[Sigia-l] Are your intensions good/

[Dan Saffer]

On Jul 9, 2006, at 8:37 PM, Christopher Fahey wrote:

>  If your design thwarts
> user objectives but wholly supports the company's business  
> objectives, then
> you can still still possibly consider yourself an ethical UX designer.

It's all a matter of degrees. Forcing me to use IE to access your  
site is one thing. Installing spyware on my computer that causes it  
to report on my doings is another. And what if the business objective  
is to rip off the users? There's some skillful designers working on  
some of those phishing sites.

There's "unpleasant constraints" that annoy and then there are  
designs that can injure or worse. You have to decide yourself what  
you are comfortable working on/with. Lots of interaction designers  
and IAs work on military systems, for example. I have myself  
(although not for combat, which I would be uncomfortable with).

> User advocacy is great, but the business's objectives are often  
> just as
> important, sometimes more so. I'd hate to see our field evolve some  
> kind of
> code of ethics where we are expected to pledge undying advocacy for  
> the
> user's experience even if it means fighting the marketing or tech
> departments on issues where, in the bigger business picture, they  
> may be
> correct.

It's my feeling that poor experiences make poor business. Certainly,  
we all live in a world where compromises and battles are lost and the  
best experience is often compromised. But I wanted some measuring  
stick--a baseline--to use when making those compromises. How far from  
the best experience am I--are you--willing to go?

Dan




Dan Saffer
Designing for Interaction
New Riders, August 2006
http://www.designingforinteraction.com