This chapter takes a wide-angle view of the way the systems we design and deploy impact society and the world beyond. Every technology ultimately affects people, but this is especially pertinent when we are dealing with human–Ccomputer interactions. In addition, those involved in HCI, user researchers, UX designers, and academic researchers, may have a more direct focus on the people affected by a system than those behind the scenes, so they can find themselves being the ‘conscience’ within computing, noticing and then highlighting the unforeseen effects. Some of these effects are about direct interactions with technology, whether negative, such as worries about the impact of social media, or positive, such as involvement in HCI for development (HCI4D). However, the deepest impact of any technology is the way that it reshapes society and the world; for computers this includes issues of the digital divide and the way digital fast fashion leads to growing e-waste. A growing challenge for HCI is to understand how effective design could improve digital inclusion and offer better experiences without using ever greater resources.
Contents
- First contact
- Avoiding harm
- Machine Bias
- Privacy and personal data sovereignty
- Dark patterns
- Disinformation and deception
- Doing it right
- Responsible innovation
- Respecting people
- Explainability
- Complexity and conflict
- When good people spread bad information
- Positive action
- HCI for Development
- HCI for Good
- Countering digital harms
- Access
- Designing for all
- Designing for the margins
- Digital literacy
- Transforming society
- Digital transformations and externalities
- Changing economics
- Trust and truth
- Countering digital fast-fashion
- Chapter Keypoints
- Additional reading
Glossary items referenced in this chapter
access to digital systems, addiction, AI for social justice, AI suggestions, AI winter, anonymise, anti-competitive practices, API, augment human capabilities, avoiding harm, behavioural psychology, co-design, competence, cryptocurrency, dark patterns, dark web, data centres, data journalism, data protection legislation, data subjects, differential explanation, digital divide, digital literacy, digital native, disabilities, doing it right, e-waste, emergent monopoly, end-to-end encryption, environment, ethical approvals, EU legislation, European Union Convention on Human Rights, explainable user interface, externalities, fact-checking sites, free riders, global south, HCI for development, hidden hand of economics, i'm feeling lucky, infographics, integrity, MFA, mute wars, network connectivity, network effects, network externalities, nonsubtractive, not made in california, Not-Equal project, nothing about us without us, nudges, offline access, older users, over-reliance, personal identifiers, personal information, positive action, recidivism, reproducibility, responsible innovation, right to privacy, role of money!information, role of money!value exchange, screen readers, security, slips, stakeholders, stereotypes, sufficient reason, target function, Technocamps, transparent AI, user experience design