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« Designers ... materialise morality. »
Things carry morality because they shape the way in which people experience their world and organise their existence, regardless of whether this is done consciously and interntionally or not. Designers ... materialize morality.
Peter-Paul Verbeek — What things do (2005)
This might be winding back a little, but this is an other attempt at contextualising my motivations for researching modes of address. I lifted the Verbeek quote from a talk a come back to often, one given by Sebastian Deterding called what your designs say about you.
To give a brief recap, the speaker introduces the subject of moral persuasion. Getting people to do things, and questionning if and why these actions and nudges are moral and ethical. A few examples are taken from technologies or systems that indirectly aim to change peoples behavious in driving, teaching, working, etcetera. Is it a good or a bad thing that the Nissan MyLeaf dashboard, which recaps how (fuel) efficiently you drive your hybrid car, makes people engage in unsafe driving, not slowing down enough before an intersection, or not stopping at all in the interest of less fuel consumption? Placing game elements onto everyday actions, to convey a moral perspective often reveals indirect, unexpected actions.
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