[Sigia-l] conflict of interest (was: usability testing)

[Olly Wright]

On ThursdayJan 25, at 2:23 PM, Bruce Melendy wrote:

> I'd go so far as to say that interest = bias. And who doesn't have  
> at least one interest?

On SundayJan 28, at 8:42 AM, jamie foggon wrote:

> Having a bias is not something that can be measured, it just means  
> that someone's viewpoint or behaviour cannot be taken as neutral


Yes. And surely this is why designers get hired in the first place?  
We get hired for our biases. I readily admit to being very biased  
about a huge list of things to do with web design, and it's these  
personal beliefs and opinions that get me hired.

I do try to make it a habit to state my conflicts of interest up- 
front with my clients. And often the conflict of interest is the  
reason I want to do the project in the first place: "I want to do  
this project for you because I'm going to get X and Y out of it too".  
Clients can be more confident that they'll get high quality work from  
you when they know how motivated you are.

But maybe we need a Zen school of meditative ego-less IA? Buddhist  
monks as business consultants! Yogic usability testers!

Olly Wright