Ethical Design Fresco
Designers Ethiques' Ethical Design Fresco is a tool to raise awareness about the responsibilities of designers. It allows people to delve into questions to do with sustainable digital design and the potential consequences involved.
The workshop lasts two hours and includes a game-like first stage of brainstorming followed by a second phase to deepen the process and exchange with other participants.
Learn about the Fresco by watching the introductory video by Leïla Bouyssou: introduction (French).
What is a "fresco"?
A "fresco" is a type of workshop conducted over several hours and structured in multiple stages to explore a topic in a playful manner.
A wide range of frescoes exist, you might be familiar with some of them: the Climate Fresk, the Digital Collage, the biodiversity fresco, the new narratives fresco, the waste fresco, etc.
On this page:
Why make an Ethical Design Fresco?
Taking part in an Ethical Design Fresco can help with:
- Raising awareness about key aspects of sustainable digital design and the designers' responsibility. It can be interpreted in terms of deontology, inclusivity, environmental impacts, etc.
- Visualizing the main causes and effects between various elements. The purpose of this fresco is to ask "what led to what?" For instance, the "proliferation of user terminals and digital infrastructure" led to the "production of digital waste".
Who is it for?
- Digital services designers (UX designer, UI designer, Product designer, etc.);
- Anyone working with or alongside digital services designers (project leader, developer, product owner, data scientist, etc.);
- People looking to learn more about the stakes of digital technologies.
Who can facilitate it?
We recommend being trained in sustainable digital technologies to facilitate this workshop. Having already taken part in or led other frescoes (Digital Collage, etc.) is a plus.
What are the basic conditions to conduct it?
Participants
- Up to 8 participants making the fresco (sub-group);
- Up to 2 sub-groups per facilitator (in other words, up to 16 participants per facilitator).
Venue
- Quiet room(s);
- One large table per sub-group.
Duration
Total duration of 2h:
- Introduction: 15 min;
- Making the fresco: 1h;
- Practical sharing: 45 min.
How does it unfold?
Before the fresco
Prepare
- a roll of paper (or very large sheets);
- markers, pencils and erasers;
- a table;
- post-it notes.
- the facilitator's guide for the fresco;
- Printed and cut cards.
During the fresco
Introductions
The facilitator introduces themself and presents the Designers Ethiques association, the fresco and the way the workshop will unfold.
All participants introduce themselves.
Overseeing the process of building the fresco
The guide cards are then handed to each sub-group, who will have to think about how to arrange them in order to highlight the causes and effects between the different concepts.
Leading practical sharings
The workshop will conclude with a sharing session focused on more "practical" aspects. The point being to build upon the elements covered within the fresco and tackle concrete examples.
After the fresco
In order to continue improving this tool, we hope to get feedback from you. You can do so by email using the template available for download below (Fresco workshop analysis)
email: hello@designersethiques.org
What materials do I need?
Facilitator's guide: download the guide (pdf; 85 kB)
Facilitator's guide in card format: download the guide (pdf; 141 kB)
Guide cards in A4 format (to be cut): download the cards (pdf; 1 MB)
Fresco workshop analysis: download the file (pdf; 65 kB)
Suggested fresco outcome for "correction": download the fresco correction (PNG; 68 kB)
Help us raise funds for design and educational tools
Do you enjoy and make use of our tools and materials?
They are partly funded through donations. The fresco took six months to develop and continues to involve thanks to your feedback Every donation helps us go further and develop more design tools!
For each workshop conducted with this fresco, a donation of 100€ would be welcome.
For all questions, feedback and requests for facilitating workshops, please reach out to us by email at hello@designersethiques.org We will respond as quickly as possible.
What are the terms of use?
The fresco workshop was developed by Leïla Bouyssou.
It is available for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. No commercial usage is authorized.