Humane Information Architecture is based on a fair whack of social conscience - that is, it is based on the idea that design professionals should always strive to do good with their work. For a start this means doing no harm - not allowing people to come to harm as a result of the designer’s actions, or through inaction on their part.
As bloggers, I believe that we have a responsibility to our readers - to be of service, to work to improve their lives as well as our own.
A while back I criticised John Chow for not showing humanity in his blogging. Where do I think that John went wrong? Where was he doing harm? By arguing that minimum wage payments cause unemployment I believed that he was advocating a return to dog-eat-dog tribalism - that we should look after our own families first and last, with no care for the people down the street or in the country next door. I think that we’ve (thankfully) moved beyond that.
Blogging with humanity is not easy. It means staying away from prejudices and ideas that reinforce them. It means thinking about the implications of what you write, the effect it might have on the people who read it.
I wouldn’t claim to have always blogged with humanity. But I think that it is something worth aspiring to.
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