Refine the Students’ Skills Through Design Education to Create Ethical Products

Abstract

This article focuses on applying the ethics of the product features during the students’ design education. Good/Bad design term is a conventional approach to discuss the ethical/unethical design values of the products. It is noted that different aspects of the product design such as visual information design, interface design, and appearance design have a vital role in judging the levels of ethics in the product. So the students of product design everywhere need to practice the term ethical/unethical design during their study because designers influence society more than they could imagine. This influence can be done by creating an attractive organized appearance and perfect functions that support the ethical brand’s image to the customers. The interviews and discussions were held as a research method with the students of product design in some institutions in addition to some design experts and customers to find out their opinions about the design values that achieve the ethical dimensions in the product design. They can end up with products that carry ethical values in their design. The final article’s results are in the descending order of the different design values according to their importance in emphasizing the ethical aspects of the products, in addition to a checklist including some important questions that can help the designers to be more aware of ethics’ considerations in the product design because ethics is a process of learning, not a process of obedience, and to highlighting the term of ethical designer which in turn reflects on the ethics of customers and societies.