Simple Different Ethics
The "User First" approach
Part of the Ethics of Simple Different, the company behind SimDif, is to guide its users as they build websites.
SimDif is designed to encourage users to create and organize the content that their readers would like to see, which is also the best way to structure a website for Google.
SimDif is not conceived as a product for people to purchase before they have a chance to understand it.
Business and ethics, an odd couple?
It depends on which one is placed first. When creating an online service, if profit is put first, the typical impact is that the entire user experience is designed to funnel people towards payment.
A well-known example is how social networks and e-commerce sites use cookies. These services are originally designed to collect informations about their users, profiling them, and spying on their online behavior. Facebook's business model is, for example, based on reselling their findings to marketing companies and advertisers.
Nowadays, encouraged by European regulations, businesses have to install a button on their website for the user to accept cookies when they arrive at the site. But we also know that most people do not understand the purpose of these cookies, or what they are accepting by clicking on the button.
Placing service before profit
An online service that prioritizes a user-first approach is often incompatible with the expectations of venture capitalists.
The tech industry is often represented by the success of services built to take advantage of users' lack of knowledge, and only rarely by the public recognition of the usefulness of a service.
An alternative exists. When creating a new service, the fundamental intention can be to advocate for the users and the quality of their experience.
Services that users recognize as respectful, helpful and beneficial, progressively turn into solid enterprises. In this way, business and ethics can work well together.
Placing ethics before business, can give rise to a solid and mutually beneficial alternative
Services can be designed to be supportive, providing value to the customer, building trust, and fostering an ongoing collaboration.
It is possible to create good tools without voraciously collecting and sharing the user's information,
A good practice, for example, is to erase customers personal data, if and when they decide not to use the service anymore.
Storing the data of as many users as possible has sadly become the norm of corporate culture, creating not only the basis for the next email spamming campaign, but also a valuable target for "hackers".
When it comes to welcoming clients, respecting the pace at which they learn, and protecting their personal data, good intentions are not always enough.
Building a useful service which respects users begins with the way it is designed and engineered.
Lots of website builders are designed to maximize sales and margins
How a "profit first" strategy becomes toxic for future website designers.
Most simplified website builder services are set up to quickly sell the idea of what most people believe is a good website.
They are pushing beginners who haven’t yet been given the opportunity to understand what a website is, to pay as early as possible.
Typically, marketing oriented website builders use a set of tricks which sadly became the norm:
• Making users start by choosing a pre-made website template.
This is proposed without regards to the organization of the content, or the future reader's needs and expectations. Even if these qualities form the essential qualities of a good website. Ironically, the most famous website builders do not even allow users to change the template while preserving the content: one has to rebuild the entire site.
• Inviting users to make their first choices focused around choosing a big and beautiful header picture.
This big photography is impressive. But this picture will most likely be replaced with a less perfect one, more adapted to the topic of the site. A topic that maybe does not need such a big photo to start with?
• Making users believe that the quality of their site depends on the add-ons they can purchase.
The urge to sell something here again reduces the chance to show the importance of the quality of the content and its organization, for Google and for the visitors of the site.
• Making users think that purchasing their own domain name "right now!" is vital.
Rather than giving them time to think and the proper guidance. It generally takes a bit of time to choose the right name.
• Suggesting that SEO is only about a list of keywords in the metadata,
Rather than emphasizing the reality of website optimization. For example, using one page per topic and choosing the right title for each page, is much more important than the keywords tags.
These are only the most classic examples. You can already see that these services are not designed to help, but primarily to sell. Some might see it as a breach of trust of their users.
