different specializations to address these complex problems. They need to collaborate with the people most affected by the design outcomes. They need to manage the work flow and the resources that support it and make the tradeoffs that will inevitably arise. They need to tryout the products of this process, to see if these products are working, and if they are moving the needle toward the preferred situation. And they need to know when they are done, when the products, services or experiences achieve the desired impact, or perhaps when they are good enough. It is in the process of getting from here to there that AI will be an essential partner. For many of the components of the process, AI and other digital tools will be used in combination to support and augment the conceptualization and generation of prospective desired outcomes, the collaboration among people and resources, the rapid prototyping and implementation of the design, and the assessment of its impact, the finetuning of the design. An essential design skill will be knowing which tool can be effective in the process and in what way. And an essential skill in using AI will be the ability to express in words or images the complex relationships, problems and constrains that exist in the current situation and the as-yet-unrealized future situation that is desired. Words, images, music, and computer functionality will, no doubt, be an important part of these solutions and AI is great at generating these forms. But it will be essential to know when and how these productions can contribute to solving the problem, to making an impact. But above all, to make the world a better place, the designer must be able to make judgments about what is most important to design. AI will not replace the complex set of skills, knowledge, and values of designers, if design is conceived of as the process of solving important, complex, real world, human problems. AI will not replace you; it will be your friend. _________________ I would like to thank @Anshul Sonak, @Suzee Barrabee, and @Anders Sundstedt for comments on an earlier draft. Any remaining errors are mine. #design #designers #ai #largelanguagemodels #multimodal #generativeai #layoffsandjobreductions #designwithpurpose #designwithvalues #digitalskills #digitalreadiness #problemsolving #designabetterworld #maketheworldabetterplace

The platform Channels Categories Pillars Formats Areas Filters Goals Levels Roles Summary Test Cases Conclusion 1. The platform. By building a dedicated platform we are able to amplify our digital voices and build reputation. One good example is to think of making one podcast and publishing that to YouTube. In a sea of video content spanning any and all topics, one podcast can very easily get lost. On the other hand making one podcast published on this dedicated platform helps relevant stakeholders find your podcast more readily, gives you more credibility and because it is also published on other channels that are linked, improves your general SEO and discoverability. Because we have a unified mission to discover and demonstrate the Value & Impact of CID in Business & Society, we are enabled to showcase our work and skills in demonstrable ways to promote our professional contributions to the industry. 2. Channels To realise the mission & vision the platform can be leveraged in two ways or two channels. The first (MC) is the multimedia content channel, and the second (PP) is the professional platform. Both intertwine in many ways but they serve different goals. The media channel is relevant for any stakeholder interested in CID. The professional platform is relevant for CID professionals specifically who would like to leverage the platform to their advantage. Example 1. Trine Falbe (MC) We created an audio podcast and an experience portal together about ethical design, The Ethical Design Network, and with information about Trine Falbe. Anyone who would like to learn about any one of these three topics can view her content and it's relevant to a range of stakeholders. Example 2. Ricardo Faria (MC + PP) Riarco participated in a web series about KPI's in Design. As with Trine, any stakeholder may find the information relevant online. But Ricardo also used the platform as a professional to publish editorial content and a KPI's in Design introduction course. Example 3. RANDSTAD UX (PP) One of the 6 Areas on Design in Focus is Networks & Communities (N&C). *Read more about the areas below. To showcase how the platform (PP) may be used by professionals to start their own N&C's, we've created a flagship network called RANDSTAD UX (RÚX). RÚX organises monthly events for UX designers in the Randstad region. Of course if you already have a network or community and do not want to use this platform to manage it, you can also just add your details to the directory so that relevant professionals can find you. Learn more 3. Categories There are three master categories on the platform. Creative, Innovation, and Design. Everything we do centers around these topics and they are pivotal to all our stakeholders. Learn more If you are a professional interested in any one or any combination of topics under these categories, you are welcome to add to the collective, either as a participant in multimedia content such as podcasts (MC), or using the platform (PP) to showcase or produce your own contributions. Aside from using the platform for your professional benefit online, you can also become part of the Design in Focus organisation by contributing your professional skills to the organisation in person. We are building a foundation with Design in Focus so as to adhere to our mission and vision with honor serving the professionals who make up our industry. Success is a massive driving force behind Design in Focus, and we wish all our stakeholders financial gains, but to keep it relevant and avoid the pitfalls of other platforms, it's important to secure a not-for-profit structure. Two things to note here: 1. Opportunities If you join the organisation as Volunteer or Board Member, you are not yet financially rewarded. Once we have a treasurer, we can finalise certain documentation and our sponsors may start sponsoring us, then we will start paying where possible. But, joining as an unpaid professional can still reward you in other ways such as personal growth, gaining skills, and adding to your portfolio. Design in Focus in its current state is an MVP (minimum viable product) and living prototype, therefore there is a lot of opportunities to lend your skill and showcase your capabilities. For example, redesign our hastily created icons, and add that to your portfolio, or create a cool campaign and add it to your resume, whatever skills you have can add a lot of value to the organisation and its gold on your resume & portfolio. 2. Org & Platform The platform initiatives and the platform initiatives are seperate. While the organisation is a foundation, those who use it may still be profit oriented. For example if you are a Professional Design Mentor, you may use the platform to create visibility for your work by creating a podcast (MC) or publishing a free intro course on the platform (PP), these are two ways to bring awareness to your professional services, which is of course your bread and butter and therefore profit oriented. But if you are not profit oriented, you may join the organisation as a board member working on crafting that arena in meaningful ways for your industry and its professionals based on what you know about the industry and its needs. There are many existing opportunities and many ways you can create new ones. 4. Pillars There are four pillars that support the multimedia channel. You can participate in our media or create your own under these pillars according to your goals. Industry talks - Showcase your knowledge and skills as an industry contributor The human Experience - Have human conversations showcasing your personality and character. The Dream Team Roundtable - Demonstrate how you fit in and how you help solve business problems. The Dark Side of the Force - Raise awareness and solve challenges in the CID landscape. Learn more 5. Formats We publish content in all of these formats. You may choose any one, combination of, or all media formats to create content in. Make some audio podcasts, write editorial content, film a web show, create some infographics or memes, or create live content in an online talk event. 6. Areas Sketch from the initial brainstorm, the labels have changed a little bit, but most of the focus remains the same. In due time the map will be updated to the current landscape of the Design in Focus platform. Originally the Founders and Makers and Networks & Communities were one, but we decided to split it to make more sense. Also we had one focus area on events, but this needs more development so we support events, but the dedicated events portal is less prominent. What remains are these 6 key areas that you can use to serve your goals. Galleries When you use the platform to publish multimedia content, it all filters through the galleries. As a participant there are 3 starting routes that have been set up based on effort. The route with the least effort is called the leasure route. When we create content, it is only published to the galleries and media channels such as YouTube and Soundcloud. Experience Portals (EP) An Experience portal is a fantastic way to create visibility and give context to your work. On EP's viewers may find more detailed information and additional links and content about the professional or organisation. There are two types of EP's * Standard EP - For content that fits within the predefined framework. Example * Bespoke EP - For pages that have unique requirements. Example We create EPs with Participants, Collaborators, Organisations, Universities & Companies. Typically EPs are part of the second and third routes on the platform, namely, the explorer and adventurer routes. To learn more please visit our Onboarding Portal. We offer various expressions of the EP for our different factions. We already have a few factions build, but the factions will increase over time as those areas are developed. Currently you can find participant EPs in the main navigation and under the factions menu you can see the different types of EPs created for different purposes such as volunteer EPs, and collab EPs. If you use the DiF platform to start your own network or community, you may choose to create EP's for your organisation. For example if you create a network for audio engineers, and you have professionals in that network that give talks or presentations, you can create multimedia together and publish it on personal pages. See the RÚX example for more. Members Area The members area has been built to help achieve some goals for CID professionals and all members are manually approved. As with the public platform, the only data we use is location and number of visitors per day. This is to see how many people come to the site and which pages are popular in which regions so that we can build and improve the website. We do not use any personal information, we do not sell personal information and we do not have affiliations that profit off of your personal information. The members area was created to build a stronger professional platform where members can engage authentically and meaningfully with their industry peers. We offer membership two ways. * Standard Membership gives you access to our forum and groups. Start conversations on the Forum, or, join / create groups dedicated to your focus points. *VIP Membership is almost the same as Standard Membership