User-centered design methods focus on giving users what they seem to want. But approaches like design thinking can lead practitioners to ignore potential harms or fail to adequately consider ethical design principles. Companies can be innovative while minimizing such risks by putting mission and values at the forefront of the design process, being mindful of how KPIs or other incentives may influence design choices, and pausing to consider a product's potential broad impact before scaling. For years, social media companies have come under fire for promoting divisive, false, and dangerous content in order to monetize user engagement. But in March, when a jury in Los Angeles Superior Court found Meta and Google liable for causing harm to users due to the addictive nature of their products, the verdict put the focus not on content but on the companies' deliberate design choices. What stands out to us in considering the implications of the court decision is that even absent a willfully...
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