IMT 500: The Information Management Framework

1. IMT 500: The Information Management Framework Autumn Quarter, 2012

2. IMT500: The Information Management Framework

3. Ethics?? • What is it? • An activity of appropriately relating means to ends within a set of constraints (Covey) • Is it worth doing? (ends) • Are you acting responsibly? (means) • Can you live with the consequences imposed by the conditions of your work? (constraints) • Professional code of conduct • Act in a way to further the good of society IMT500: The Information Management Framework

4. Some Examples • In the Hobbs article “Designing for Developing Contexts” how does the interplay between means, ends and constraints affect design? • Do you think that the constraints posed by the user needs are significant? • How might solutions developed for this situation be useful in other kinds of situations? • Is designing information systems for the top 5% of the population unethical in your view? IMT500: The Information Management Framework

5. More Examples • What do you think of Wright’s “Evolutionary Psychology” approach? • Based on status and reciprocal altruism • Actualized by effective social IA (ratings, personal information exposure, etc.) • But, he also raises the issue of privacy • Which do you think is more important? • How might you approach this in your professional life? IMT500: The Information Management Framework

6. Ethics Example (SIGIA-L, 8/30/2006) On 8/30/06, Challis Hodge <challis_at_experiencepeople.com> wrote: > > I've been into a few stores recently to look at self checkout. I've found an interesting approach in >the Wal-Mart stores I've visited (other stores may use the same approach). At the point where you >select payment you have choices that include credit card and debit card. Even if you select credit > card, if the scanner detects you have debit capabilities it takes you to the input pin screen. There > is no indication that you can hit cancel and then select the credit option. Though you can. > Obviously this is a business decision given that debit is less expensive to process than credit. > > What would you do if you're the IA/IxD on that problem/solution? That's a *nasty* problem... my IA instinct tells me that this is obviously bad. The user has indicated one choice and the system has presented another, presenting additional cognitive dissonance in a task that people are likely already wary of (auto-checkout). However, my business-facing side says that if the business wants to save money then we should do something to make them save money. What I would do in order to make the decision is to do some research on why the business wants to do self-checkout in the first place. I assume this is a money saving measure, but I'd like to get actual hard numbers saying that, per transaction, a self-checkout costs X and a cashier-based checkout costs Y. If X is much less than Y (which I imagine it would be), it would be on that basis that I would make the argument that the current interaction needs to be fixed. Its something that will confuse people and prevent them from adopting self-checkout. They'll go back to the cashiers, who are more expensive. If I had the luxury of time, I'd try to do some research to bear that conclusion out. - Fred IMT500: The Information Management Framework

7. Ethics Example (IAI-members, 7/1/2009) I was struggling with the upper layers of the site's information architecture. I had been for quite a while. It just didn't do a good job of making health benefits information—the stuff that's the VA's primary raison d'etre—easy to find. In fact, the existing design seemed to go out of its way to obscure benefits information from veterans, even the web-savvy ones that were starting to return from Iraq and Afghanistan in droves. Naively, when I raised this issue, I thought I'd receive a more typical response, something along the lines of "Yes, it's a huge problem for us, but fixing it would require aligning content from many of our internal departmental silos. But that's why we hired you, Lou.“ Nope. What they told me was that they didn't really want to make it easy for veterans—those people risking their lives for their country—to learn about the health benefits that they were entitled to. And that taxpayers had committed to funding. All to save money—and for what?? IT issue? Not. It was an issue of business model design, and this particular business model was shrouded in a sick morality emanating from the top levels of the VA's management structure. Absolutely immorally, shamefully, and horribly sick. http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2009/07/shame_and_disgust.html IMT500: The Information Management Framework

8. How Can You Ensure Ethical Behavior? • Leadership • Values and beliefs • Code of business conduct • Ethics committees • Training • Communicating ethics • Ethics audits • Appraising ethics on the job • Reporting violations • Enforcing the code Responsible Design and the Management of Ethics Peter Madsen Design Management Review; Summer 2005; 16, 3; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 37 IMT500: The Information Management Framework