Where justice and design intersect

- Imagine you know nothing of your status in a future society. You don't know what level of violence will haunt your neighborhood. You don't know if you'll be a minority, the chronically impoverished, or the established elite. Now, with all you don't know, make a decision about the role justice should play in that society. If you had the opportunity to frame its laws of justice, how would you determine a fair baseline for all? Philosopher John Rawls introduced this thought experiment to identify what he called an original position for people to take while objectively considering principles of justice. Rawls examines fundamental laws of justice that could be agreed on from behind this veil of ignorance when the benefit of knowing our personal position in society would not influence what we thought to be just. From this starting point, Rawls builds an argument around the idea of justice as fairness, and articulates three objective principles, the greatest equal liberty principle, where all people are provided the greatest amount of freedom they can attain as long as it doesn't take away from the freedom of others, the difference principle, where justice provides the greatest benefit to the most disadvantaged, and the equal opportunity principle, where the status of a person or group never in and of itself limits the opportunities provided to them. Power and justice are not topics designers are in the habit of discussing. When challenged on this, many designers respond by claiming they aren't experts in the area, and so any suggestion we should insert the subject into our work is irresponsible. But this is a disingenuous argument for at least two reasons. First, designing any product, service, or system has larger repercussions. Analyzing the social and environmental impacts of the life cycle of something as simple as a tee shirt reveals just how many lives it touches. Secondly, we designers pride ourselves on the ability to probe the human condition through human-centered design. We often claim empathy as a core skill. To make such a claim, only to ignore the people who exist beyond the design-client-user relationship is hypocritical. Designers interested in social innovation have to do the work of acknowledging our own role in unwittingly perpetuating a world fraught with environmental degradation and systemic injustice. Rawl's original position and veil of ignorance can help us ground an objective sense of justice. And we shouldn't look away from the insights they provide.