1. Two levels of veto

    At Clearleft, every staff member has two levels of veto on client work. You can say “I’m not comfortable working on this”, in which case, the work may still happen but we’ll make sure the resourcing works out so you don’t have anything to do with that project. Or you can say “I’m not comfortable with Clearleft working on this”, in which case the work won’t go ahead.

  2. Our obedience to the king

    Going back to the question of whether it’s ever okay to use a deceptive dark pattern, here’s what I think…

    It makes no difference whether it’s implemented by ProPublica or Breitbart; using a deceptive dark pattern is wrong.

    But there is a world of difference in being a designer who works at ProPublica and being a designer who works at Breitbart.

    That’s what I’m getting at when I say there’s a danger to focusing purely on user experience. That focus can be used as a way of avoiding responsibility for the larger business goals. Then designers are like the soldiers on the eve of battle in Henry V:

    For we know enough, if we know we are the kings subjects: if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.