Design Profession - Ethics

By Author: Alex Baker
Total Articles: 149
Comment this article

There are ethical guidelines in most of the professions and this is applicable even to the Design profession. The code of ethics in the design profession may not be rigid and specific as in the medical industry, but are crucial for the survival of creativity in the design profession. Some of the prominent ethical considerations in the design profession are as follows

Commitment to Clients
When you do a commitment about preparing the design within a stipulated time, be sure you fulfill it. If you cannot fulfill the commitment or do not have enough resources to do the same, inform the client about it. Failure to fulfill the commitment will usually have two kind of negative effects. There is a possibility that the client may react immediately and spread negative words about you in the market. It is also possible that the client may take the same action but after the work is over. In both these situations it is because of unprofessional attitude that the negative feedback has emerged from the client.

Contests involving Crowds
The design contests involving crowds are conducted to procure ideas directly ...
... from the customers, clients, fans and amateurs. The prizes offered to the participants in these contests usually do not involve any cash prize but involve the products or services offered by the sponsor of the contest. These sorts of contests make the masses feel that they are involved in the designing work, but usually this is just an eye wash. When these contests are conducted for students or children they work as motivation for designers who want to or have just started to build career as designers.

Charging
Charging can be of two types, one is over charging and other is under charging. If you are over charging or charging more than the market price, you risk losing the client to your competitors. Undercharging is what happens when you charge less than the market price. Undercharging can not only adversely affect the whole market but also long term business associations. If you resort to undercharging you clients will most probably never agree for hike in the future. Designers should charge reasonably and justify the effort and time put in to complete the design project.

Terms and Conditions
The terms and conditions of not only payment but the use of artwork should also be clarified. If the art work is involved the terms of licensing should be clarified. If the art work is copied then permission and approval needs to be taken from the source.

Who owns the source files needs to be cleared and part of terms and conditions.

Getting an idea from an existing website is not wrong buy copying any current web design is both unethical and illegal. If the clients do not know this, it is the designer’s responsibility to make them aware of it.

Copyright © 2011

SPINX - Web Designer New York offers creative web design services in New York and Local Area. We are expert Web Design NYC Company providing effective internet marketing solutions.