More-than-human ethics: Exploring ethical mediation in UX design practice

Ethics are enacted and values are inscribed by designers in user experience (UX) practice. Using a human-centric approach, UX practitioners focus on human values and ethical implications for technology users. Meanwhile, HCI and design researchers explore how ethics are performed by designers and investigate additional approaches for realizing social values through design. Recent scholarship also explores the roles of nonhumans in shaping and participating in design practice. In this study, I develop a conception of design ethics that is co-constituted and co-enacted by humans and technological artifacts by drawing on actor-network theory, postphenomenology, and designing-with. This research is based on ethnographies of two professional UX design projects at a digital design agency. I conclude with open questions for the doctoral consortium about possible generative opportunities for this research that build on my conceptual and analytical work.