and should probably be referred to as VIC (very important contributor) Membership as all our members are VIPs. With this membership we assign privileges to the members such as to publish editorial content, events and educational programmes. VIP's / VIC's are typically collaborators who share a goal, but can be participants, volunteers, board members, networks \ communities or founders / makers. Networks & Communities (N&C) Being a member of a network or community is a great way to grow as a professional. Starting your own is a great way to demonstrate your passion. We serve CID professional N&C's in a couple of ways. a. We list them in our directory for other CID stakeholders to find. We will continue building the list out as resources allow, but you can easily add to the list while we build it and after. View Directory b. We create bespoke experience portals for them. External example. Internal Example. c. We provide the ability to create a group on this platform and publish events and content. We support external CID N&C's, those wanting to start their own unique N&C's or wanting to start N&C's under the Design in Focus Umbrella (internal). Training & Mentoring (T&M) If you are a trainer or mentor or offer any educational content, you can publish free introductory or complete courses on this platform. Founders & Makers (F&M) Choosing topics, themes and structures for creating content online can be a challenge. Have you ever thought of making a podcast but didn't know how to structure it? Have you ever wanted to manage your own channel related to a CID topic you are passionate about? There are many advantages to becoming an F&M, but the most obvious is power in numbers. By making stuff happen under one umbrella, we are able to improve discoverability, build credibility and share resources. We also already have a northstar and a couple of processes predefined. Learn more 7. Filters Our three Categories can be filtered into 7 key channels. The three CID categories seem quite basic, but when you filter into it, you discover that there are actually many ways to define content. Creative Innovation Design Creative Innovation or Innovative Creativity Innovative Design or Design innovation Design Creativity or Creative Design Creative + Innovation + Design 8. Goals We've identified eight main goals that this platform can help achieve and you can use your own creativity to imagine more. With all our initiatives we can reach one or more goals Creating awareness Enabling expression Inspirational Leadership Connectivity Solving Building Demonstrating For example, by participating in a podcast, you can create awareness of a problem you are solving. By starting a network you can demonstrate leadership through building a connected professional collective. Learn more 9. Levels We've created nine levels based on general considerations. There are three main tiers that each have three sub tiers, resulting in 9 total levels of tiers. You're welcome to take things to whole new levels based on your personal situation. Category 1 : Routes Leisure Route - Based on the least effort possible needed to publish content or perform an activity. Explorer Route - A little bit more effort, but not extensive enough to keep you very busy. Adventurer Route - Go on a journey and exert all the effort you like, get active and dedicate working hours to build up in ways that delivers the most potential and reward. Category 2 : Medium Promotion - Efforts geared towards activities that may be interpreted as promotional in nature. E.g. Using the platform to create multimedia about your specialization. Organisation - Efforts geared towards organizational activities with bigger impact. E.g Using the platform to organise activities surrounding your specialisation. Direction - Efforts geared towards directing activities aiming to create movement. E.g leading the way to sustainable outcomes by becoming a Board Member and working on that as director. Category 3 : Time Although you are welcome at all times to partake and collaborate as you please, at any given time we typically exert effort on three levels. One & done - Make one podcast, volunteer on one projects, or support one initiative. Occasionally - Invest your effort in, on or during specific occasions. Regular - Create a web series, work as a volunteer or board member for a committed period of time, or regularly use the platform. Examples : 1+4+7 Creating a single audio podcast that is published in the Galleries and Social Channels to be informative on a topic or area that you are knowledgeable about. 1+5+8 Occasionally assist the organisation with simple projects. 2+4+9 Create an experience portal filled with content surrounding your topic / specialisation such as a regular web show. 3+6+9 Become a (board) member and regularly spend effort to build up specific areas related to your topics or specialization. It can all be very easy with a level 1 initiative, or you can incrementally increase the effort based on your own circumstance. 10. Roles The final pieces of the puzzle is made up out of the roles that you may play as a Design in Focus stakeholder. Stakeholder may find one or more roles interesting, and all the roles serve to solve some specific problems and reach specific goals. Viewer. As a viewer the platform may be interesting to you to find content. Participant. Participants do not really engage beyond the multimedia channel and usually take similar predefined routes. *Outlined above. Networks & Communities. Showcase, grow or start your N&Cs. Collaborator. You do not want to be bound by our organisation, but you are working on mutually interesting things, being a collaborator means that we can work together separately. Sponsor. Becoming a sponsor enables you to demonstrate and support CID professionals and industry. Member. Join the platform and become a member. *Outlined above. Leader. Lead you CID related industry, topics, or professionals. Founders & Makers. Work as a managing director by founding your own regional, topic specific or language based chapter of Design in Focus, or make content specific to the pillars under your own art direction and viewpoint. Mentoring & Training. Use this platform to upskill, update, teach and inform CID professionals. Volunteer. Become a volunteer and make a difference, add to your resume or portfolio, or fill in some empty time. Learn More 11. Summary This platform be leveraged in a myriad of ways ranging from simple to complex, from one and dones, to dedicated performance, and from many perspectives and angles. The best way currently to get started is by visiting the onboarding portal and exploring the avenues that seem most relevant to you. In the coming weeks we will be publishing assisted onboarding which will help you decide by answering a few questions, to make it more easily understandable. Visit Onboarding Portal 12. Test Cases 1. Leisurer X would like to talk about a specific topic in a web show but does not have a lot of time to spare and would like to take the easiest route to publish the web show. Step 1. Visit Onboarding Step 2. Fill in Leisure Onboarding form. Wait for us to contact you ASAP Step 3. Introduction - We arrange an introduction to meet and align on topics, pillars, and categories. We then schedule a recording date. Step 4. Record. After the recording you may decide to reshoot if it did not go well. If you are happy with the recording, you let us know and we start the editing. When we are done we send the final version and release form to you. Step 5. Review the final cut and if you are happy please sign the release form. This form is an agreement that must be signed, please read the formalities on the the onboarding page. Do not sign or return it to us unless you are happy with the final cut. Step 6. We publish the final cut to the galleries and social channels. Done. 2. Explorer X would like to create a video & audio podcast about creative innovation so that she can find new opportunities, and can only afford to spend and hour or two writing her summary for the page, her introduction if she would like one, and adding her links and keywords she would like to be found on. For this route Explorer X must follow the 6 steps outlined in the first example, and after Step 3, we have two additional steps. Next step. Once we've made a plan for the podcast, we can build the experience portal. Generally the page can be created purely by what you have filled in during the onboarding steps. But we can align to make it more relevant and interesting with additional content, a story, a design style etc. Last step. When the portal has been activated, we send you the link for approval. If you are happy with the page we can share it. The more content we collectively create, the more slots will be activated. Each time we create something and upload it to the database, the content is automatically added to the relevant slots and they appear on your portal. Done. 3. Adventurer X would like to build out his professional services and work on his personal development by doing something to give back. He has a fair amount of free time that he wishes to invest in strengthening his professional and digital presence. Here is an invissioned example featuring the index items 1-10. Using our vision To Discover & Demonstrate the Value & Impact of CID in Business & Society, he decides that he will create valuable design content aimed to make a positive impact on a professional. He decides that he will use both the Media Channel and the Professional platform. He selects Design as his main category For the Media side he will create content in all four pillars He chooses to create media in all 5 formats. He is active in all 6 areas on Design in Focus. Adventure routes can include any three or more areas on the platform. a. Galleries *standard b. Experience Portal - Visit his experience Portal *standard c. Members Area - See his Member Profile d. Networks & Communities - He has his own community which he nurtures through the groups portal on Design in Focus, see his group. e. Training & Mentoring - He publishes mentoring content on the platform. f. Founder & Makers - He makes video content for his professional talk show on the Design in Focus platform. He only focuses on Design and Design professionals & industry. He has 6 goals which he can accomplish using this platform. Creating awareness, being Inspirational, growing Leadership, Solving professional insecurities, Building resilient professionals, Demonstrating his passion and dedication to the industry and its people through his efforts as board member Design Mentoring & Training. He operates as a level 9 stakeholder which is the highest level of contribution possible. He decides to take on various roles including participant, member, leader, and writer to maximise his toolbox. Once he has an idea, he follows the same steps as outlined in Leisurer X and Explorer X above. This is an ongoing process and we have as many conversations as needed. Adventurer X needs to learn how to use the CMS to publish events, articles and training programs. He also needs time to act as board member and perform board member activities. Adventurer routes can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on what level of adventure is within the candidate. On the Onboarding Portal you can read more details and start envisioning your own adventure. Visit Onboarding Portal 11. Conclusion There are many ways that you can use this platform to your professional advantage. You can take it at your own pace, on levels that you are comfortable with and can fit into your schedule, based on what your goals and aspirations are.

