I, Interface

Asimov’s three laws of robotics, though currently fictional, are an excellent set of design principles:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

One could easily imagine a similar set of laws being applied to field of user experience and interface design:

1. An interface may not injure a user or, through inaction, allow a user to come to harm.
2. An interface must obey any orders given to it by users, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. An interface must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Okay, that last one’s a bit of a stretch but you get the idea.

In his later works Asimov added the zeroth law that supersedes the initial three laws:

0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

I think that this can also apply to user experience and interface design.

Take the password anti-pattern (please!). On the level of an individual site, it could be considered a benefit to the current user, allowing them to quickly and easily hand over lots of information about their contacts. But taken on the wider level, it teaches people that it’s okay to hand over their email password to third-party sites. The net result of reinforcing that behaviour is definitely not good for the web as a whole.

I’m proposing a zeroth law of user experience that goes beyond the existing paradigm of user-centred design:

0. An interface may not harm the web, or, by inaction, allow the web to come to harm.