Ethical Dimensions of App Designs: A Case Study of Photo- and Video-Editing Apps Xiaobo Wang 1 and Baotong Gu 2 Abstract This article presents an ethnographic study on the user experience (UX) design of the photo- and video-editing apps of millennial and Generation Z participants from different cultural groups. The case study calls attention to the implications of rhetorical misrepresentations of real- ity that photo- and video-editing apps afford and encourages future large- scale studies on the negative psychological and behavioral impacts such apps can have on users’ psychology, behaviors, and well-being. The authors use frameworks in virtue ethics to argue that despite slight variations, photo and video app UX has ethical implications that can negatively impact young adult users. For example, the study suggests that the photo and video app features tend to subvert the traditional Chinese virtues of mod- esty, honesty, and the middle way and that hyperbolic and playful designs can cause addictive behaviors. Keywords UX, identity, beauty standards, photo and video apps, virtue ethics 1 Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA 2 Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA Corresponding Author: Xiaobo Wang, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA. Email: xiaobo.belle.wang@shsu.edu Article Journal of Business and Technical Communication 2022, Vol. 36(3) 355-400 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/10506519221087973 journals.sagepub.com/home/jbt