That is the theme of an event I helped organise in January 2023 in collaboration with Ladies that UX Amsterdam, hosted at PwC Experience Center, as well as a workshop I'm doing later this year. The workshop will include topics such as automation and historical behavioural science and quantum computing, data and conceptual reality and I will also touch on that in this article. "I didn't believe x until I Googled it", have you heard this before? Authoritative perception despite being non instigated and a for profit private corporation. At the event. Koert Bakker briefly discussed how technology changes ethics, and it really clicked because 1. in the question posed, it's clear to see that a tech company has shaped our understanding in many ways and 2. the fact that Ethics does change. There is no universal truth regarding good and bad to drive home the point I will mention some cases for consideration. Drapetomania was a term used in the 19th century to describe a supposed mental illness that caused enslaved African Americans to run away from slavery. The term was invented by Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, a physician in the antebellum South, as a way to justify and explain the enslavement of African Americans. Drapetomania was considered a form of insanity that was unique to enslaved African Americans, and it was believed to be caused by improper treatment by slave owners. The supposed cure for drapetomania was to keep slaves under strict control and to use physical punishment to prevent them from running away. While it is true that drapetomania was a false and discredited theory, it was used to justify the enslavement of African Americans. The concept of drapetomania has no basis in established science today, but it was used as a "scientific" tool of oppression to control and exploit enslaved people. Today, it is widely recognized as a pseudoscientific and racist concept that has no place in modern* medicine or psychology. It may sound like Mr Cartwright was not all Allright himself, but do note that he was a trained physician, his work was published and for a time considered scientifically sound. In order to enslave another being, one must be fairly detached and that is clearly evident here. The "educated" "normal" person of today can quite easily feel compassion and has some level of empathy in varying degrees. UPDATE: New insight. Slavery of Africans was started by Africans who traded with their slaves. While others traded in silk, spices and the like, Africans traded with human lives. This has raised a question in my mind. What if he was right? All we know of history is what we are told, and without being there, it's hard to say. But if African "nobility" did do that to their own, then is it possible that Cartwrights' reasoning stemmed from that, and if it stemmed from a place like that, then perhaps conditions were indeed better, although I find it hard to justify. As a white woman, I've endured brutality and violence from others who justify themselves through their senselessness, self importance and lack of comprehension. I found this first in the white communities I grew up in, but have also experienced it from other races. Perhaps looking at individual character instead of race, religion, demographics etc, we can conclude that it's a human thing. White nobility and their serfs, black chiefs and their slaves. Same pattern, same mentality. We reason from within the mental model that we construct throughout our existential experience. Much of that, and in fact the most defining, happens before "we" technically even exist because we don't actually remember it by the time that we have gained a higher level of awareness. For example the language we speak, or the beliefs we have, are seldom metrics we understood and then chosen, yet these are often most defining. As we develop and mature our mental models become more developed and complex due to the existential experiences we have, and the output of these learnings become our reasoning models. Think of every sensory input as a bit of data. The data that you obtain projects into very simple charts which paints a picture relative to your understanding. At its height, slavery spanned several generations. For those born during slavery, it was the norm. I can imagine that in Cartwrights' time that there was very little empathy for African descendants and therefore the reasoning behind Drapetomania and other nonsensical notions, was absolutely in line with the scientific, educated, intelligent lines of thought, despite lacking on various levels. We do not know what we do not know and can only learn when the conditions are right. As (UX) designers, much of our work enter the realm of psychology, or as I prefer behavioural science. From a young age I often wondered what makes people do what they do and when I discovered psychology, many of my questions had more logical or plausible answers. I started realizing soon in that some of what I was learning was questionable to say the least. What will you make of these three facts? 1. The field of psychiatry has seen significant growth and changes over the past several decades. 2. Mental health problems among youth have been on the rise in recent years. Studies have shown that rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders have increased among children and adolescents. 3. Behavioural science is abused more and more in the guise of PR, Marketing and Advertising. There have been new discoveries in the field of psychiatry and medication that have called into question the long-held belief that depression is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. For decades, patients with depression have been prescribed drugs that aim to correct these alleged imbalances, but which often have severe and even life-threatening side effects. Some of these side effects include increased suicide rates, severe weight gain, and potential addiction to the medication. The question of whether psychiatrists are "evil" or simply misinformed is a complex one. Historically, there have been instances in which psychiatrists have perpetuated false or harmful ideas, such as the concept of drapetomania, which you know was used to justify the forced medication of enslaved people who attempted to escape. It is important to say that psychiatry is a field that is constantly evolving, and new discoveries and research findings can lead to changes in the way mental health conditions are understood and treated. Still, it is important to acknowledge and learn from past mistakes in order to prevent their repetition in the future and to remember that even though professionals attempt to be correct or right, they are just human and prone to the same mechanisms which they seek to understand. Someone may understand certain mechanics of manipulation for example, but may not be able to avoid being manipulated. Furthermore, we reason from our own understanding, an understanding shaped by our existential circumstance. Today we may look at Cartwright and see the desperate plea for self-justification through rationalising misconduct as not belonging to the perpetrator but as that of the victim. Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias in which people tend to seek out and interpret information in a way that confirms their existing beliefs or hypotheses. This can lead to a failure to consider alternative perspectives or to consider disconfirming evidence. Although we have learned this through psychological study, at the same time we ignored the reality of "chemical imbalances" which demonstrates the struggle with bias even from a trained educated perspective. One study, by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that people experience physical pain when their self-esteem is threatened. This is known as "social pain" and is thought to be related to the activation of the same neural pathways that are involved in physical pain. It can be difficult for people who are also professionals to be truly honest with themselves, as we tend to have a natural inclination to view ourselves in a positive light. This can lead to a failure to acknowledge or address one's own biases, flaws or mistakes. The normalization of poor behavior refers to the process by which a behavior that is considered unacceptable or deviant becomes accepted or tolerated within a society. This can happen gradually over time, as people become accustomed to seeing the behaviour and it becomes less shocking or noticeable. It can also happen through a process of socialisation, where individuals are taught that the behaviour is acceptable through the messages they receive from their peers, family, and other social institutions. Examples of poor behavior that has been normalised include racism, sexism, and discrimination against marginalized groups. It can also include things like bullying, dishonesty, and aggression. The normalization of poor behavior can have negative effects on individuals and communities, leading to increased social problems and decreased well-being. It is important for individuals and society as a whole to actively work to recognize and challenge normalization of poor behavior and to promote positive and healthy behaviors. Most of these poor behaviours often stem from power struggles. Human behavior in respect to power struggles is a complex and nuanced topic that has been studied for centuries. One shocking truth about these power struggles is that they often stem from a deep-seated need for individuals and organizations to assert dominance over others. This need for power can manifest in many different ways, from creating new technologies to destroying the innovations of rivals. One often used real-life example of this can be seen in the case of the first indestructible pantyhose. In the early1900s, a factory developed a new type of pantyhose that was almost impossible to tear or run. However, before the product could be released to the market, the factory was burned down by competitors who did not want the revolutionary product to succeed. Another example of this behaviour can be seen in the case of the light bulb factory. In the late 19th century, the race to invent the first practical light bulb was fierce. One inventor, Edward H. Johnson, had developed a new type of light bulb that was much more efficient than anything else on the market. However, before he could release it to the public, his factory was destroyed by competitors who wanted to maintain their dominance in the industry. A currently popular example circulating on social media is the relationship between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Despite the fact that Tesla developed many of the key technologies that made Edison's inventions possible, Edison often took credit for Tesla's work and profited greatly from it. These examples all demonstrate how the drive for power and dominance can lead individuals to engage in destructive behavior that prevents progress and innovation. I posted about this on LinkedIn and asked professionals which instance they thought was reflective of success. On LinkedIn polls are only active for max 2 weeks, so here it is again, I will publish it here and see what responses we get over time. I will leave it up to you to determine the ethical standards of the mentioned cases, but I will say that ethics is complex, not because we do not know the difference between good and bad, but because we change our minds about what good and bad is based on our existential circumstance. In terms of ethics, there are often complications and challenges that make it difficult to arrive at clear answers. Three lines of thought that can be particularly challenging