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- 🔗 🧠Links for Thinks #6: Designing Responsibly
🔗 🧠Links for Thinks #6: Designing Responsibly
Design Inspiration, Ethics, Dark Patterns, Sustainability, & Behavioral Design
Jake Zuke
December 06, 2024
Five resources every week with actionable takeaways to make you a better designer.
Oof, what a week. After spending way too much time navigating the maze of car insurance, I've been thinking a lot about ethical design and its real impact on people's lives. When poorly designed systems create friction, it's not just annoying—it can actually harm folks who are already dealing with enough stress.
Enough about my woes though, here are some links to help think about designing with intention and responsibility. Because in a world where dark patterns might sometimes feel like the default and thinking about long term sustainability feels optional, maybe it's time to take a step back and actually think about the people we're really designing for.
— Jake
TODAY'S EDITION
PRINCIPLES OF PRINCIPLE-ING
One of the biggest ways to make an impact with your designs? Understand what they stand for. Some folks might want to rush straight to shiny solutions, but good principles are your compass for staying true to what matters. Design principles aren't just guidelines—they're the backbone of every decision you'll make. They're your north star when stakeholders start throwing "can we just…" your way.
THE JUICE
Stop Writing Useless Principles: Design principles shouldn't read like corporate fortune cookies. If your principle could apply to literally any company or product ("make it user-friendly!") you don’t have a principle—you have a platitude.
Principles That Do Work:
Frame trade-offs, not truisms ("Embrace weird over safe" not just "be creative")
Give specific, actionable guidance ("Write like you're explaining to a friend" not "clear communication")
Actually influence day-to-day decisions ("Start with mobile" not "make responsive designs")
Reflect what makes your product unique ("Trust teachers' judgment" not "empower users")
The Documentation Trap: Writing principles isn't necessarily the hard part (though, it is an art)—it's getting folks to actually use them. Without regular reference and reinforcement, even great principles become that one paper you shoved in your desk three years ago that you will definitely remember to reference.
Build them into your process and culture or be prepared to whip out the duster every quarter trying to get these things to stick. When talking about your designs to stakeholders, reference what principles you’re adhering to and what decisions were made based on them.
THE BUSINESS OF BEING GOOD
Turns out doing the right thing isn't just good karma—it's good business. As companies scramble to stay relevant in a world where Gen Z has the receipts and emerging markets are where the real growth is happening, responsible design isn't just a nice-to-have anymore. It's becoming a survival strategy.
THE JUICE
Virtue BS Detector: The most diverse generations in history aren’t buying what you're selling unless you're actually walking the walk. When 70% of Gen Z only buys from companies they consider ethical & 75% of Millennials will literally change their buying habits in favor of environmentally-friendly products—your "commitment to diversity" better be more than a black square on Instagram.
Regulation Reality Check: Whether it's sustainability goals or AI ethics, the rules are coming. Smart companies aren't waiting for regulations to force their hand—they're getting ahead of the curve and turning responsibility into competitive advantage.
The ROI of Doing Right: Companies like Patagonia and Kasha aren't succeeding despite their values—they're winning because of them. When you actually solve real problems for underserved markets, turns out people will pay for that.
BUY NOW—OR ELSE!
Netflix's documentary "Buy Now" isn't just exposing shady business tactics—it's revealing how we as designers might be unwitting accomplices in manipulating users. Before you add that countdown timer to checkout, let's talk about the real cost of conversion optimization.
THE JUICE
The Ethics of Engagement: We all want higher conversion rates, but at what cost? When your "limited time offer" has been running for three years or your "only 2 spots left!" message is pure fiction, you're not designing experiences—you're designing lies.
Dark Patterns Are Bad Business: Quick wins through manipulation might boost short-term metrics, but they destroy long-term trust. Every fake urgency prompt or hidden unsubscribe button is a time bomb of user resentment waiting to explode.
Beyond Binary Choices: "Good design" isn't just about making things easy to buy—it's about empowering genuine decisions. That means showing real stock levels, actual price comparisons, and clear paths to both purchase and reconsideration.
The Sustainability Tax: Those impulse-optimized shopping experiences? They're not just cluttering users' closets—they're filling landfills. As designers, we're either part of the solution or part of the problem. There's no neutral ground anymore.
GREEN BY DESIGN
Fun fact: 80% of a product's environmental impact is determined in the design phase. But IBM's sustainability checklist isn't just about saving trees—it's about rethinking how we build digital experiences from the ground up. Good design and sustainable design might actually just be the same thing.
THE JUICE
Design is Just the Start: Sustainable design goes beyond recycling icons and earth-tone color palettes. It's about creating experiences that reduce resource usage while increasing usability for everyone.
Efficiency Squared: The best sustainable designs pull double duty—they make things faster for users and lighter on the planet. When your site loads quickly, you're not just making users happy, you're cutting carbon emissions.
Small Changes, Big Impact: Every design decision has a sustainability angle:
Fewer unnecessary assets = less server load
Simpler interfaces = faster task completion
Reusable components = reduced development waste
Inclusive design = better access with fewer resources
Build For Tomorrow: Building sustainability isn't about checking boxes—it's a culture shift (okay, yeah this resource is technically a checklist for checking boxes, but I digress). From choosing diverse teams to measuring environmental impact, every part of the design process needs to consider its long-term effects. Because the most sustainable code is the code you don't have to rewrite.
PUTTING THE HUMAN BACK IN HUMAN-CENTERED
We talk about human-centered design all day, but how often do we actually design for human wellbeing? Between dopamine-driven feeds and anxiety-inducing notifications, maybe it's time we asked ourselves: are we designing experiences that make lives better, or just metrics bigger?
THE JUICE
Respect > Engagement: Stop optimizing for time spent and start optimizing for time well spent. Your users aren't data points to be maximized—they're humans with limited time and mental energy.
Design for Agency: Give users real control, not the illusion of it. That means clear settings, genuine choices, and the ability to say "actually, I don't want any of this."
The Ethics of Attention: Every notification, alert, and "engagement feature" is asking for a piece of someone's life. Make sure you're giving something valuable in return.
Mental Models Matter: Design with human psychology in mind, not against it. Use patterns that reduce cognitive load instead of exploiting cognitive biases. Your dark patterns might boost short-term metrics, but they're burning long-term trust.
THANKS FOR READING—SEE YOU NEXT WEEK
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Cheers, Jake