“It's not just about the features of the design tools we use, but also about the moral implications of the companies behind them.“

Design is an indispensable part of the world we live in today. It’s practically everywhere - from store shelves to digital companion apps, every interaction is intentional whether we as consumers recognize this or not. It has the power to instill habits that become beliefs and drive actions. In the wrong hands, it can have long-lasting implications for how society functions. It’s been the case long before I was born, but it seems ever more intentional.

A Whole New World

Both as a designer and a tech enthusiast, I’ve been fascinated with free open-source software (FOSS) since I was a teen in the 00’s. By using an operating system that wasn’t Windows (MacOS was a distant dream back then), I found a whole new world where software was freely distributed and available. 

At first, a Linux-based OS was exciting enough, but when I peeked under the surface one glaring truth quickly became apparent - it’s a software built for every taste. You want your taskbar to be at the top? Sure thing! Add a cool animation when booting up your machine? Just drop a gif, tweak it a little, and voila! Every option, setting, or theme I could imagine was there ready to be messed with. The learning curve was steep and required some bravery with the command line. Having said this, the options laid out before me created a feeling of acceptance and belonging I’d never felt up to that point. I was part of a worldwide tech community that stood for freedom of choice.

Before I got into Linux though, my PC had a few creative apps from the Adobe Suite. Photoshop and Illustrator were a must, and I’d spent hours upon hours learning how to use them. Adobe was the coolest company as it offered a way for my creativity to flow into the digital world like never before.

How Software Has Changed

The 00s are long gone by now, and while I thought that the next generations would have a better understanding and an innate ability to handle technology, Gen Z got worse at it, rather than better. A survey research group Savanta reported one in four children had underdeveloped muscles and poor basic motor skills and believed it was due to excessive screen time. It’s no mystery where this phenomenon came from - it coincides with the rise of social media platforms and the exponential growth of their user base. Along with this, the barrier to access got lower, and so did the requirement for technical knowledge and skills to access the Internet or use a device. 

Social media platforms allowed for a global village to form, and while traditional media still holds sway over much of the population, social media has gone from a key player to a major source of news for up to one in three people. According to the Reuters Digital Report, as much as 39% and 36% of respondents from Thailand and Kenya respectively use TikTok for news. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, recently announced they will no longer fact-check posts on their platforms, joining X (formerly Twitter) in that policy. 

This has, in turn, driven social media users to more ethical decentralized options like Mastodon, Bluesky, and recently - Pixelfed. The latter’s developer posted both an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg and a Digital Platform Charter of Rights outlining what social media ethics should be about. In other words, what platform (or software) we use has become a symbol of our moral alignment and views. 

What Makes a Design Ethical

The same case can be made about modern design software and companies. Society is still debating ethics, and creative software isn’t falling behind in this regard. Ethical design has been a matter of discussion in the context of user experience design, but I believe this also applies to the framework behind the app itself. But what makes a design ethical in the first place?

According to Inkbot design, 5 pillars keep a design to the light side of ethics and help keep users away from dark patterns:

1. User Autonomy & Freedom of Choice
   Design should empower users with control over their experience, avoiding manipulative tactics that limit their options.

2. Transparency
   Products must clearly communicate how they function and how user data is collected, used, or monetized.

3. Privacy & Security
   Designers have a duty to protect personal data, ensuring users' privacy is respected and safeguarded.

4. Social Responsibility
   Design should consider its wider impact on society, promoting justice, equality, and environmental sustainability.

5. Accessibility & Inclusion
   Ethical design ensures products are usable and inclusive for people of all abilities and backgrounds.

They also warn designers to look out for ethical dilemmas that arise from balancing  user experience, business priorities, and social good:

1. Addictive Technology
   Designing for maximum engagement risks fostering user addiction, and prioritizing business goals over users' well-being.

2. Unauthorized Data Collection
   Covertly harvesting and monetizing user data without clear, informed consent undermines privacy and trust.

3. Algorithmic Bias
   Algorithms can unintentionally reinforce societal biases and inequalities, requiring designers to actively mitigate discriminatory outcomes.

4. Immersive Design
   Overly immersive technologies may have unforeseen mental health impacts, especially on vulnerable users like children.

5. Weaponization
   Technologies designed for good can be repurposed for harm, raising ethical questions about designers' responsibility for unintended misuse.

 I mentioned Adobe before as one of the coolest companies out there developing creative software. While they’ve set themselves as the industry standard, I’ve come to realize they’ve moved further and further away from ethical design principles over the past 10 years in favor of a for-profit approach. Not “cool" from where I stand.

The Status Quo

For the past 8 years, I’ve been a regular in Adobe’s After Effects software for motion graphics and visual effects. It’s a staple in the industry and a badge of honor for the company, as no other software in the industry quite offers this cocktail of features. Believe me, I’ve looked. And I’m not the only one. For the layman, the apps listed could be considered a full replacement, but in real-world terms, you’d need two or three to fully replace the functionality offered by After Effects. Yet, After Effects has been lacking in usability and this has been the bane of using the software. 