to address when evaluating ethics are: Utilitarianism vs. deontology, which involves weighing the potential consequences of an action against the inherent morality of the action itself. The problem of cultural relativism, which holds that ethical principles are relative to the individual or culture, and that there is no objective right or wrong. The tension between individual autonomy and the common good, which raises questions about the extent to which individuals should be free to make their own choices versus the responsibility of society to protect the well-being of all. Ultimately, determining whether our actions are ethical requires careful consideration of all relevant factors, as well as a willingness to be honest about our own biases and perspectives. It is important to understand the complexities of ethical decision making and to be open to different perspectives and critique. The most obvious challenge we face in making things ethically boils down to the ideals vs the realities. Ideally I tell you not to use dark design, realistically you may be a parent who must feed their child and have no option for another job, so you do as you're told. Our dilemmas are that even ethical people can and do find themselves in positions where they have no power or authority to realise their ideals. This is where power dynamics really start to factor in on the ability of individuals to actually apply principles such as ethical design. The story of the emperor's new clothes is a cautionary tale that highlights the dangers of blindly following authority and societal norms. In the story, the emperor is convinced to wear invisible clothes by a pair of cunning weavers, but the only person who speaks out against the deception is a young child. In the context of this article I'd like to juxtapose Gibson's Law & the Naked Emperor. On this level it speaks about the invisible titles and accreditations we wear. Some of the smartest people can sometimes act like the biggest fools. Further complicating that is the fact that a large body of our institutional knowledge lies in the business sector, not only because companies pay for research, but because most universities are themselves businesses. The issue here is that corporations do not center their business around serving humans, but humans serving it. L'Oréal tells you that you are worth it so that their products can appeal to your vanity metrics. In this way, a lot of the communication we get from the business aspect from universities also verifies us as more special than "unlearned" people and those who have not paid for, or were not privileged enough to study. Furthermore, while many choose to specialise and do one thing good, there will always only be only a few who understand how singular components fit together in the whole. This unfortunate fact is also why peer review is not always the best method to determine if a topic can hold water, just ask anyone who has ever been "diagnosed" with "chemical imbalances" or told that they are mentally ill for seeking freedom. Imagine for a moment a different story where the deception may not be limited to just one individual, but an entire village. Imagine a society where everyone is sold invisible clothes and there is no little boy or girl to speak out against it because they are themselves wrapped in the collective lie we tell our kids about Santa Claus and the like. In this scenario, the entire village is living under the illusion that they are dressed in the finest clothes, while in reality, they are all naked. This is how we can view ourselves if we professionals, who are meant to be the smart ones who are also meant to be rewarded for the value and impact of our efforts, fail to address the shortcomings and weaknesses in ourselves. The caregivers who prescribed antidepressant drugs that resulted in actual increase in suicide can't all have been evil, could they? They relied on information from knowledge institutions that exist, not in fact to make the most out of our collective knowledge, but to run businesses, which market and position themselves the same way business does. This scenario raises questions about the nature of reality and the ways in which we are all influenced by perceived superior norms and perceptions. It is not dissimilar to a child realizing that Santa Claus is not real. How can so many people be lying to all children? How can they all be in on it? It is a reminder that often there are forces that shape our understanding of reality, whether it be parents, media, business, education or any other body that forms part of society as a whole, from a young age, and we seldom question what we think we already know. When was the last time you checked if gravity is still a thing? If you witness a cat pushing a vase off the table, do you question what will happen next? Ethical design under two minutes with Trine Falbe, founder of the Ethical Design Network The movie The Matrix is another perfect example of how mental models and idealisms shapes our understanding of reality. The concept of reality is questioned as the protagonist Neo discovers that the world he thought was real is actually a simulated reality created by a powerful artificial intelligence. This artificial intelligence being the "fake" narratives we encounter in our daily lives which exists to appeal to our own shortcomings. Are you really worth it just because you buy from a brand? This is where the term "conspiracy theory" comes into play. For some individuals, the idea of a constructed reality is too difficult to accept, and they may label those who question reality as conspiracy theorists. This, in turn, creates a divide between those who are willing to question reality and those who are not. It also leads to the perpetuation of misinformation and the rejection of facts that may challenge one's beliefs. It's also worth noting that the term "conspiracy theory" is often used as a pejorative to dismiss ideas or theories that challenge mainstream beliefs. However, it's important to remember that many of the most groundbreaking discoveries and innovations in history were initially dismissed as "conspiracy theories" before being proven true. You can look no further than looking at dark design to find an example of conspiring against humanity as a prime example, which draws from behavioural science, including psychology. When it comes to the example of the "chemical imbalances" theories I've been writing about, it's easy in hindsight to see how such a humiliating and shameful situation can occur even today. A whole bunch of people were trained with a set of information that was not only false but caused a lot of harm, and yet these same people believed that they were and knew better. I hate to say it, but it's not just the mental health care industry that has these kinds of failures, it's in all sectors, and none more as dangerous and damaging as the communication industry, in which design plays a crucial role. It's me writing this article thinking, hoping, reasoning that I have some kind viewpoint that is valid based on my knowledge and experience. It's you who is consuming this information on a quest to discover something. It is us, the human race, in its full glory. For UX designers, the reasoning behind using psychology as a topic in this article is clear. We design for emotion, and psychology seeks to explain and rationalise emotion, so we use it as a foundation. While there is of course a lot that can be learned, it is of the utmost importance to also analyse the psychology of psychology if we are to become more ethical in our process. We who design for emotion, what exactly do we design and where do we lead people to? What is the impact of designing for emotion when we do not actually care about those who experience the emotions we create? The story of the naked emperor is almost 200 years old, but probably one of the best examples of user experience summed up in a single tale. For all creatives, innovators and designers, the cornerstone which defines our pillars of work today, must also be analysed, scrutinised and understood for its own weaknesses. This corner stone is PR, Public Relations. We may not be aware because we are trained by the same institutions, built by the same creatures, humans, us, that has given us Drapetomania in the past, and chemical imbalances in the present. If you want to be more ethical in your creative process, you must question your knowledge endlessly. Luxury beliefs is something which we must investigate, how it came to be and our role in it. After all if you look at the picture painted in the Emperor's new clothes, can you not identity with the cunning weavers? The emperor is your customer, user, or viewer. In the story he is some vain man of power and because people love to hate authority, we don't really empathise with him as much as the clever little boy. In reality he is your equal in many ways, and not only that, but due to the very real complicated and challenging nature of humans shaped by thought and emotion which spills over into our behaviour and it's output such as business and education, can you ever really be sure that the fabric that makes up your perception has not made you yourself a naked emperor at least partially? The sheer amount of misinformation and actual professional buy in from those studying psycho-analysis resulting in the wrongful drugging of millions of people throughout the last few decades, causing untold human suffering, should make you think about the unknowns or undisclosed known impact of our work. We don't know what we don't know. Even baby Einstein did not know how to do advanced math and had to have his bum wiped. Few would say that he was not a genius, but if you juxtaposed baby Einstein with a 45 year old with an IQ of 100, and based their intelligence on what they know, one may say the 45 year old is smarter because they can likely answer more questions. Context is key, and context is the product of existential circumstance. Coming back to that mentioned cornerstone, I dare to say, that we have a real life example of the naked emperor wisdom that unites much of what I've talked about already on various levels, and this example laid much of the foundation of our work, Eddie Bernays. "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society." - Eddie Bernays Eddie Bernays was an Austrian-American public relations pioneer who is considered to be the father of modern public relations. He was born in Vienna in 1891 and immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. Throughout his career, Bernays applied the principles of psychology and sociology to influence public opinion and shape public relations strategies for businesses and governments. He is credited with developing several influential public relations techniques, including the use of celebrities and influencers to endorse products and the creation of events to generate media coverage. Bernays's work continues to have a major impact on the field of public relations and his ideas are still widely studied and applied today. Public relations and propaganda share similar techniques for influencing public opinion, such as the use of media, emotional appeals, and shaping the message to suit the target audience. However, the key difference between the two is the intention behind the message. Public relations is a communication discipline aimed at maintaining a positive image and reputation for an individual, organization, or product through transparent and honest communication with stakeholders. Propaganda, on the other hand, is a deliberate and often misleading attempt to shape public opinion and advance a particular political