Ethics in health promoting PD: designing digital peer support with children cured from cancer
Abstract
Innovative design targets new user groups and application areas. One example is health promoting digital services. In such design contexts it is essential to take social and ethical challenges into consideration. In this paper we report from an on-going design research project aimed at designing digital peer support (DPS) for children cured from cancer. Peer support can meet the children's imperative need for social support. However, the design context is sensitive and gives rise to ethical challenges and considerations. We illustrate how participatory design (PD) activities can be designed to handle, ethical challenges when designing for and with children. We present lessons learned, including using familiar activities, using personas and including healthy children when possible. Further, we reflect on the need to proactively design an ethical perspective into the entire design process, introducing the concept Ethics in Design.
