I am going to take a bit of an issue with the premis here. Unless they are showing a measurement that is specific (absolute numbers or percentage) and are distorting those numbers they are hardly out and out telling a lie.
These are relative and fuzzy scale indicators. They may not be linear, but how do we know that they do not accurately reflect the situation.. The second half of a tank of gas in my car always goes faster than the first... did Audi lie? Though I can not think of a case off the top of my head, I can imagine a situation where the exact measurement value is not telling me what I really need to know. Maybe the battery looses more juice in the second half of the charge than in the first. So which display is the truth? Mark may have more insight into the 'intent' in these case than I do, but I think that is the real measuring stick. Did they willingly diseave? At many junctures IX designers make trade-offs for and against the user. While I often play the role of extreme user advocate, I certainly understand that sometimes the interface must nod in the direction of monetization. That's life in the business world. On Tuesday, November 13, 2007, at 11:32AM, "Christopher Fahey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >In the "fundamental tenets of design" thread, I had written as my >third rule "Don't lie" (right after the similar "Show sleazebags the >door."). I really believe that, and as interaction designers I think >we run into this question far more often than we think. > >Apparently lying to the user is fundamental to at least one business >sector: Mobile phones. > >Mark Hurst writes [1] that mobile phone companies lie to their users >in several pretty big ways: > >1) The signal-strength bars on your phone usually exaggerate the >strength of the signal. >2) The batter strength indicator also exaggerates the power left in >your battery. > >Both lies serve the same purpose: To encourage people to use their >phones. Apparently, people don't use their phones as much when the >signal is weak or their battery is low, so by lying they drive up the >minutes. > >Some people, including Mark, speculate that the carriers also use >dreadfully long voicemail system messages to drive up minutes (ever >call someone on Sprint? It takes 45 seconds to actually get to leave >a message, which I suppose helps your provider, not Sprint >necessarily -- maybe there's industry collusion there, too). > >Obviously all of these decisions are GREAT for business. I can easily >imagine that if all of these practices were stopped, phone usage >overall would decline by a few percentage points, which could make >the difference between profitability and losing money for the company >as a whole. And users don't seem to mind -- what they don't know >doesn't hurt them, right? > >What do you think? Would you ever design a system this way, putting >the business's needs above the user's needs? Even to the point of >lying to the user? > >Those of you in the mobile device business, are you familiar with >this practice? > >-Cf > >Christopher Fahey >____________________________ >Behavior >biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com >me: http://www.graphpaper.com > > > > >________________________________________________________________ >*Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* >February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA >Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > >________________________________________________________________ >Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
