Blog Post #3: Re:Universal Ethics" (Omar Malkawi)


In response to Brody Walsh’s post “Blog Post #3: Universal Ethics”

As Brody mentioned, I agree that the IDEO Little Book of Design Research was a great resource to understanding the level of respect and understanding that interventions like this require. As he mentioned, attempting to foresee an issue as specific as the structure of a specific connection in his installation is the level of focus such interventions require. Even though we are only deploying the interventions for a few days on a tight budget, we have to ensure that the physical objects or non-physical affects do not cause any harm to any person. For our way-finding intervention, we are hanging objects from great heights and should be very pre-cautious of the objects falling and injuring any person. The signs used will also capture the attention of the users of the non-housing court services in the building, therefore the sign must not waste their time by misguiding them when they could be going through a stressful time.


We suggested a “translating” the Notice to Quit Document as soon as we found out what the phrase means (Many of us, including myself, found the mere title of the document confusing as it is made up of legal “jargon”). It would have been great if we could somehow use that document itself to guide the users of the court before they even step a foot into the building. Given the complex process of re-writing that document, we focused on the way-finding aspect of our intervention. I also agree with Brody’s comment on the application of the IDEO book to a multi-disciplinary audience. The IDEO book is relatively short in comparison to other books on the matter of design ethics, but I believe an even shorter more general version can be produced that can be concise enough to be understood by the general public. The ethics discussed in the book can apply to every single person that intends to change the world around them, on any scale. Brody aptly used the title of "Universal Ethics" as I assume if everyone followed this set of ethics, the world would be a better place.