The Anti-Consumerist E-Commerce Designer
A product designers guide to living with ethical oxymorons
It is common knowledge that the millennial generation changes jobs more frequently than any that has come before. We are constantly questioning whether we are happy in our work, and strive to do something that “makes a difference”. In this environment it is challenging to ever be truly satisfied by our 9–5.
Unfortunately, we can’t all work for Greenpeace or the UN, and some think even those organisations are not the pinnacle of ethical cleanliness. So I propose we try to make positive change and think ethically whenever possible within the organisations in which we are placed.
To give a little insight into how this can be achieved, I am going to delve into my personal experience working as a product designer for e-commerce mar-tech company, Ve Global.
Part 1: The oxymoron
User needs
A key part of being a product designer is empathising with your users. Users of our products shop online. We are constantly researching their habits, wants and needs.
My personal shopping profile includes believing in experience over material goods, being anti-brand and anti-fast-fashion. I mend, sew, or buy from charity shops whenever possible. I avoid being a consumerist.
The industry is seeing a shift towards ethically sourced products, a move away from fast-fashion and breaking out of the spending cycle. Anti-consumerism is becoming a key user need.
Business needs
Another important part of being a product designer is working with stakeholders and aligning your product to business needs. For e-commerce products these often include increasing conversion rate and increasing client revenue. As a general rule, pro-consumerism.
In this we have the product development oxymoron: the user need is anti-consumerism, the business need is pro-consumerism. It’s not just e-commerce, there are many industries within the technology sector that are seeing similar oxymorons within product development.
Users are championing data privacy more than ever, and yet organisations such as Google, Facebook and Spotify collect copious amounts of user data to produce “better products”.
We are trying to cut waste entering land-fill, and yet the biggest packagers and manufacturers still have a maximalist approach to product packing to protect their products and give a better “user experience”.
“Britain’s leading supermarkets create more than 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste every year.”
As a product designer still fresh to the industry, this creates a challenge. You start questioning the ethics behind product development at these companies, and whether they really do have user needs at heart.
Part 2: How to turn skepticism into your strength
One lesson I’ve learnt working in a team at various businesses is the value of having a skeptic in the room. That annoying colleague in the corner constantly questioning why you’re making a decision, asking whether what you’re proposing is the best possible outcome that could be achieved.
Part 2.1: Rationalise
Having an ethical standpoint at a company experiencing a product development oxymoron gives you the opportunity to fight for what you believe is right. It forces you, and your team, to come up with a rock solid rationale for every decision you make.
This rationalisation means the products you produce should be valid and valuable, for the business as well as the user.
Part 2.2: Prepare for the worst
Any product team worth their weight includes user testing as a major part of their development process. We’ve all had that test participant that’s having a bad day, and only sees the negative side of your product.
Coming from a cynical point of view yourself prepares you for these users. If you’ve thought through any doubts you have about a product you’ll be much better prepared to answer the difficult questions and react intelligently in a high pressure scenario.
Part 2.3: User experience over conversions
Most of us work at a company that needs to make money (even charities have conversion driven goals). For an e-commerce business, this generally means we need to increase our clients’ sales. This on its own is a very shallow way of thinking.
“Balance the quest for positive conversion rates with solving your users problems and you’ll create value that’s sustained for the long term.”
We need to become advocates of the more user centric success metrics. Encouraging the business to consider alternatives such as increasing brand advocacy and increasing lifetime value will make your products stickier and more unique amongst your competitors.
In conclusion, being an ethical designer with a sceptical point of view could become one of your greatest strengths. I challenge you to uphold your values, and use them to make your company a better place for its employees, its users, and in the end, its bottom line.
Rochelle Williams, Product Designer, London
rochellewilliams.design
@Rochelle_Wll
Originally published at medium.com on August 8, 2018.
