Colin Gray, assistant professor of computer graphics technology and director of Purdue’s UX Pedagogy and Practice Lab, and a team of researchers including Shruthi Chivukula, a doctoral candidate and graduate research assistant, are studying practitioners’ experiences and attitudes around ethics in the design of technologies. They’re also aiming to help future designers and technologists be more effective “everyday ethicists.”

The National Science Foundation has awarded research grants to Colin Gray, assistant professor of computer graphics technology, to study “dark patterns,” the name given to user experience (UX) design practices in which the designer uses knowledge of human behavior and the desires of end users to intentionally manipulate them into actions not in their best interest.