Ethics + Education + Power + Design with Mike Monteiro — DT101 E114

Mike Monteiro is a designer and the author of Ruined By Design, You're My Favorite Client, The Collected Angers, and the newly-revised Design is a Job.

Listen to learn about:

>> Mike’s book, Design is a Job
>> Ethics in design
>> Designing society so that ethical behavior becomes the norm

Our Guest

Mike Monteiro is the co-founder and design director of Mule Design. He mostly writes these days. His latest book is the second edition of Design Is a Job.

Show Highlights

[00:39] How Mike got into design during graduate school.
[03:54] His first job in desktop publishing and printing taught him to measure work in 30-minute increments.
[06:04] Moving into writing books.
[07:32] Mike’s book, Design is a Job, was written to help designers with the ins and outs of being a professional designer.
[10:57] Why Mike felt it was time to revise the book.
[13:23] The “revised” edition changed so much, it’s basically a different book.
[14:33] Mike talks about some of the new ideas in the revised edition.
[15:12] Designers moving from contractors to employees.
[18:02] The importance of ethical behavior and ethical decisions.
[18:15] Mike’s butcher metaphor.
[24:35] What companies and society can do to create an environment that encourages ethical behavior.
[26:52] The first steps on the path to a more ethical world.
[30:58] Finding his place in the semi post-pandemic world.
[34:13] Knowing when it’s time to get off the stage.
[35:48] Speaking only if you can improve the silence.
[37:05] Getting older and realizing the value of listening.
[38:34] How do we redesign power so that it can inoculate itself against power’s darker aspects
[42:14] The messiness of the world today, and how should designers work within that world to make it a better place?
[45:07] There is always a cost to the ethical choice.

Links

Mike on Twitter
Mike on Medium
Mule Design
Mule Design on Twitter
Ruined By Design
Creative Mornings Podcast, F*ck You, Pay Me with Mike Monteiro
Creative Mornings HQ: Let's Make Mistakes
Intercom: Mule Design’s Mike Monteiro on responsibility in experience design
Invision: Mike Monteiro: Design is Political
Creative Bloq: Why designers need to stick to their guns
Webstock ‘13: Mike Monteiro - How Designers Destroyed the World
Interview with Mike by Clearleft

Books By Mike Monteiro

Design is a Job
You’re My Favorite Client
Ruined By Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It
The Collected Angers

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Design for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50
Cognitive Bias + Ethics + Dreaming the Future of Design with David Dylan Thomas — DT101 E112