Abstract
As technology advancements continue to transform our daily lives, it is important to acknowledge the challenges and risks they can potentially create for users. One potential source of negative impacts is the perpetuation of developers’ unconscious biases within technology. Unconscious bias refers to the belief that we act upon our deeply ingrained ideas that we are unaware of, and these ideas can thus result in discriminatory behaviours towards others. However, despite the significant impacts they can have on users, research on unconscious biases within Information Systems (IS) design remains limited. Our study employed a qualitative approach to gather insights from practitioners into the different forms of unconscious bias that can affect the design process. Our findings point towards the risks associated with authority bias, blind spot bias, assumption bias, and stereotyping. Building on these insights, we present recommendations to mitigate these including diverse user engagement and contextualising the use case.
Recommended Citation
O'Reilly, Katie; McCarthy, Stephen; and Rowan, Wendy, "Uncovering Unconscious Biases in Information Systems Design: An Exploratory Study" (2025). UK Academy for Information Systems Conference Proceedings 2025. 29.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ukais2025/29