Designing with a Conscience: A Personal Reflection on Ethics in UX
As a designer shaped by community service and driven by impact, I’ve learned that every design decision has ethical weight.
Designing for Deception
Early in my design journey, I was hired to create marketing materials and websites for services and promotions that I soon realized might not exist.
The instructions I received from my boss were vague, but after going over the materials, I eventually learned the objective of these projects was to be deceptive and overly persuasive. I was instructed to design marketing collateral that would trigger urgency in customers and encourage them to sign up or make purchases quickly. It felt like I was designing traps.
At first, I didn’t notice anything was off. I was just doing my work like I was supposed to. I started questioning what was going on when I was directed to incorporate persuasive design principles such as:
- Social Proof: Fabricated reviews and stats by hiding behind the job titles content creator and copywriter.
- Scaricity: “Last chance sales” and “last chance offers”.
- Reciprocity: Advertised part of the offers as “free” only to be used as emotional pressure.
- Authority: Fake “expert” and “government” endorsements and partnerships.
- Framing: Overemphasizing “benefits” while hiding downsides.
Being new to the industry and needing this job to graduate from my bachelor's program, I was under a lot of pressure. Do I have the right to speak up? Does my opinion matter? Are they gonna care what I think? When I started asking questions, my boss told me:
“This is for our clients, we are doing what they asked.”
Now, I’m not so sure those clients existed in the first place. When I did my own secondary research on these companies, I didn’t find any locations or websites for these “clients”.
The more I worked on projects, the more uncomfortable I became and thought to myself, ‘Am I participating in manipulating people into making rather large purchases for services that didn’t actually exist?’ When I started asking questions, I was told:
“We just want to see if there’s a market for this kind of service.”
It was at this point that the red flags started not only waving but jumping up for attention. I could tell my boss didn’t want to dive into this further, so I backed off. At the time, I told myself that it wasn’t my place to say anything more.
The Now
Keeping in mind that I didn’t know about these persuasive design principles until this year, and my internship was the year prior, this all just clicked recently. At the time, I could tell something was off, but I didn’t have enough experience or knowledge to know exactly what it was.
Since learning about persuasive design principles in Rhetoric, Persuasion, & Influence this year, I have learned so much about UX design principles and dark patterns that it has honestly altered my way of thinking and looking at the world.
What I learned
In hindsight, this experience taught me more than I ever realized. I learned that not all design work is neutral, and not all clients prioritize honesty. I realized I never want to be the designer behind a lie or something I don’t morally think is right. Not all work is worth accepting, especially if you have to break your own personal values and boundaries.
As designers, we can’t control projects, but we can ask questions, do our own secondary research, and voice our concerns. I realize now that free will actually exists, and you can just walk away even if that means turning down a project. As much as it feels like it at the time, it’s not the end of the world.
What I Would Do Differently
What if you were in this situation? Without having to experience the academic and real-world pressures, it’s easy to say you’d stand up and do what you think is the right thing. But I’m not so sure that would be the case for everyone.
If this situation happened to me now, I would approach it differently. To break it down, I would do the following:
- I know I would at least have support from my peers or trusted faculty members that I could reach out to with my concerns.
- I’d ask more questions upfront about the legitimacy of not only their company but also their clients.
- I’d be less scared about the repercussions of walking away from projects or companies altogether.
Conclusion
Ethics in design is about the quiet decisions we make every day. My North Star has always been, and will continue to be, about designing for impact, guided by accessibility, sustainability, and respect. I believe ethical influence in interaction design starts with truth telling, continues through inclusion and thrives when persuasion is used responsibly.
