It made sense for Dave to run his live test with me that evening; ‘Dave’s Honesty System’ will have, without doubt, weeded out many dishonest employees over the years — helping remove all the bad apples!
Honesty is transferable; it’s an admirable quality. It’s both practical and moral.
User Experience is no different. We ALWAYS need to be completely honest with our designs — don’t design no lies!
Dieter Ram’s 6th ‘Principle for Good Design’, states:
6. Good design is honest
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
Let’s reiterate that: ‘…the design does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept’.
Good design is HONEST! It shouldn’t manipulate, and it shouldn’t over-promise, and messages need to be fully transparent — let the advertisers sell the lies and retire to HELL! Then, they’ll be more room for us UXers at Club Tropicana!
Dave had many reasons for using his ‘Honesty System’, so we should have our reasons to make our designs more honest:
We NEED to follow Design Ethics.
We NEED to avoid Dark Patterns that deceive users.
We NEED to be HONEST with our users.
We NEED to design HONEST products.
We NEED to design NO lies!
Thank you, Dave, for your honesty test that got me thinking way back then and still believing honesty is the best policy — it is!
‘Good design is honest’, and ‘good people are honest’— both go hand in hand.