or ideological agenda. Propaganda often uses manipulative and deceptive tactics to influence people's beliefs and actions, while public relations seeks to build trust and credibility with its audience. While public relations and propaganda may overlap in their methods, the ethical considerations and goals behind them are fundamentally different. ...ethical considerations and goals behind them are fundamentally different... That is the idealistic imaginary fabric many of us cloak ourselves against scrutiny with. The first reality crushing the distinction between public relations and propaganda, is the complications of ethics outlined above, and the very currently real occurence of dark design/marketing tactics that is demonstrated by the graphic above in many products around the globe. Companies have been fined billions due to violations against consumers in recent years. Much of our ability to protect ourselves from those who seek to exploit us, comes from those who are able to learn from their experience, and those who inform us about exploitation tactics used. If we fall victim to confirmation bias, while having our perception shaped in service of what someone who has no relation to or understanding about us let alone any concern about our well being, in a world where we have no authority over the course of our own life, how will we fight for freedom it this time? If you are would like to understand more about how propaganda and PR shapes our world you may wish to explore how PR formed Marketing & Advertising, and how Creative, Innovation and Design disciplines heavily supports, builds and enables the objectives and strategies thereof. It's important to remember that CID disciplines have some great and valuable offerings, but it can and often is exploited, like everything else. For example let's look at the case of the recent Balenciaga scandal? Are you aware of the myriad of conversations going on in and beyond a single image? Below I will include three articles about it, and I would like you to look at the headlines and maybe read the articles. Notice a.) who the finger points to and also take note of b.) the conversation tone. Balenciaga scandal - Brand issues statement, drops lawsuit as creative director responds to backlash. - Yahoo news Balenciaga apologises for ads featuring bondage bears and child abuse papers. - The Guardian The Balenciaga controversy, explained - Glossy All three articles makes light of the fact that there is no accountability for none of the involved parties although they all set a different tone. Yahoo news uses a condemning voice with strong words, The Guardian opting for a more objective informative journalistic voice by balancing words, and Glossy uses reassuring words (while also highlighting perceived positive numbers). These narratives are important aspects that shape our mental models, which is of course the source of our reasoning, with which we shape our ethical understanding. Here confirmation bias factors in too. Before it gets too lengthy, the focus point here should be examining the relationship of narratives from various viewpoints and what authority those voices have while taking note that in PR all publicity is good publicity. This is the shaping and managing of public opinion, and I can promise you that if you are reading this, more than likely, your opinion has been shaped as much as anyone else you are likely to encounter, especially if you have been to school, are an consumer, or if you have any opinion at all. What is ethical I ask you? How can you know that you are just in your reasoning of ethical behaviour? Typically we use ques from the feedback we get from those we engage with. I think we have a certain stabilisation factor to our advantage in that we could read all three (and more) articles outlined above, and to an extend draw our own conclusions. This case is a drop in the bucket. Aside from evaluating communication strategy and motivations from general stakeholders in a single case, if we want to gain some sort of understanding in the ethics in this case, we must go to the next layer, and this is analysing the persons involved. To do this thoroughly, each stakeholder should be considered. Since this is an article and not a book, I will shine the light on one only. To shorten it even more I will focus on only one aspect and it is one that is mentioned in the articles. Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia, often known by his first name only, was set to receive Business of Fashion’s Global Voices Award next week, for “using his platform to interrogate socio-political issues and support marginalised people.” This bit of information brings the human element back doesn't it? If he is doing humanitarian work, then it could have been some misunderstanding, right? "Minor-attracted person" (MAP) is a term that is sometimes used to refer to individuals who experience sexual attraction to children or adolescents. This term is not widely accepted or used in the scientific or medical community but is used nonetheless, by those who perpetrate sexual acts against children, and some well meaning professionals seeking to be more inclusive, less discriminatory and more modern. Some of the groups or communities that would consider themselves as MAPS, have been known to use this terminology as a form of grooming, manipulation, and recruitment. They use this terminology to make it appear as if their attraction is an innate characteristic, like race or sexual orientation, and that it is something that cannot be changed. (Again, its worth noting that this term too has origins in the field of psychiatry) Now let me ask you this, do you think peadohiles are marginalised? Obviously they are. Is this a human rights violation? The documentation in the photoshoot relates to freedom of speech! Knowing that we all justify ourselves with the reasoning of our mental models, as visible in drapetomania, and if you are able to empathise and place yourself in their shoes, is there anyway that you may be able to see (not agree) that perhaps from their perspectives, if their behaviours are related to "MAP" culture, the keywords support marginalised people, could hold two meanings? I'm not trying to say that is the case, but based on what I do know, I don't place it outside of possibility or probability. Makes it just a bit harder to find the truth, isn't it? For all the years we attend school, we are trained that there are right answers and there are wrong answers. Very little is taught about the multiplicity of reality in that an answer can be both right and wrong, depending on context. Funny word isn't it, con-text, like the writings of a conman, can leave you quite baffled. Did you think an article about Ethics and AI was going to be an easy read with clear answers? Now let's look at another brand linked to Balenciaga in some ways, Adidas. I chose this because of topics I have already been familiar with in recent years, so can link certain things together to project an image of a current mental model I hold without spending too much time researching other topics that may be touched on in this article. Adidas has recently been on my mind as a key player in one narrative I'm addressing. A couple of years ago (2017) Adidas dropped their "Elite" range of Predator 18+, significant because of a general term used to describe sex offenders - predators, and 18+ usual relates to adult content. Those are very loose things Candice, why do you tie them together? This should all be considered from the perspective of the victims. Narratives mean different things to different people. This isn't school, there are no right or wrong answers, only reflections of interpretations, this is where cultural relativism comes in. It's 2017 and Pizzagate is plastered all over the media. Conversations are going on about company logos and symbols related to Satanism and pedophilia, the story of Madeleine McCann resurfaces, the Me Too movement is at its height with many Hollywood personalities stepping forward and speaking out about sexual abuse, and Trump is sworn in as president, which comes with its own wide range of media including the famous grab a woman by the... coverage, not to mention the Epstein case. Because of my own employment at Foot Locker, Adidas is a familiar brand for me and because of that, their campaigns is close to home. If I had been in another industry, the brands may have been different, but as I said, context is key. 2017 was really a year in which my awareness of just how much narratives impact our lives started and why I included the Predator campaign. This is just the ad that popped to mind, but I can tell you, at the time, and in hindsight every other time, there are countless ads and campaigns like this. To unaffected people they have one meaning and less impact, to another it ties in on another level that affects their lives immensely. Sure, I'd learned about Bernays in 2005, and I had a module on ethics while studying law in 2004, as well as when I studied multimedia design around 2007, but it didn't hit home, it didn't sink in, until those topics hit home and my eyes opened to a new light. We don't know what we don't know, and unless you have been in this situation, it's fair to assume that I could never actually convey the truth about being in this position to you in a way that you may appreciate fully or understand wholesomely. For as much as possible I ask you to put yourself in the victim's shoes and walk along as we go through some key points of this timeline and relay the message. An oxymoron of a request if ever there was one. Now let's continue on and speed it up by highlighting a few headlines of each year that I can remember from the top of my head. If you are not a woman, and or you have never experienced abuse, it may be more challenging to understand the true impact of just these headlines, and as such I must accept that not everyone will get it and that that is okay, because in this article I will not be able to anyways. 2017 Women are speaking up + there is hope Weinstein I Epstein I Trump - powerful offenders in charge Pizzagate - uncertainty 2018 Karen movement - counters women speaking up in Me too movement Women speaking about abuse are emotional because of the nature of abuse and what abuse does to a human, remorseless male offenders shooting down emotionally pleading females. What happened to Dubai's Princess Latifa? - rising awareness of how mental illness is used as an excuse by offenders on many levels coincidentally I was in Dubai i n 2018 and the events surrounding that made it feel more personal. 