UX of Respect

I love that the word respect has a power anthem in the song by Aretha Franklin. Rest in Musical Power. You can probably hear her singing it now through your mind stereo as you read this. Spelling "respect" and asking "find out what it means to me". What a fantastic call to action.

Describing how you see and wish to embody respect for your audiences is a good way to list principles for what you make. What you choose to influence and constrain your work can include respect. How exactly do you show respect for your audiences? For a start:

• Respect their time by being learnable and usable.

• Respect their skills and abilities by being accessible.

• Respect their effort by preserving what they create.
• Respect their intent by only preserving what they want you to.
• Respect their privacy by only asking for just enough information to do the work they need.

Consider situations where you don't feel that respect from a system or product. Those can help give you ideas of what not to do. For me:

• When I encounter an app or service that asks for a lot of private information without helping me understand how they will use it.
• When I use an app that allowed me to enter too many characters in a form that then deletes all the other text I entered.
• When I use an app that doesn't have a clear way to understand where I am in a process or task.

What ways do you notice the presence or absence of respect in a user experience?