Using decisive constraints to create design methods that guide ethical impact

Abstract

Numerous methods have been designed to aid practitioners in identifying ethical concerns, imagining potential futures, defining values, and evaluating existing systems. However, there is little scholarship that addresses the design of these methods, including how ethical concerns are operationalized in these methods. In this paper, we report results of an interview study with twelve ethics-focused method designers, investigating their process of instigating, creating, and disseminating their method. We conducted a top-down thematic analysis using the Biskjaer and Halskov framework of decisive constraints, identifying intrinsic, extrinsic, and self-imposed constraints alongside iterative and evaluative resonance-seeking activities. This analysis provides a rich conceptual vocabulary to better describe the design of methods for ethical impact from the perspective of researchers and practitioners.