2019 / 2020 Covid - Isolation & separation, disconnect from society Domestic abuse up 25% - Domestic abuse killings 'more than double' amid Covid-19 lockdown - 2021 “Landmark moment” as Domestic Abuse Bill introduced to Parliament + Biden Admin Replaces 'Mothers' With 'Birthing People' in Maternal Health Guidance - 2022 Roe v Wade: US Supreme Court ends constitutional right to abortion - 2023 Tory MPs to push for UK exit from European convention on human rights - I would like you to think about the ethical implications of these narratives, what it means from a vulnerable persons' perspective, where do you think we can mark ourselves as a collective human race on the ethical scale. What is the picture you get? If you had been the victim, what confirmations would you be reading in all of this? This is just a few global headlines, now add that to a more focussed region like a specific country, which I will do below using my experience. I, myself a foreigner in a different country who has been in a vulnerable position after my divorce and becoming a single mother, in a country which many claim has little regard for human rights as historically demonstrated through the slave trade and current affairs that may send shockwaves through any existing intelligence to know, but which I will not mention here because, well if you know, you know, and if you don't be grateful for the bliss, but here are a few headlines that may indicate at the bigger picture. Netherlands among worst nations for human trafficking, but number of reports declining - over 80% of the people trafficked globally ends up in the Netherlands. Stop the abuse of power in youth care, give the right to a fair trial by judges - false information is wildfire here and the judiciary system turns a blind eye Awareness about the abuse of parents and children through abuse of power and fabrications of events by "professionals" and the lawyer who lost her job defending them on the basis of questioning the fairness and ethics behind the true reflection of the status quo - to reason about ethical implications and human emotion is not accepted. No empathy allowed. The childcare benefits scandal: voices of the victims Polish court protects Dutch family who fled the Netherlands with their autistic son Netherlands violates nationality rights: UN rights committee Popular Dutch psychologist Diederik Stapel found to be a fraud - I've witnessed the falsification of information in several cases. Dutch child care subsidies scandal exposes country's systematic xenophobia, Turkophobia - rot op naar je eigen land is a term many white skinned people also hear here, it's not skin colour or religion related only. Report finds massive fraud at Dutch universities 8% of researchers in Dutch survey have falsified or fabricated data - this makes 64 000 researchers by the way. A benefits scandal sinks the Dutch government - Prime minister resigns. AI: Decoded: A Dutch algorithm scandal serves a warning to Europe — The AI Act won’t save us - supporting evidence that there may be an internal reason why the Dutch government victimises families and how relevant! Dutch gov't to admit to constitutional racism at Tax Authority The Netherlands is building a surveillance state for the poor, says UN rights expert Up to 250,000 names were on tax office’s fraud ‘black list’ - this especially felt near to me as I have at one point asked a tax office employee once if they had a note on their screens telling them to mistreat me. Data theft & exploitation by tax authorities and their employees - note the comment section Expats found to be particularly vulnerable to Dutch telephone scams - scams are perpetrated by highly educated individuals, who use the dark web to gather information that can be used to carry out scams. Sex discrimination in the Dutch workplace is still a thing: study About 400 cases of abusive workplace behavior in Dutch creative sector reported in 2022 Amersfoort man arrested for making deepfake porn of TV host Welmoed Sijtsma Police often discourage victims from reporting domestic violence: report Now after ALL that content, what are the thoughts that came to your mind? How much of that is reactive and on what level? As already clearly outlined above with the Drapetomania case, lack of empathy can greatly affect our reasoning models and ethics, so this could be a good exercise to test yours. How much of that perception or opinion has been shaped by stakeholders who may need you behave as you do to further political and profit driven agendas? Remember Bernays, and make sure to really synthesize what manipulating public opinion really means. The most relevant case is how a great deal of women were persuaded to become smokers. The Torches of freedom campaign is a perfect example of how narratives, using positive words even, can persuade humans to behave in ways that benefit others while doing or taking damage to oneself. Maybe smoking is good for us? But if you believe modern medicine, you may be convinced that smoking is bad for humans. How ethical is this case? This still happens everywhere today in many forms, but the most obvious is green washing and dual narratives. What evidently complicates matters more is the fact that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". As I'm writing this article, I am aware that by now, most have dropped off and only a few may still be reading. Two thirds of the remaining readers may use the learnings to replicate the behaviors and actions leading to the "problems", and only a select few are still reading because they "care". Care" because it matters personally on some level, which is not always a good thing, but can be, - and it can be good and bad at the same time, or fluctuating as time progresses. An organisation using deceptive tactics may care because it may not be in their favour for other professionals or others to be aware of certain things. "Care" also because it suggests emotion. Someone who has endured some injustice has a bigger vested interest in solving the causal factors and can get emotionally driven to act. Would you agree that there are certain biases within society regarding emotion? If you have studied business or academia of some sort, what is your opinion about emotion? “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.” You're not part of the masses right? You are probably part of the favoured global 3% if you are reading this... which makes up only about 240 000 000 humans. A collective of two hundred and forty million can be considered a mass no? The tiny little 8% of researchers in the Netherlands who fabricate information is just a small part right? Can 64 000 humans be considered a mass? And that is of course only researchers and only the Netherlands, one of the smallest countries in the world. I will 100% state with absolute confidence and truth that the percentage is the same or even much higher in other professions as I have witnessed with health care providers, governmental employees, those in the judiciary and legal systems, and most commonly noted, finance. What numbers does that total to? The biggest mass and most important of all, is the mass with the needs native to all live forms, those needs related to seeking survival. More concerning about the researchers is that able professionals are building on fabricated information thinking that it is just and truthful. How much of our information / data has been compromised? How much of it can we trust, and if reality reflects suspisions, how far away are we from the Naked Emperor and the Matrix really? While we are playing with numbers, here is a video for context. Every 1 person in this village would represent a staggering 64 000 000 (sixty four million) people. Take into consideration that every 92 seconds, another person is sexually assaulted, how many of those people make up the vulnerable victim we've been trying to empathise with regarding the mentioned narratives? And yet despite this, we are still enabled legally to create content and media which not only affects them emotionally, normalise poor behaviour, discredit victims, etc, but we may even be celebrated for it. Again, just how ethical is the world and its systems that *WE* create daily through our behavioural output? Coming back to the human center at the heart of this and the viewpoint we are addressing here, the perception of victimised humans, what do you think may be going on in a persons mind if they have been victimised, failed by the judiciary / legal system, medical and health care professionals, their governments and their society when these are the narratives sold? Imagine being a parent or actual victim of pedophelia, when confronted with the stories and visual communications, would you still view humans as an intelligent and mostly good life form? The sheer volume and magnitude of destructive and unprincipled or unethical behaviour present in our everyday encounters, which may or may not be intentional, clearly demonstrates that we are poor performers when it comes to living the ideals we promote to signal at our value or importance as a species. Offended? Why? Why not? A few days ago I read an article about a show that I have not watched, but understood the mechanics immediately. I will add a quote from the article below and invite you to read it. Comment below or send me your thoughts. “When a woman shows anger in institutional, political, and professional settings, she automatically violates gender norms, she is met with aversion, perceived as more hostile, irritable, less competent, and unlikable.” Do we see any links to Drapetomania here? UX SDTF Empathy map This is a simple map used by UX professionals to gain insight into users, you could replace the word user with human to change the dynamic and make it more meaningful in the context of ethics and human behavioural science. For the SD part, we can record these metrics clearly to an extend (framing and biases deeply impact how we interpret - *Drapetomania case study), while the TF aspects are more challenging and because of this empathy goes a long way to help find the truth. Empathy is connection, relation and existential understanding. Therefore I would reason the say that empathy is is a core element when diving into the deep dark waters of ethics, knowing full well that TF is something that we can not ever really fully know outside of the human in the center experiencing it. Now here is where we jump into the second topic of this article, AI. Our collective knowledge is thousands of years in the making. We understand a lot and can leverage the forces of nature to our advantage, achieve things which may seem impossible to any human just 200 years ago. And yet, we do not understand and are unable to explain the full being of emotion. One of the saving factors of humanity in relation to existential experience and human rights factors has been, and is, emotion. "Positive" emotions such as empathy, reasonability, affection, and "negative" emotions including guilt, shame, disconnection, all play motivational roles in the output or behaviour of humans in all situations from business, government and education to spiritual and personal expressions. If a human, company or organisation is dodgy and behaves poorly or conducts poor business, there is a chance that you may persuade them to desist by appealing to their human nature on an emotional level. This is a huge driving factor in why a collective may wish to eliminate emotion and create negative connotations to the perception thereof. There are many areas in our existence where it's best to make decisions free from biased emotions, usually they relate to factual understanding such as required by a judge to create a fair verdict, or a person who is trying to determine whether a specific action or relation is in their best interest, but the factual is not always just or right. It is a fact that some men may over power some women and violate them to attain some sort of pleasure, but it's the emotion we value when determining offense. What is of the utmost importance to remember when reflecting on the true vision of humanity in relation to ethics and AI, what Cecilia Scolaro said so brilliantly, is that AI is learning from us. All of our faults are captured by AI, but AI does not have the total capacity the human has, and while the human may be able to make judgements based on a wide range of sensual criteria including emotion, AI only relies on 1s & 0s. This begs the question, what kind of role models are we? In case you missed it, here is a recording of the event. During this session Claudia Muller from Ladies that UX Amsterdam, who moderated the event, asked 6 questions that are relevant for UX professionals. I'm working on publishing all the answers from all the panel members in the coming weeks, but in the meantime here are my thoughts. 