Justice and design

Within the field of HCI there are a number of preferred approaches towards design. As within other disciplines, these approahes are often irreconcilable. We explore the possibilities of using ethics as a way to bridge the gap and re-establish the design focus of doing good towards the user. This is the idea of 'justice' to aid improved design. According to Aristotle, justice is classed as a virtue: to do justice is to act for the good, wich is what is wanted for good HCI design. John Rawls's (1972) classic "A Theory of Justice", talks about justice as fairness, and it is in this context we apply justice to the area of design. We show some surprising links with HCI practice, and hence suggest some new perspectives on HCI.

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