10 indicators of an ethical designer

Last month, I was invited to be interviewed on CityTv’s Breakfast TV and also made a presentation about web design at the Vancouver Public Library (Unrelated aside to this article: you can download a PDF version of my presentation about web design here). The library event was well attended with approx 75 people who were generally fit into two audience categories.

1. Business owners looking to design or redesign their business websites or
2. Potential practitioners looking to either enter the web design field as newbies or gain some technical know-how on refining their current skillset.

My email inbox continues to have a steady influx of people looking to either ask for additional advice or enquire about how DesignStamp can help them with their redesign efforts.

Most small business owners have a limited budget to spend on their web efforts and sometimes are not even sure why and how a website should be part of their marketing mix. Some start out by hunting for deals, cheap resources that will help get an online identity for their business. The driving logic is “Why should I spend a huge hunk out of a limited kitty if I am not even sure why I am spending this money in the first place”. I will go into those reasons in another article but for now I need to address a more burning issue. That of ethics.

Being an ethical designer and more importantly hiring an ethical designer. Ethical designers may not be the cheapest designer in town and clients who search by price can sometimes fall prey to unethical designers. I write this article to people who may have asked “how much” before asking anything else. I also address this to fellow designers and hope that we are all respecting what we do, and how we do it.

Clients who respect the value of ethics are our favorite clients. Most of our clients grow to value our process and input and understand that we don’t just push pixels for a living. We don’t shove our ethics down our clients throat because we believe it is important that everyone’s collective attention remain on the product being designed not on our philosophies or professional belief system. However, sometimes it becomes important to steer conversations towards our principles.

Our guiding principles focus on the word Respect. Respect for our client. Respect for our product and respect for ourselves.

Indicators that the designer you have hired is ethical.

1. They are able to prove value. A designer should not only make things that look good but also be able to help explain the value of what they design in a larger context. They can help you answers questions such as: Why is a website important to your business? How can you distinguish yourself from your competition? How can you prove benefit to your target audience?
2. They do not work for free. Hard to believe it but some designers will actually create mockups for free. These designers tend to be self-taught armchair designers who are unclear of the value of their own work and will give away generic work in the hopes of generating a portfolio or getting clients who can’t afford professional designers. A designer should not pitch work for free. You, as a client, may expect a proposal of features and benefits for free but you should not expect proposed designs for free. More at no-spec.com.
3. They cannot design in a vacuum. Beware of designers who are able to promise that they can make you a good looking website without even talking to you first. Chances are they are providing you with a template design that may look good but does not speak to your specific needs (both from a business or audience perspective)
4. They are unable to steal. Simply put they will be inspired by the work of others but will never blatantly steal code or images to create identical work for you. Its one thing to copy functionality if you believe that something work’s well. Competition is healthy but stealing is not.
5. They will not undercut. Good designers know the value of their own skills and input into a project and will not wait to find out what a competitors charges to undercut prices and steal business.
6. They offer tangible and intangible products. Good designers are able to prove value for both their intangible and tangible products and processes. An ethical designer follows a tried and true design process and can bring value at any stage of that process, not just at the end when they deliver a physical interface or design. You should look for designers who offer consultancy services for intangible processes such as uncovering needs, market research, competitive analysis, design research, usability reviews etc.
7. They give back. Every business has a responsibility to give back to the community in which they live. Ethical designers believe in creating strong design communities and will share resources, tips and techniques with other designers.
8. They listen. Designers who realize that they have an enormous responsibility of representing the end-user and aligning business goals to user objectives cannot help but be good listeners. They will pay special heed to understanding the context in which they are designing and ask lots of good questions to help educate themselves.
9. They love what they do. This is a bit subjective but in my experience there is a direct correlation in a designer who truly loves what he/she does for a living and how they conduct themselves in a professional manner. Designers who appreciate their role and revel in the power and responsibility of design will function as consummate professionals.
10. They will work for projects they can stand behind. This is a toughie. Everyone has differing views on what is right and what is wrong. Some designers will never work for Nike because they have heard of Nike’s dealings with alleged slave labor. Others will have no qualms of working with Nike even though they know of this issue but do not condone Nike’s behavior. To me, as long as I can justify my work, my involvement and am able to include a piece of work in my portfolio and have pride in claiming it as my own, I will work for that client. Everyone should have an informed point of view and be able to stand behind their work, whatever their stand on the issue.