1. There is a big hype around ChatGPT these days. Fears, hopes. What is, in your eyes, the discussion we really should have as UX professionals when talking about ChatGPT or, in a broader context, AI? ChatGPT is not anything new and there are plenty of other AI systems that are often even more specifically geared towards solving problems. When I started Design in Focus, I looked into many solutions to help me build the dream. Having been through a couple of rough years, I had no budget to hire the people I need to get to where I'd like to go. Using certain AI systems could by large save a lot of money. But what stopped me from using these products? 1. the cost, 2. awareness of data exploitation. While we are at the same cross roads that creative painters faced when photography arrived, or laundry washers when the washing machine came out, or any other originally manmade solution we've innovated, leading to job security fears, there is one major difference. The difference being the potential and capacity to reach a great deal of humans on a personal level and enforce tyranny on aan unprecedented scale. For me the question we should really really be asking is how important we really are despite what we may think. It's no secret that some tech companies have been exploiting our data and many of our peers have used human data to their sole advantage. At a certain stage of my life I was surrounded by many tech "nobles" who were on top of the world and untouchable, and we partied like it was 1983. Good timez, but sometimes frustrating when attempting to have serious conversations about the implications of what was happening, and somewhere along the line I heard someone say "why concern yourself about sheeple, we are the winners". Well now, what's happening to all the winners, getting laid off? I know, writing that was terrible, but intentionally done so as to leverage the mechanism that makes click bait so effective, to get you to react. I'm sure many good people, who had nothing to do with the dark patterns in business, lost their jobs, and can not be blamed. What I'd like for you to consider is the in group out group mechanics of society. What if you "got cancelled", and what if you became systematically oppressed? What keeps you protected or cements your privilege? <- Case study Teacher Jane : Blue eyes, brown eyes experiment A class divided Case study -> Sandford Prison Experiment Stanford Prison Experiment When tyrants historically and currently rise to power, society rises and attacks it. From very ancient history to just a few centuries ago, those seeking to position themselves as uncontested authority have always innovated mechanisms to ensure their safety from the angry mobs. From castles to walled cities, strong barriers always sought to keep out unwanted humans. With technology and AI, how can we protect ourselves from unpeterable parasitic ecosystems. If for example they are sitting on an island somewhere others cannot access, they control our behaviour, and there is no way of making them care? Is this really a far fetched idea? Here in the Netherlands supermarkets are installing self scan tills and has cut store workers drastically. With AI & automation the can cut all human workers and it's only a matter of time until we do. If there are no accessible humans we can hold accountable, how can we ensure that our food sources remain unthreatened? Do you think we can be controlled through food sources? Have you ever experienced real hunger or starvation? In the past we would have revolutions and uprisings. In the modern world this ability is being systematically eradicated. So as humans, professionals, designers, in the broadest context of AI, first and foremost, we must ask ourselves, who are we truly? When this question is at the heart of what we question, all other considerations will fall into place. *UPDATE : I found this very interesting article and would highly recommend reading it. Seriously, read it! One day I may (be able to) share my own downfall linked "tech bros" regarding conceptualising a new business & business model with an app a few years ago which resulted in years of hell. Briefly it was a corporate footprint tracker that could be used by everyone to not only measure the supermarket products they bought but also provide local or better products giving consumers the ability to control corporations and support the growth of small business owners. The organisation was a two part structure with one side working on the app and data, and the other with governments, professionals and institutions. The nightmare that ensued proved to me that the only reason we are not solving world problems is because a couple of delusional dirtbags hinder progress through abuse. I have no doubt that we can actually fix shit, and the only reason we are not creating, innovating and designing better, is because of the tyranny of these types of parasites. They know all about revolutions and that they are set to walk the same road the nobles did when heads started rolling in Europe. 2. What are the new challenges we can expect as UX professionals from technology like AI? For me this is a little bit like asking what challenges a finance professional can expect from a calculator. UX professionals like finance professionals play different roles and have different job functions. To get to an answer here, I think, we should consider a few things. Scale - traditional calculator vs calculating system (AI) Position - accountant vs financial forecaster Authority - the individual vs a collective Complexity - adding numbers together to get an answer vs strategy Transdlated to UX that could look like this: a.) A 1. Simple AI tool that 2. aids a UX designer to 3. design and interface for 4. a small business owner. b.) An 1. AI system that 2. aids a UX strategist to 3. plan a journey for 4. blue eyed people. c.) A 1. Complex AI system that enables 2. UX abusers to 3. analyse complex human behaviour & return "products" and "services" that 4. modify human behaviours in service of singular interests. To answer this question, we must consider a lot of variables and so it becomes very complex very quickly. 3. What would you say is the role of AI in creative processes? Claudia Mayer recently posed this question and : 77% voted 💡 Provide ideas/inspiration 34% voted 🖹 Generate copy/content 3% voted 🔍 Research user/context 7% 💭 Other (please comment) I was one of the 77%. Checkout the post to read more interesting perspectives. I would reason to say that the role of AI in the creative process largely relies on what we are creating for. 4. How would you say our work changes as UX professionals when thinking of technology and ethics? I would say the vast majority of UX professionals work with tech. Whether it's digital like a website or app, or it's physical such as a washing machine or car dashboard, we are mostly tech centered professionals. Above I have shared many thoughts on ethics and I have a ton more that cannot be addressed in one article. I've highlighted words and sentences in this article and provided many links. Ethics can be very challenging especially when many follow the "competition" without understanding what they are doing. Inclusivity and user centered design for example, sound like ethical principles, but the ethical implications of designing inclusive and delightful experiences for "MAPS" within family friendly products, raises a few fundamental questions. 5. Technology develops rapidly and as UX professionals, we have to learn continually. What would you say are the tools or skills we need to learn? One thing we must 100% actively work on is seeing the bigger picture. Many of these tools solve some problems, but think how they link together and how someone experiencing luxury mindset may abuse them. Remaining dynamic. That is the number one skillset for any designer, including UX designers. I can't say too much about any other UX profession because my main focus is design, but I would highly recommend that UX researchers do not fall into that 8% group that fabricates research results as it demonstrates a great lack as both a professional and in character, and the consequences can cause a great deal of mistakes. For UX conversational designers I would suggest imagining what it would be like to be part of the masses in tech being laid off. If you are designing a conversation that restricts people, what would you do if the shoe was on the other foot? Now for the tools. I'm far from an expert and these are just the tools that I've peeked into, so I'm sure you can find more extensive information from dedicated professionals such as Demis Hassabis, who co-founded DeepMind, Andrej Karpathy, Tesla, Ruben Hassid, founder AI Chat, Dr Joerg Storm, accomplished futurist, and Andrew Ng, co-founder and head of Google Brain. There is really a long list of people, but starting with these three will definitely pull you into the "new world" of AI and set you on course to discover relevant developments. What's important to note is that every type of design and UX professional will find different value and tools, the listed tools are mostly related to my focus points, Corporate Identity and User Experience. Figma, Balsamiq & InVision if you are a designer and not familiar with these tools, then probably your learning curve is going to be massive. These have been around for a couple of years and there are endless plugins and tools that rely on AI. ChatGPT : Bing will be leveraging ChatGPT features in the future and all Microsoft apps will have AI integrations. While it's not there yet, I'm willing to bet the next few years will reveal some interesting developments. Checkout this article on how ChatGPT compared with Google. Midjourney : I see a lot of AI generated images on my LinkedIn feed. I must admit that I find much of it beautiful, but in just a short time I can tell AI art apart from real art to a large degree. So, nothing will not stop people from using AI art which is cheaper and faster that's true, but when we group images in the same category, they lose their unique identity. As an Identity Experience designer, I think brand identity goes a long way in creating brand success. The general user may produce a lot of the same stuff, but that changes when you train the system with your own styles. So, to leverage the power of visual generative tools such as Midjourney, the average person may have a steep learning curve and must invest quite some time to produce something unique and exciting. For large companies this will probably less of a factor. This is a perfect example of thinking in context. How does it polarise the "haves" and the "have nots". Here are some graphics I've been collecting since starting this article. I did lose a few links, but you can view more in most cases. Some other tools that I'm aware of but have not explored yet are : Adobe sensei - UX attentioninsight.com - user research uizard.io - UI tricentis.com - user testing assemblyai.com - audio to editorial content mockplus.com - mockups colormind.io - colour theory Illustroke - SVG visual content Copy.ai - editorial content Dall-E-2 - visual content quickchat.ai - conversation design trymaverick.com/ - video content murf.ai - text to speech quickchat.ai - text bot sync.beatoven.ai - audio content beatoven.ai - audio content flair.ai - branded visual content patterned.ai - patterns visual content stockimg.ai - stock images visual content synthesia.io - video content research.runwayml.com - multimedia content app.runwayml.com - video content billygrace.com - marketing Github Copilot - for those few designers who still code. I have not tried it yet, but asm excited to start when time allows me to. *UPDATE : This is a far more relevant and interesting article by Stephanie Kabi which structures the tools more usefully. For more general AI tools, see this post by Dr Joerg Storm including 43 tools. *UPDATE : In the name of Pedia, look into the future, here is the AI Futurepedia. I have not installed it yet because I must still verify if I trust it, but there is an extension that may be useful for the creative people here. (Extensions can be deceitful, so always be careful when adding them) 6. How can we design for good (responsible) in your eyes, thinking of all the new challenges we have to face? Critical analysis & Pattern recognition will be key to making better choices. I've heard it a million times, party pooper, overly critic, "whistle blower", and it's true, we have become too focussed on "remaining positive", "living our best lives" and ignoring realities and threats. When you are asked to design something new, make sure you know what you're doing. This is a super hard question to answer because from my experience, if you really really do actually give a F@#% and do the right thing, you may end up like me, and that is not anything I would wish for any good person. I wonder if my platform will survive the publication of this article, because of what I've endured and know to be true of a great deal of "professionals" and "companies" these days. I've lived in utter terror and fear for quite a few years now, so it's just another day in the life of Candice Storm. Better people to ask include Cecilia Scolaro & Marieke Peeters. Read this article by Cecilia, and connect with her and others who can help you do better. What are the externalities of AI and why do they matter for designers? - Cecilia Scolaro I also suggest that you join the Ethical Design Network that was founded by Trine Falbe and join their slack group. Follow Cecilia and Marieke and people like Tiziana d'Agostino, Hayley Jackson, Michelle Scott, Alex Moldovan, Alexandra Zapata, Youngji Cho, Rita Moreira, Martha Kellerhals, Dhiraj Shelke, Dean Kruger, Hannah Covacic, Christopher Reardon, Floor van der Wal, Esther van Eden, Caroline Overgoor, and Thorsten Jonas to mention a few. I will add more names in the comments section and ask you to do so too. Also let us know what you think, if you have something to say or can help build a better reflection, why not participate in a multimedia content pice? We can create a podcast, web show, publish an article like this, or add some infographics. If you would like to collaborate to create more content and events, or work on any other something together, we can collaborate. To stay up to date, you can hit subscribe or become a member on this platform. It's free and we do not use or abuse any personal data in any way. You determine what you post online and can hide your account by making it private. To keep delivering value and making impact, we rely on donations and are seeking volunteers. And finally, if you are interested in supporting this article and theme or any other Design in Focus effort, please become a sponsor. How do you create awareness without inspiring the weakest of our kind to replicate the same mistakes? To me, that is one question that must be answered. I am going to finish this article now, but if you would like more, the next one will tie some dots together, if it ever gets to be published and seen, with existing criteria including deep fake tech, neuralink, AB tech, NLP, dark psychology / business / design as well as dissect some major trends and developments in which all is not as they appear. To end I will leave you with two pieces of content. 1. To make you think, a post by Julia DeBari, which I ask you to reflect on in context to what has been written here : We talk a lot about DEI in tech. There are ERGs (Employee Resource Groups). There are company initiatives. There are statements of purpose. There are company reports. I remember reading Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez in 2019. After reading that book, I was ready to leave tech. And it's not just about tech. With the advent of ChatGPT and other AI models, I decided to do a little test. I asked Google, Bing, and ChatGPT, "Which international soccer player has scored the most goals?" Both Google and Bing said the answer was Cristiano Ronaldo. ChatGPT said, "As of my knowledge cutoff date of September 2021, the international soccer player who has scored the most goals is Ali Daei of Iran, with a total of 109 goals in 149 appearances for the Iranian national team between 1993 and 2006. However, it's worth noting that this record may have since been broken or updated, as players continue to compete and break records over time." None of these answers is correct. The correct answer is Christine Sinclair, a woman from Canada. In fact, you have to go down 7 places on the women's leaderboard until a man would show up. https://lnkd.in/gE8NpvRQ. Granted, I know nothing about soccer or really any sport. But the fact is that when searching for data, men come first. In the book, there are so many examples of this. It is utterly horrifying. Please, please think critically about where your information comes from and think about why bias may be attached. And 2. for a bit of lighthearted (albeit what it is) fun with professionals playing with AI. Thanks for reading. If you would like to join this discussion, you can request membership and join the forum where we have a topic feed which you can find here : https://www.designinfocus.org/forum/ethical-design

Up Up Up Design in Focus > Experience Portals > Maria Helena Nunes Roles Pillars Categories Multimedia Designer Maria Helena Nunes Maria Helena Nunes is a designer specialized in branding and publications. With 18 years of experience, her focus is on the client's needs, and therefore they are the center of her design process. She creates a strong relationship between the brand identity and the workers, with the purpose to build solid brands and unique design products. In her practice she likes to combine modernity and tradition, using analog techniques and taking them into digital. TALKS ABOUT Media art, motion design, brand design, popular culture, experimental design, interfaces, innovation LOAD MORE LEARN MORE LOAD MORE ​ ​ LOAD MORE ​ Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Visit out onboarding portal to learn more about participating and making content. Would you like to participate? LEARN MORE

Up Up Up Design in Focus > Experience Portals > Sebastian Kind Roles Pillars Categories Music Producer Sebastian Kind Sebastian is a music producer from Ijmuiden in the Netherlands who sees music as a form of meditation and enjoys writing for the K - POP market. TALKS ABOUT Music Production Sebastian Kind on Music Production and the Creative process with Candice Storm Sebastian Kind 00:00 / 25:58 LOAD MORE LEARN MORE Sebastian Kind on Music Production and the Creative Process in The Human Experience with Candice Storm LOAD MORE ​ ​ LOAD MORE ​ Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Visit out onboarding portal to learn more about participating and making content. Would you like to participate? LEARN MORE

Impact Collective Since the start of Design in Focus in May 2022, I (Candice Storm) have found some of the most inspiring and top quality professionals from around the globe who are making meaningful and impactful change in the world. ​ I do not have enough resources to speak to and publish content with all of them at the same time, and therefore I've created the impact collective. On this portal I will be listing names and links to either our collaboration projects or their own projects if we have not yet had any conversations. ​ All of these individuals are actively working on many of the most pressing issues of our day and are well worth following or connecting with. Resources are limited but I will slowly be populating this portal. Please feel free to add to the list to help it grow. ​ ​ Collective Home Page Collective Members Orientation Topics Website DiF Experience Portal DiF Member Profile LinkedIn Robert Kozma Author : Make the World a Better Place: Design with Passion, Purpose, and Values Learn More Marné de Klerk Head of UX Learn More Jared Huke CEO Learn More Tiziana d'Agostino Ethical Design Writer Learn More robbie Farrell Senior product designer and workshop facilitator Learn More Candice Storm Identity Experience Design Learn More Cédric Fettouche Design strategist & Founder of Humanitarian Designers Learn More Claudia Mayer Business Consultant for Senior Designers / Design Thinking lecturer / Co-Design researcher Learn More Won J. You Founder and Head of Design Learn More Load More Robert Kozma and Candice Storm talk about Making the World a better place through design. Learn More Robert Kozma Make the World a Better Place - Manuel Lima Interview Learn More Robert Kozma and Don Norman discuss their new books : Make the world a better place & Design for a better world Learn More Trailer: DTR 01 - Sustainable Fashion & The role of Design with Dream Team Darja Jerjomcenko, Jeroen Jonkers, Xavier Sanchez, Linda van der Zwan, Mike Price, Tom Kneefel, Vera Charniac and brought together by Candice Storm Learn More Load More Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe We rely on donations and sponsorship to keep this platform and its efforts alive. We do not want to monetize it because we do not want to go the traditional media route. Care to help us make impact? Donate Sponsor Volunteer LEARN MORE

For those of you who will be writing articles to publish on Design in Focus (DiF), this post may be helpful to get you started. To start writing on DiF you need to first become a member. You can signup by clicking on Login. You should see a popup appear. Ensure that you select Join the network & community. We approve every sign up manually to filter out spam, bots, and other malicious type interactions. It may take a few days to get approval. This is the only reason that there is a required membership. We don't advertise to you, we don't allow affiliation paid marketing and or sponsorship in the members area. There are instances that we display other groups or organisations for example Ladies that UX, this is not meant as advertising in the regular sense, but informatising (if you accept that as a word) about things that have positive impact or value for CID people. Once your membership is approved and can complete your profile. Add a photo and some details so that other members can learn more about you when they read the article. Your article is visible to other members but also to the public. Only members can interact with you and only if you have set your profile to visible. If you also have an Experience Page, its advised to add a link to it for those reading on the public platform.

Visit www.wix.com and sign in with your user details. + Create new post *Please ensure that you are in the right navigation. The word post appears twice in the menu. Once below Forum, and once in the main navigation. Ensure that you select the second. The posts under the forum is specifically for forum posts and not editorial posts. On the top right corner click on + Create new post.

You will receive a confirmation email once your membership is approved. Keep this email starred for easy access to various parts of Design in Focus in one place. After you have completed the Member request and have been approved, you must signup as a collaborator, this way we can assign the permissions suited to your needs, as well as assign your profile with relevant badges.