“Executing simple tasks in After Effects is tedious without buying plugins that offer essential functionality.“

Executing simple tasks is tedious without buying plugins that offer, in my opinion, essential functionality. Actions like duplicating keyframes across multiple layers simultaneously wasn’t available up until an update that happened as late as 2024. Offsetting the timing of multiple layers has been dreadful for years, with a dialog box that makes little sense, and requires you to do time-based maths instead of letting you focus on what’s important - being creative. Orbiting objects, or effects based on an area of effect called “fall-off effects” in jargon - non-existent. Tools to animate characters? Why would you need that? 

After Effects has existed since 1993, and while it’s understandable it takes time to develop and maintain it, taking 32 years to add crucial quality-of-life updates such as these shows a lack of knowledge or interest in their paying users’ needs. Neither sounds good for a billion-dollar company. 

Similarly to After Effects, all of Adobe’s apps feel like an old service machine with trend-induced upgrades that are being held together solely by duct tape. It does have a ribbon on top in the form of new AI features though. Thanks Adobe!

What Modern Design Software Feels Like

On the other hand, various design and animation tools have sprouted up that are more ethical in their business plan, and allow solo creators to learn and thrive. Cavalry is one such tool that’s built specifically for motion graphics from the ground up.

While I still don’t have a deep insight into how it functions, my initial experiments have shown great promise:

The preview is fast, complex tasks are reduced to a few clicks or a few tweaks, and character animation tools like AE’s RubberHose or Joysticks & Sliders’ functionality are built right into the free version of Cavalry. It’s been a blast having a go at it. I haven’t been this excited about a tool in a while. The fact that you could learn for free makes it even better. As an After Effects course lecturer teaching all levels of learning the software, the 7-day trial doesn’t quite cut it. While educational licenses offer a decent discount, Cavalry’s educational program does the same, but better by offering their free option for the app. This is how you challenge the king in 2D motion graphics.

The Future Is Ethical, Open & Authentic 

Boy, oh, boy, how the digital world is changing! As Big Corp is trying to devour every bit of freedom and human authenticity in this digital landscape, a dire need for a more ethical approach to providing a software service has come at a tipping point. It’s a future where there’s a possibility to connect with people through creativity by using ethical creative tools to do so.

I’ve considered deleting my accounts on Meta several times already, as many others at some point or another. Up to now, its platforms have been my hub to keep in touch with people I know, but it’s been a long time since I’ve truly connected with anyone there. Dropping fact-checking and promoting hate speech was the last straw for me and I’ve already gone dark on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Moving completely to Mastodon has been a breath of fresh air - there I felt a connection to people who feel genuine and a feed that isn’t designed to keep me scrolling endlessly. My nervous system has been thanking me ever since. 

“I find myself turning to ethical design tools that aim to democratise design more and more instead of the money-hungry mainstream options.”

I’ve spent over 10 years looking for design software to replace my workflow in Adobe’s software suite - I’ve given free open-source alternatives of all shapes and sizes a go. They’re feature-packed and provide a robust experience, but they couldn’t quite replace After Effects even with a mix of apps. For graphic design purposes, I’ve gone to Affinity’s suite and I use it all the time, but 2D motion graphics software that provided most or all of the functionality I needed, didn’t exist.

Today, I believe a combination between Cavalry, Blender, and Da Vinci Resolve can cover all of what After Effects can do, and more, in a modern, snappy, intuitive way. Learning new software is a thankless process, especially when you have in-depth knowledge of another one. Still, once I get there, I’m confident the possibilities before me will widen, despite stepping outside the mainstream. I could turn to teaching this set of apps instead a few years down the road to show up-and-coming designers a different world of design software that’s ethical, open, and authentic.

Conclusion

While I know most people will stick to Facebook, Instagram, and Adobe, I like to think of this alternative digital world that’s like a faraway island paradise. People can’t and shouldn’t be forced to change the software they run daily. This is especially true for our studio, or any professional design agency - forcefully ditching software that people are used to defeats the purpose of providing alternatives and giving these same people autonomy.

My sister, and partner in crime - Ivena, may not ever move away from Photoshop, Illustrator, or After Effects, and that’s perfectly fine. What I’d urge people like her to do is to, at the very least, give alternative software a try. Give Cavalry, the Affinity Suite, Procreate, Blender, Inkscape, Penpot, and Resolve a try. If it’s not your cup of tea, that’s alright. But if it so happens that it is, you may be one step further away from being stuck in a system that doesn’t work for you. And that’s a good start.

Sources

Pixelfed Pledge of Ethics - https://respectfulplatforms.org/

Building Ethical Social Networks for Everyone - https://pixelfed.blog/p/2025/announcement/pixelfed-announces-kickstarter

Design Ethics - https://inkbotdesign.com/design-ethics/

Reuters Digital News Report - https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2024

Adobe Suite Alternatives - https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@xdanielArt/112592844634910361

Savanta Survey - https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/children-starting-school-unable-climb-30898400