"What do you think? Would you ever design a system this way, putting the business's needs above the user's needs? Even to the point of lying to the user?"
My opinion is yes & no - I would always put the business needs before the needs or wants of the user. The lights have to stay on, right? **But** to me it's a matter of how you conduct business - I would never purposefully make voicemail take a long time to access so minutes and revenue go up. I would try to realize that I'll make much more money in the long run by having a great customer experience and a super quick voicemail system. It's just a fundamental difference in business strategy - you can be dishonest and nickel and dime people to get your dollars (and probably loose them forever), or you can take the honest, ethical approach and win over customers for a lifetime by simply doing the right thing and being honest. Jeff On Nov 13, 2007 11:52 AM, Bryan Minihan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I often say that if cell-phone companies had invented the automobile, we'd > still be on horses. It boggles my mind how people are unwilling to pay a > few extra dollars for this or that [insert grocery item] or spend hours > researching the best deal to save a few bucks on a flight from Milwaukee to > Tampa...but they don't bat an eye when paying $80-$150 a MONTH to do > something that (mobility aside) they could do for a fraction of the cost > from home, the office, over the Internet or a pay phone. > > I lump myself in the above group, so I'm not making fun of anyone. I just > think we are convinced by all manner of surreptitious means, to NEED to use > cell phones, and that the fundamental billing model of the unusable "base > rate" plus tacked-on cost of value-add features is the first clue that "they > aren't in it for the customer." > > I realize you're making a design point, and I'm not in the mobile device > business, so I'd be interested to hear what those designers say. Due to my > opinion stated above, my working assumption is that designers build mobile > interfaces to allow the business to configure them as they need to. You > don't have to build a battery meter that's always 3 points higher than it > should be, you just have to build in a way for the business folks to tweak > the baseline. The business takes it from there. > > Bryan > http://www.bryanminihan.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Christopher Fahey > Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 11:28 AM > To: IxDA Discuss > Subject: [IxDA Discuss] IxD Ethics: Business vs. User > > In the "fundamental tenets of design" thread, I had written as my > third rule "Don't lie" (right after the similar "Show sleazebags the > door."). I really believe that, and as interaction designers I think > we run into this question far more often than we think. > > Apparently lying to the user is fundamental to at least one business > sector: Mobile phones. > > Mark Hurst writes [1] that mobile phone companies lie to their users > in several pretty big ways: > > 1) The signal-strength bars on your phone usually exaggerate the > strength of the signal. > 2) The batter strength indicator also exaggerates the power left in > your battery. > > Both lies serve the same purpose: To encourage people to use their > phones. Apparently, people don't use their phones as much when the > signal is weak or their battery is low, so by lying they drive up the > minutes. > > Some people, including Mark, speculate that the carriers also use > dreadfully long voicemail system messages to drive up minutes (ever > call someone on Sprint? It takes 45 seconds to actually get to leave > a message, which I suppose helps your provider, not Sprint > necessarily -- maybe there's industry collusion there, too). > > Obviously all of these decisions are GREAT for business. I can easily > imagine that if all of these practices were stopped, phone usage > overall would decline by a few percentage points, which could make > the difference between profitability and losing money for the company > as a whole. And users don't seem to mind -- what they don't know > doesn't hurt them, right? > > What do you think? Would you ever design a system this way, putting > the business's needs above the user's needs? Even to the point of > lying to the user? > > Those of you in the mobile device business, are you familiar with > this practice? > > -Cf > > Christopher Fahey > ____________________________ > Behavior > biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com > me: http://www.graphpaper.com > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... 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