The turn to practice in design ethics: Characteristics and future research directions for HCI research

Abstract

As emerging technologies continue to shape society, a growing body of work is engaging with design ethics as it unfolds in practice to better capture the complexities of ethical considerations embedded in day-to-day work. Positioned within the broader “turn to practice” in HCI, this paper brings together this body of work as an emerging research area, characterizing its motivations, conceptual positionings, methodologies, and contributions through a review conducted across a range of design disciplines and academic databases. The findings reveal a shift away from static and abstract ethical frameworks toward an understanding of ethics as an evolving, situated, and inherent aspect of design activities, one that can be cultivated and fostered collaboratively. We propose six future directions to establish common research priorities and stimulate the area’s growth. While the paper promotes cross-disciplinary dialogue, we argue that HCI research, given its cumulative experience with practice-oriented research, is well-equipped to guide this emerging research area on design ethics.