Why do we keep hiding the good stuff?
We spend hours getting this stuff right.
Making sure everything works for keyboard users. Keeping page weight low. Locking down privacy settings so personal data doesn’t spill all over the place. Writing content that’s actually… well, readable. It all takes time, thought, compromise.
And then we bury it like a shameful secret.
Accessibility controls? Tucked away in some half-visible corner.
Security cues? Reduced to a padlock no one notices.
Green credentials? Maybe a badge, maybe a sentence in the footer.
Strange, isn’t it? The parts of our work that arguably matter most - the ones rooted in care, responsibility, ethics - end up hidden like admin. Something we have to do, but wouldn’t want to draw attention to.
We just sort of… whisper it. As if being respectful to people - their time, their choices, their needs - is something to keep quiet about.
But what if it wasn’t?
We’ve built up this odd digital culture where the most meaningful things are the least visible.
Accessibility controls - when they exist - are often buried in settings menus. Sustainability gets a token mention in a blog post. Security? We rarely talk about it unless something breaks. If it’s working, it disappears.
We’ve been conditioned to treat these things as chores. Necessary, sure - but not worthy of attention. Not exciting. Not beautiful.
And yet… they’re good. They protect people. Include people. Respect people. And they’re the result of deliberate, thoughtful choices - usually made quietly, without much thanks.
It’s odd. We celebrate flashy transitions and clever branding tweaks, but barely mention the work that keeps users safe, included, informed. The stuff that actually matters gets left out of the case studies. Too dull, apparently.
But it’s not dull. It’s just not showy.
And maybe that’s the problem.
There’s a quiet beauty in ethical UX that rarely gets acknowledged. The kind that earns trust through clarity. Interfaces that don’t manipulate. Buttons that do what they say. Forms that don’t try to trick you.
It’s not just about what’s not there - no dark patterns, no fake urgency, no guilt-trip popups. It’s about what is there: kindness, honesty, restraint. A kind of digital decency.
And when it’s done well, you feel it. You might not notice straight away, but it shows up in how calm the experience feels. How much easier it is to breathe. To focus. To leave a page without feeling nudged into the wrong decision. To read something without being shouted at by autoplaying videos and in-your-face advertising.
We’ve been told that ethics and creativity sit on opposite ends of a spectrum - as if you can be responsible or exciting, but not both. But that’s nonsense. Ethical design isn’t the opposite of good design. It is good design. It’s design that actually gives a damn.
And we should be showing it off. Not just meeting a standard and moving on, but treating it like craft. Like something to be proud of. If we’re building with care, why are we hiding that care?
Dark patterns are still everywhere - dressed up as clever UX, when really they’re just manipulative. And yet they get celebrated. They boost metrics. They make it into case studies with a wink and a nudge, as if being slightly dishonest is just part of the game.
But what if we called that out more often? Not with outrage - just quiet confidence. This isn’t how we do things. And more importantly: Look how good it can be when we don’t.
Imagine a project that leads with its ethics - not as a footnote, but part of the aesthetic. Big, clear buttons. Opt-ins that actually feel optional. Sustainability stats upfront. A privacy policy that doesn’t read like a trap.
Not as a gimmick. Not for applause. Just… because it’s better. More honest. More human. More trustworthy.
We talk so much about user-centred design, and then forget to show any actual respect to the user.
But the strange part is, no one’s stopping us.
There’s no rule that says accessibility has to be hidden. No law that says sustainability must be framed as sacrifice. And yet we treat all of it like spinach - good for you, sure, but not what you’d put on the homepage.
Why?
Part of it’s habit. We’ve spent years equating sleekness with sophistication, and anything that slows things down - or adds friction - as failure. We’re taught to see ethics as limits, not design opportunities.
And part of it, if we’re honest, is fear. Fear of seeming too earnest. Too basic. Fear that if we strip out the tricks, the work won’t hold up.
So we chase novelty. We cram in features no one asked for. We obsess over polish and pace. And we hide the parts that deserve to be seen.
Because they’re not glossy. Because they don’t win awards. Because no one ever got promoted for saying, “Actually, I think we should make that plainer and kinder.”
But maybe they should have.
Maybe we need a new kind of aspiration.
Not just to build things that work, or things that wow - but things that care. Things that wear their ethics openly, without apology. That say: we thought about you when we made this. We tried to do the right thing, even if you never notice
Written by Stu Collett – web veteran & recovering perfectionist.
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