↳ What this means for designers
We are going to hear more and more about the human consequences of the digital spaces we inhabit, such as loneliness and depression. Safety and privacy issues will also be debated fiercely, all the while that emerging technologies bring a new layer of complexity to these longstanding challenges.
↳ Where opportunities lie
While user interfaces by themselves can’t fix business maliciousness, designers can reframe design problems as governance problems to tackle deeper, systemic challenges within organizations. Even when the root cause of the issue is beyond our control, understanding and communicating how different parts of a system contribute to the issue itself will create clarity for decision-makers.
↳ How to prepare yourself
The issues we’ve been discussing this year—privacy, ethics, and the impact of digital products on people’s lives—are questions at the heart of our job. New information ecosystems, such as VR and AR, as well as the product tsunami that AI brings require designers to re-educate themselves and always be a step ahead so we can make product decisions that will not hurt other people. The best way to prepare is to make an active effort to be informed and educated about technological, juridical, and societal developments happening around us.