What do we mean when we talk about ethical web design? For me it breaks down into what we offer, who we work with and how we do it. Ethics have a role to play in all these decisions – read on to find out more.
What we offer
The ethics of what we do covers the ethical web design solutions that we offer to clients. This means only selling people what they need, and charging a fair price for it. With no VAT to pay, expensive offices or unnecessary staff to pay we can charge less than agencies. We don’t offer £200 websites though as they probably won’t help you reach your goals.
Not everyone needs a custom designed website, or even a website at all. If that’s the case we’ll let you know and recommend an alternative. Sometimes a social media presence or Shopify ecommerce site is the best option, and rather than sell you a custom site we’ll be open about that with you.
We’re clear about what we can offer too – so won’t promise the earth and then fail to deliver. We focus on custom WordPress web design, so won’t be pitching for apps, CRM systems or selling monthly SEO packages. Low value ‘execution only’ pieces are also a nope from us, as we want to work strategically with you to achieve your goals.
Who we work with
Ethical web design also means not working for any companies knowingly doing harm. This obviously rules out anyone doing anything to do with gambling, fossil fuels and weapons but can be more of a grey area when faced with clients doing less obviously unethical things. Any company putting profit over people or the environment is an easy no. We want to work with people who have an ethical policy themselves, and who are considering the broader impact of their activities rather than just chasing profits. This can include Cooperatives, non-profits and charities but also ethical small businesses.
As well as the sector of the project, this also covers clients who want everything done yesterday for a bargain price. There’s absolutely no need to rush things and work in a stressful way. We like to work with people who are organised, communicate well and appreciate the experience we bring to the project. Owner operators are great too so we’re not battling through inefficient levels of management to reach the decision makers, or having to start from scratch when our project contact moves on.
How we do it
We’ll collaborate with you to get to the core of what you need, bringing our many years of experience to the project. We’re organised and show the ethical web design process we’ll be going through together so there are no surprises!
From a technical angle, we’ll be using open source technologies to power your website. We don’t use Amazon or Microsoft web platforms and will only use Google services if you ask for it. Our green web hosting is perfect for most small business websites and we can recommend open source web analytics instead of relying on Google’s data farming products.
Summary
Hopefully this article has shed some light on what we mean by ethical web design – covering what we offer, who we like to work with and how we deliver the project. If you think we’d be a good fit to work together, contact us today for a chat.