INDUSTRY:
ETHICS & DESIGN CONSULTING
ROLE
USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH
SERVICE
CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH, CO-CREATION, INTERACTION DESIGN
TIMELINE
2022
DualEthic
Sustainability • Accessibility • Usability
Download Design Rationale
about.
DualEthic is a purpose‑built, interactive evaluation tool I developed during my graduation project, designed to help designers and product owners systematically assess their digital concepts against three core pillars; Social Sustainability, Accessibility, and Usability. By guiding users through carefully crafted questionnaires and providing real‑time visual feedback in a circular model, DualEthic makes abstract ethical and accessibility principles tangible, highlighting critical design gaps before launch. Each test phase concludes with a clear score breakdown and actionable “Tips & Tricks,” drawing on real‑world examples to inspire concrete improvements and ensure more responsible, user‑centered products.
challenge.
Design teams today are under increasing pressure to consider the ethical impact and usability of their digital products. But in practice, it’s often difficult to address these issues early on. While frameworks like Ind.ie’s Ethical Design Manifesto outline strong guiding principles, they don’t offer practical tools that fit smoothly into a designer’s day-to-day work.
That means important concerns like privacy, accessibility, or social responsibility often come up too late in the process. My goal was to make these complex topics more approachable by creating a simple, interactive tool. It guides designers through clear, targeted questions around areas such as “Privacy & Protection” and “Physical Accessibility,” then immediately shows scores and insights that can be acted on, without adding friction to their workflow.
approach.
I organized the creation of DualEthic into four phases: contextual research, co‑creation, iterative prototyping, and usability validation.
Contextual Research
I began with a comprehensive benchmark of leading ethical‑design and accessibility models (including the Ethical Design Manifesto from ind.ie and the DDC Ethical Compass) as well as relevant EU legislation and guidelines. From this analysis, I defined six key dimensions; social sustainability, physical accessibility, cognitive accessibility, usability, emotional experience, and data privacy. I introduced the concepts of “Human Effort” and “Human Experience” to enrich our understanding of usability.
To define the core values behind DualEthic, I compared various existing ethical models. After reviewing several frameworks, I selected the Ethical Design Manifesto by Ind.ie for its practical focus and clear structure, which helped shape the tool’s foundation and guided the breakdown into actionable principles.
Expert Co Creation
Next, I led workshops and interviews with ethics and accessibility experts, as well as with novice and seasoned designers. These sessions generated vital insights into user needs and preferences; for instance, 75 % of participants indicated they would use DualEthic primarily in the concept phase. Their feedback refined both the structure of the questionnaire and the terminology, ensuring clarity and relevance for a diverse audience.
Iterative Prototyping
Guided by co‑creation findings, I sketched flowcharts and wireframes in Figma, initially experimenting with a pyramid visualization. User feedback, however, prompted a shift to a ring‑based interface, which more naturally conveyed multiple sublayers. Across three prototype iterations, I refined interactions and distilled lengthy explanations into concise contextual prompts. Each cycle was validated through usability tests and adjusted to optimize cognitive load and visual hierarchy.
Design & Rationale
DualEthic delivers a seamless, end‑to‑end evaluation that designers can complete in under 15 minutes, ensuring ethical, accessibility, and usability considerations are baked in before costly prototyping begins.
Test Prototypes on Ethics
DualEthic’s core strength lies in its structured approach: designers proceed through nine thoughtfully organised test clusters, each corresponding to a sub‑dimension such as “Privacy & Protection,” “Physical Accessibility,” or “User Interaction.” Within each cluster, two to three targeted questions probe specific design considerations. This ensures that no facet of social sustainability, accessibility, or usability is left unexplored, and that feedback remains both comprehensive and manageable
Core value navigation
For my initial main screen, I chose a simple yet clear layout that encourages users to take their first action. By keeping this first interaction within DualEthic straightforward, users are both prompted to click through and reassured by the limited number of options.
The default interaction on DualEthic’s start screen allows users to swipe between the different core values. Each core value is explained with additional icons and a short description that outlines its focus.
Below the call-to-action, the interface also indicates whether the user has previously completed a test phase for any of the core values.
Input Methodology
The 'Test Phase' screens are among the most important parts of DualEthic, as the results from these questions ultimately show the designer how their product can be improved.
Each question or test screen starts with a title and a brief introduction explaining why this topic deserves more attention from designers or product owners.
After this, the user can submit their answer based on how design choices related to this topic are implemented in their product. This is done using sliders or checkboxes.
Sliders indicate that only one answer is possible, while checkboxes allow multiple answers.
Results Overview & Design Insights
The results screen is divided into two sections:
The first section presents tips and visualizations related to the core value that the user just tested their prototype on. This part displays suggestions per sublayer; in this example, screen 1 shows User Interaction as a sublayer of the core value Accessibility & Effort.
The second section of the results screen shows the overall results across all core values, as long as the user has completed tests for one or more of them.
In the overall results, users can navigate in more detail per test question rather than by sublayer. As a visual aid, the closer a bar representing a test question is to the center of the circular model, the stronger that topic is represented in the user's prototype.
reflecting & outcome
Developing DualEthic sharpened my skills in research synthesis, systems thinking, and visual design. I learned to convert theoretical models into practical, empathy‑driven tools that motivate designers to make responsible choices. This project reinforced my belief that UX designers hold a pivotal role in creating digital products that are not only functional, but ethical and inclusive. Future iterations will focus on longitudinal studies to measure actual behavior change, a Figma plugin for seamless workflow integration, and an expanded database of industry‑specific criteria.
