Gaslit By Design: Addressing Deceptive Design Practices Through Education And Awareness

This research examines the pervasive issue of deceptive design in the digital design industry, highlighting its detrimental impacts on user trust, emotional well-being, and long-term business sustainability. A course curriculum is created through the lens of critical awareness, ethical responsibility, and practical frameworks for responsible design practices, emphasizing the balance between user-centered values and business objectives to create a more trustworthy digital ecosystem. By interacting with design students and community engagement, the course serves as an educational platform with resources and a toolkit on how to identify and address unethical design behaviors through building and critical analysis of their work. Community engagement and critical analysis emerged as key factors in addressing deceptive design issues through educational pedagogy. Engaging with design students, the course is an educational platform to help participants identify and address unethical design. By engaging in participatory activities, diving into types of deceptive designs and having ethical design dialogue, participants gain a deeper understanding on deceptive design and its implications. Through activities like building and critically analyzing their own work, participants develop practical skills to create more transparent and ethical user experiences. The objective of this study is to establish a community of responsible designers, create frameworks of best practices and ensure, advocacy, and dialogue. Decisions that bridge design strategies and ethics must be made as part of a culture shift in the industry that values and adopts ethical design practices in order to decrease the use of deceptive design.