Ethical principles for creating responsible and user-focused UX design

Ethical design principles help designers create products with care for all users and the environment. As design ethics are a large part of the UX, great ethics make brands memorable.

Apple is one of the best examples of companies that consider all aspects that contribute to brand representation. Its marketing strives to inspire a lifestyle, ethical morals, and a great mission. This is one of the factors why Apple users continue buying the brand devices again and again. A Steve Jobs quote can perfectly summarize Apple's ethics: "Marketing is about values.”

What are UX design ethics?

Ethics comprise moral principles that dictate what we should and shouldn't do in particular situations. Based on value judgments for good and bad, ethics dictate that we must try and do good.

UX design ethics means making conscious design decisions that do good and do not harm anyone — intentionally or not. The key to great ethics is to respect and empathize with end users and put their needs first. Even the smallest decisions impact the digital experience users have with your product. With that in mind, ethical design involves continually improving user experience and SEO.

UX design ethics includes several aspects, among others:

• User experience
• Privacy and security
• Accessibility and inclusion
• Responsiveness
• Environment

Why are design ethics important?

Nowadays, users don't base their product choice on price or popularity only. People also pay attention to brand values and how they align with their own beliefs.

A survey conducted in 35 countries revealed that over 62% of respondents expect companies to follow the principles of sustainability, transparency, and fair employment. Companies that don't share these values lose consumer trust, which leads to less brand loyalty or purchases. 47% of consumers leave the brand in frustration, with 17% never returning.[1]

Adhering to ethical principles in design and marketing builds trust in the company. This makes users feel like the brand cares about their experience, which helps build long-term relationships with users. Focusing on company values and brand representation helps businesses win a competitive advantage.

The correct image demonstrates a website that is more likely to gain users' trust by showcasing images of people with diverse genders and skin tones, creating the impression that any designer can be hired.

Don’t be misleading

Websites, landing pages, and other marketing visuals aim to capture users' attention and engage them in order to convert them. To do this ethically, designers should avoid using dark patterns.

Dark patterns are design tricks that pressure users into doing something they don't want to or prevent them from doing what they want. Some examples of such unethical behavior include:

• Hiding or significantly reducing the size of the Unsubscribe button in emails
• Making the Close button on subscription dialogs less visible to force users to share their data
• Using bad defaults like pre-selecting the most expensive options or allowing all notifications
• Offering more upgrades with more costly options on top and hiding the Continue button

Use clear messaging

Transparency implies using credible sources and verified information in interfaces. One of the main functions of UI copy is to inform users and help them make a decision.

When writing microcopy, avoid misleading users with long, complicated sentences. Straightforward language is crucial when requesting payment details or explaining free trials and cancellations.

When writing copy, make sure to:

• Use legible fonts. Scripts and decorative typefaces are harder to scan.
• Choose words familiar to your audience. Even if your target audience is an expert group, it's still a good idea to explain the terminology first.
• Use short sentences. Cut off slang, idioms, and modifiers if they don't add to the meaning. Microcopy should be easy to scan, so set the limit for 3-4 words.
• Highlight the benefits for users. Clearly communicate what happens next and how it might affect users.

The correct image displays a microcopy that clearly explains what happens after users press the button, eliminating their fear of being charged immediately.

Avoid ruining user experience

Ethical marketing should never prevent users from completing their tasks. Aggressive marketing makes the audience lose trust in your product. Some examples include subscription pop-ups that appear as soon as users open the page, ads that block content, or intrusive full-screen calls to action.

Such unethical behavior pushes users away and results in a high bounce rate. To avoid that, always keep users' interests at heart. Doing so will help you find non-intrusive solutions instead of shamelessly forcing people to convert.

🧠 Pro Tip! Use color, typography, and white space to establish hierarchy and direct users' attention where needed.

Be inclusive

Inclusive products are designed with the full range of human diversity in mind. Inclusive design provides solutions that fit everyone and doesn't leave any person or group out. To do that, designers need to consider the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age, and other forms of human difference.

Examples of inclusive design patterns include:

• Legible text for older users. Use appropriate font sizing, contrasting text, and legible typeface selection.
• Accessible name and surname inputs for a global audience. Naming conventions differ around the world, and it's important to accommodate that. For example, Facebook users can send a request form to a support service to get their name accepted.
• Include various demographic varieties. If you have to gather information about users' race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, make sure to offer multiple options.
• Avoid using gendered language. Singular they can refer to a person of any gender. For example, instead of saying, "A student can share his or her results on his or her social media," say, "A student can share their results on their social media."
• Diverse imagery and illustrations. This helps users relate to a product and make them feel included.

