I agree! We don’t!! :)

I don’t think anyone should ‘police’ the web or their clients, only themselves. It always comes down to personal ethics and accountability. I think it’s important to remember that our work represents us, and I know I wouldn’t want to put my name on just anything.

That being said, it’s been my experience more often than not that clients don’t know how to represent themselves best, and tend to short-change themselves content wise. It’s particularly true of nonprofits, and I found myself giving them a boost of some kind to get them going in the content arena.

How can you design a site and gauge proper UX without web copy and content? Content is an ethics challenge when somebody is looking to deceive the public somehow, and we’re aware of it. But we don’t have to work on their site, do we?

Hi Paul.

Lovely to see a first comment on this! As a more “philosophical” post, I always wondered what people would think.

Do you think the web designer has a responsibility to police what goes online? Or should he just do as he is told? Who holds the responsibility for that ethical dilemma of posting half truths?

If the truth is undefeated, then it’s just a matter of time before somebody gets ‘found out’, however, the web gives everyone an equal shot, and I don’t have a problem with that.

I’d be tempted to validate an idea I have by first marketing it to see if it had any legs (designing a page, writing the copy, etc.), but this is entirely different from putting on a mask and pretending to be something I’m not. Stuff to think about. Thank you.