NAVIGATING ETHICS IN DESIGN EDUCATION: IDENTIFYING SUITABLE ALTERNATIVES TO HIGH-RISK PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT

Aim: In design education, ethical challenges often arise when design research involves recruiting stakeholders for primary research. This leads to project delays due to increased approval times, suitability of research topics, qualifications of the researcher, or additional ethics committee approvals. As such, many undergraduate design projects may not be compliant with university ethics procedures. Therefore, this study proposes a framework that assists design researchers in identifying suitable alternatives to engaging stakeholders, especially those considered vulnerable, thereby keeping their research within less complicated ethical boundaries. Methods: Publicly available ethics committee protocols from European academic institutions were reviewed to assess frequency of REC meeting, project information required, and participant recruitment information. Ethics applications from a science and engineering ethics committee, and their feedback were reviewed for instances of participant recruitment. Recently graduated product designers were interviewed to understand their stakeholder requirements and ethical considerations, and potential workaround they employed when engaging with design projects at an academic level. Results: A co-design research model was developed to prompt researchers to identify alternatives to higher-risk stakeholders at two milestone stages of the design process: research and design validation. Criteria for identifying potential surrogate participants is also suggested. This model can be used to prompt design researchers to recruit suitable surrogate participants based on the type of project. Conclusions: There is a need for a more streamlined ethics approval process for design research, especially at undergraduate level with tight deadlines. The proposed model enhances clarity in the design research process, maintaining research integrity and improving ethical compliance while minimising time costs. By proactively identifying surrogate participants, researchers can reduce future ethical complexities, although this may involve a trade-off between research depth and participant suitability.