For more tips on inclusive design, explore Apple's guidelines on writing inclusively.

Comply with accessibility requirements

Accessibility has a narrower scope than inclusive design. It's focused on ensuring that people with disabilities can access products and environments. Accessibility standards for digital products can be found in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Examples of making web products accessible include:

• Adding alt text. It provides image descriptions for search engines and assistive technology. Without it, screen-reader users can't understand visual content.
• Enabling keyboard navigation. This ensures that people with motor disabilities can navigate a product without a mouse.
• Making content-loaded pages easy to scan. You can do it by splitting large blocks of text into paragraphs, using headlines, highlighting keywords, using bullet lists, etc. Doing so benefits all users, especially people with cognitive disabilities.
• Providing good contrast between the text and background. This ensures that people with visual impairments can still read text on a website.
• Using clear link commands. Replace vague phrases like "Click here" with descriptive text such as "Explore 10 tips for your ideal working area." This helps screen-reader users and provides context for all users, improving the overall accessibility of navigation and content.

Promote safety, security, and privacy

Digital products request a lot of confidential data. To gain users' trust, ensure never to risk their data. This proves that you can keep users' data private and secure, resulting in an excellent user experience and brand reputation. This is crucial for products that handle payment information, especially banking and financial services.

Best privacy and security practices in design include compliance with relevant regulations, data encryption, and two-factor authentication for apps with confidential data. While a lot of it is handled by developers, designers also play a role in protecting users' information.

Here's what designers can do to improve users' data security:

• Clearly explain password requirements
• Make sure users can easily access privacy settings to secure their data
• Inform users of the risks associated with sharing their personal information with others
• Add trust badges to ensure users that all processes within your system are safe and secure
• Ask user permission to access specific data or functionality within their devices
• Ask for necessary information only when it's relevant to the current task

Practice environmental sustainability

The everyday use of technology has a massive impact on our environment. Although the question of how much energy exactly internet use is still up for debate, it's clear that it worries more and more people.

What can designers do to promote sustainability and reduce environmental impact? Here are some ideas:

• Choose a green host company for your website. Green hosts use data centers that are powered by renewable energy, use eco-friendly cooling, or offset their emissions. Another option is to switch to cloud providers that are more environmentally sustainable.
• Reduce data. Things like web fonts, JavaScript libraries, large high-resolution images, and videos need more energy to load. Use the PageSpeed tool to measure which content affects your website's performance the most.
• Build green products. Encourage users to choose slower and greener options like regular postage instead of express, no extra plastic wrapping, etc.

🧠 Pro Tip! Remote work is also beneficial for the environment. The fewer people travel to the office daily, the fewer carbon emissions are produced.

Give users control

Giving users sufficient control agrees with Nielsen's heuristic about user freedom and control. Users should be able to undo their last action, correct errors, and reset to the previous state. Being able to fix a problem makes users feel in charge and motivates them to use a product.

Designers can implement this ethical principle by adding the following buttons:

• Undo/Redo to reverse users' last actions
• Back to go back to a previous page or screen
• Cancel to quit a task
• Close to exit a current view
• Reset to restore the last settings
• Recover to allow to retrieval of a deleted document, photo, video, or another critical asset

Ensure consistent experiences across all devices and browsers

Responsive design allows users to access the content across any device, regardless of screen size or orientation. It's based on three components — fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries.

In 2022, 62% of internet traffic was coming from mobile devices.[2] The only way to deliver a seamless user experience is to ensure your product accommodates various screen sizes. This way, a person can use your product on their laptop at work, on their smartphone when on a bus, or from a tablet while on vacation.

Respect your users

Most design ethics considerations come down to respecting your users and their autonomy. Designers shouldn't implement features that they wouldn't want to experience themselves. To build long-term relationships with users, keep the following design ethics principles in mind:

• Don't harm users or the environment
• Allow equal access to web content to all people regardless of their ability
• Create a safe space for users to express their thoughts
• Protect users' privacy and security
• Protect users from harassment, persecution, the revelation of personal information, or violation of other human rights
• Provide references to the information you share so that users can trace its sources and check the facts
• Offer consistent experience regardless of a browser, device, or operational system

Ethical UX design is more than just about creating functional products — it’s about building trust and showing respect for the people using them. By focusing on clear communication, inclusivity, accessibility, and sustainability, you can create experiences that genuinely support and empower users. Designing ethically means keeping users’ best interests at heart and thinking about the bigger picture, from privacy to the environment. It’s not a one-and-done task — it’s a mindset. As designers, we have a unique opportunity to shape how technology fits into people’s lives, and it’s up to us to make sure we’re doing it responsibly.