Today, we’re experiencing the feeling of rapid change. We stand at the cusp of radical technological innovation: machines are becoming intelligent, media is becoming synthetic, robotics are changing the way we live and work, and gene editing is about to change our very biology.
Society needs to equip itself with the ability to think about the future in a structured and systemic way in order to anticipate possible issues. The role of designers in this is key, and yet in recent years we’re witnessing something quite different. Agile development loops are becoming faster, data is becoming ubiquitous, and incremental iterative practices are starting to become automated. In the process, design can sometimes disappear into the mechanics of feature development. In short: our foresight is shortening.
The consequences of ‘act first, ask questions later’ approaches to technology are becoming apparent: from pre-existing biases in training data, to election hijacking, social polarisation and mental wellbeing issues, today there’s no shortage of stories making the news headlines.
Filippo Cuttica is the UX Principal for Ethical Experiences at the BBC, and his approach to ethics passes via futures thinking. He believes that we can’t build desirable futures if we don’t imagine them first. In his years of experience at the BBC, as well as a faculty of Future Casting at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, he’s had the chance to learn, think, apply and test several methodologies borrowed from the fields of strategic foresight and speculative design ‘in the trenches’ of a big organisation, to drive ethical debate as well as strategic conversations. In this talk, he’ll share some of his key learnings, principles and lessons learnt.
Live via Zoom.
This talk is worth 1 SDC study point.
Case study, ethics, futures thinking, systems thinking
Filippo Cuttica (Italy) works at the BBC in London as the UX Principal for Ethics, helping the organisation to dream and shape desirable futures. His approach to ethics interlinks futures thinking and human-centred design.
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