You are the technical writer for a software company and you are about to release an update to the software product you provide. Your colleague sends you an image of the updated software to use in the new user guide, but it has buttons that appear to function in a way that does not accurately represent the updated software. What should you tell your colleague?
A) It is fine, no need to have anything changed.
B) Embedding certain features on the product that are not really there is unethical, deceptive, and gives the reader a false impression of the product. Kindly and professionally request the colleague to recreate the image to accurately represent the updated software.
C) Tell your colleague thank you.
D) Ask your boss what to do.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Similar to how you must consider the ethical implications of what you write, you must also consider the ethics of the illustrations you create and include in your technical communication. Similar to the ways that you can be unethical in your writing, the following are ways you can be unethical when creating illustrations:
● Creating distorted or confusing graphs.
● Creating a drawing that puts features on a product that it doesn't really have.
● Designing a flow chart that obscures the complexity or danger of a process and makes it look deceptively simple or safe.
● Creating a photograph that stages or embeds objects or people to give it the impression you wish the user to gain.
● Starting an x or y axis at a different point-or "suppressing the zero"-in order to make data appear to be trending in a certain way or appear the way you want.
Any way that you distort illustrations or make them appear in a certain way that does not accurately reflect the situation, you are being unethical. In addition, it is unethical to not consider the sensitive nature of human's lives and creating or delivering illustrations that are inappropriate, discriminating, prompting stereotypes, thoughtless, or inconsiderate or exclusive of one's culture, ethnicity, or racial background.

You Are the Technical Writer for a Software Company and You