Dark by Design: Eurocentric Design Frameworks, Digital Harm, and the Practice of Emancipatory Alternatives

Abstract

Contemporary digital design appears rarely as neutral as it tends to be presented. The frameworks governing how applications tend to be built may reflect the values, priorities and knowledge hierarchies of those who designed them – rooted predominantly in Western rationalism, individualism and the assumption that measurable outputs constitute the only legitimate form of knowing. These epistemological assumptions may surface measurable harm for the communities they claim to serve, particularly those whose ways of knowing operate outside of that paradigm. This exegesis examines the structural conditions that may underpin Eurocentric design logic, names the harms it appears to generate, and demonstrates – through original practice – that an alternative may be both viable and necessary. This research situates itself within the practice of vibe-coding and communications design in Aotearoa New Zealand, and generated two original digital artefacts as the primary contribution: Prototype X, a two-sided web-based audit tool that measures Eurocentricity in application design against emancipatory principles; and x√r (pronounced “resonance”), a community-powered quest application built as a live demonstration of those principles in practice. The decision to produce both artefacts reflects a central practitioner insight: an audit tends to be a singular action and warrants a web tool; a community platform tends to serve a recurring need and thus warrants an application. This research draws on Indigenous epistemologies, Design Justice, the CARE framework, and liberation theology as parallel emancipatory traditions, and proposes an original seven-node taxonomy of measurable sociotechnical design harm – Performativity, Extractivism, Exploitation, Diminishment, Displacement, Erasure, and Reinscription – each corresponding to one of the seven deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth. The orientation of this research tends less toward theorising what ethical technology could be, and more toward the practice of designing it.