Method-Resonance Heurisitcs

“Method-Resonance Heuristics'' is an evaluation-based activity where practitioners will be provided with designed method heuristics tags to evaluate existing ethics-focused methods designed for design work. According to the A.E.I.O.yoU model, this activity seeks to evaluate ethics-focused supports at an artefact (A) level.

“I want to evaluate a method I want to use to build ethical design products.”

15-20 minutes

Method Heuristics, Evaluation Worksheet, List of Ethics-focused methods, Pens, Post-its.

Method Heuristics in the form of : Intention Cards, Phase Cards, Ecological Heuristic Tags, Artefact Heuristic Tags

Method Heuristics in the form of : Intention Cards, Phase Cards, Ecological Heuristic Tags, Artefact Heuristic Tags

Method Evaluation worksheet to place the chosen method and apply Heuristics on it

Method Evaluation worksheet to place the chosen method and apply Heuristics on it

Example of evaluating a method called Ethical Contract by Jet Gipsen

Example of evaluating a method called Ethical Contract by Jet Gipsen

Using Intention Cards and Phase Cards to evaluate Ethical Contract by Jet Gipsen

Using Intention Cards and Phase Cards to evaluate Ethical Contract by Jet Gipsen

[...contd] Using Ecology and Artefact Heuristic Tags to evaluate the selected method

[...contd] Using Ecology and Artefact Heuristic Tags to evaluate the selected method

Potential outcome of this toolkit

Potential outcome of this toolkit

STEPS

Familiarize yourself with the Method Heuristics provided to evaluate a method.

Select/ Identify an ethics focused method that you want to evaluate or currently using in your team. Here is a list of ethics focused methods.

Evaluate the method using this worksheet by:

  • Placing Intention Cards and matching them to the Design Phase (cards) the method can be used in.

  • Bookmarking on the method with Ecology Heuristic Tags and Artefact Heuristic Tags.

Reflect, tweak, and edit to identify how the method can be tweaked to be used in your ecological setup for ethical decision making.

Some questions you can reflect on as you filter:

  • How many and all ways can this method help us through ethical decision making?

  • When and where can I use this method to guide me/us through ethical decision making?

  • How is/not this method fit with our organizational practices?

  • What ways can this method be re-designed to fit my team work or workplace settings?

  • Is this method approachable for me/us and understandable?

  • What ways is this method practice resonant or not as it fits into my workplace?

    + Create your reflective questions for yourself/team

  • A Product Manager said...

    “We feel we could use the toolkit’s method in our everyday practice as a communicative method, a checkpoint, a method to sit down together and think about personal values and corporate values, and as a tool for identifying who is responsible. Then the objective can be to make an ethical decision.”

  • A Software Engineer reflected...

    “Why I was keenly interested in using this toolkit is that most of the time I feel that my work is very low level. So it’s hard for me to see the ethical consequences of it. By engaging in co-creation activities of the Heuristics toolkit, I could reflect on my ethical actions and responsibilities.”

  • A Product Manager reflected...

    “I could use the Method-Resonance Heuristics toolkit as a way to bring everyone on board and make sure that I have everyone’s wisdom and also to not be solely responsible for doing something unethical.”

  • A UX Designer communicated...

    “By performing the Heuristic toolkit’s activity, I have realized that, till now, I have not done a good enough job of making value-based decisions and conversations more explicit for sharing across product teams. So that’s something that I want to do in the future of my work that came out of this activity.”

  • A Software Engineer felt...

    “After performing these co-creation activities, I feel more confident in voicing out to the Product Managers about possible consequences of the designed solutions. It made me recognize specific practices that I would like to change or improve in their current ways of ethical action, responsibility and decision-making.”

  • Software Engineer expressed...

    “The co-creation activity in the toolkit provided me with a space to look back at my design steps and start to think that the company should pay a lot more attention than just focusing on one specific core value. So I would say expanding the working process in terms of ethical issues would be beneficial for both client side and the component side. That is a new revelation for me.”

Explore further by…

You can explore further by engaging with variations of this toolkit shown in the schema.

V1 - Version 1

Want to evaluate a new ethics-focused method?
In the process of designing a product or changes to your team, you wanted to evaluate a new method you found to see how it might or not fit in your context to build ethical products.


V2 - Version 2

What to try new methods in your design process or team?

After evaluating one or more methods using the method heuristics, you can contrast the change in the methods you are currently using to use them differently or new ones in the future.


V3 - Version 3

Are you looking for some team-based changes towards ethical decision making? 

Similarly you can do the same exercise in your team. You can do the exercise in a group with different team members bringing a new method and trying to evaluate, compare, and contrast best supports moving forwards for each other for ethical decision making.


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