[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week July 20: Designer Responsibilitiesto the Public

[Brian Clark]

>What if a person with Parkinson's came upon our site via Google and

>thought it was real? We decided there was an ethical problem there.


Talk to us about why *that* was the ethical line for you. If it had been a
biotech investor that mistakenly thought it was real, would it have felt
like an ethical issue to you? What if it had been a job applicant? What
about an academic researcher? What about a direct marketer hoping to sell
office supplies to the fictional company?

In general, I find the question of "ethical guidelines" dubious, at least
when it comes to the deception example: there will always be people who
don't take the time to determine if what they read is real or not. I worry
that those kind of people think press releases and The Weekly World News and
Peter Pan are real as well.

Safety (like your "call the police" example) -- even of those not in on the
fiction -- is a totally different kettle of worms and should be the subject
of design considerations.