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Gamification: Are we really enhancing or just manipulating?
Ethics of design & gamification.
Yes, we, as a society, are talking about ethics, but, like many things, we need to be talking about it more. This rings especially true in this era of mass data collection and the increasing power of machine learning to process, draw conclusions, and act on this raw data. And, as designers, like it or not, we are on the frontline of these discussions. We make design decisions every day as to how we’re allowed to convince, lead, or, in some cases, manipulate humans to act in a certain way.
It’s “not that product designers don’t care about the ethical ramifications of their work — far from it. It’s that, too often, they assume that such considerations fall outside of their job description.” (Sgarro, 2018). We care, it’s just easier to pass the responsibility to the futurists, technologist, scientists, or others that are seen as directly pushing these boundaries by developing the technology and visions for our future.
We need to take it seriously that all of these 'tiny' decisions, these quick choices, we make on a daily basis pile up and create a larger philosophy that we cannot be blind to our influence of. Small design decisions impact big design philosophies.
