Mahboobin 16:00
R12
ETHICS OF FOCUSING ON USER EXPERIENCE AND AFTER-SALE
SERVICE
Kaichen Sun([email protected])
CASE STUDY
User experience is a factor as important as the quality of
the product. Even if the product is long-lasting and well-built,
it has to meet with customers’ demand. The focus on user
experience did not draw enough attention when companies
usually only pay attention to the durability of the products.
Take the example of a light bulb: there are always printed data
on the cover saying that how long the light bulb will work
before burning out and how many times it can be switched on
and off. These data are from the products which are randomly
collected from the factories. Thus, all companies tried their
best to make the figure on the cover larger to show their
product has better quality. However, with the noticeable
development of online shopping, customers’ comments
become quite important and sellers also try their best to meet
every need of customers and to avoid any bad comments
which will damage their reputation. That is why the new
product, the game suit that Nintendo sells causes my concerns.
After I graduated from University of Pittsburgh in 2019, I
was employed in Nintendo in product development section,
Nintendo was facing the problem that all the games, even the
online ones, can be downloaded from the Internet so only a
few people are buying games. So revolutionary products have
to be carried out to change the current situation. At that time,
I suggested to work on virtual reality for game experience.
Nintendo invented Wii, which can be controlled by motion
sense, and that made me think of 4D movies. Motion sense is
to let the game ‘feel’ the player while 4D movie is to let the
audience feel the movie. I came up with the idea that we
should make the players have the same experience as they are
in a 4D theater while they are playing the game. To make the
people have the feeling of his game reinforces the interaction
between the player and the game and that would surely be a
shock to the current gaming industry.
That product was a big success at first. However soon
consumers gave feedback that the suit providing virtual
reality is in fact a burden. Since we tried to simulate all
different factors, the suit was built very thick. Players felt it
was hard to walk around and they even can not comfortably
sit in the couch. Others complained about the thick glove
stopped them from picking up phones and hold the water cup.
During inventing process, all the staff just tried to play with
the suit on once or twice and all gave good comments.
However, we did not play for that long and no one took that
into consideration.
As a developer of the game suit, it is always important to
view the feedbacks. Common practice is try to meet every
need of customers to receive a good comment. That is what
University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering 1
Submission Date 2015-10-8
every online shop owner do. Once my friend Tom told me his
experience. He bought things from the Internet but the address
the seller wrote on the express mail was wrong and that was
sent to a wrong place. At first the seller refused to mail
another one because he would lose money. Tom then gave a
comment telling others what the shop owner did and clicked
‘1 star’ for that bad service. Two days later, Tom got what he
wanted and a letter was attached to apologize and beg him to
delete that comment. I did not want to disappoint my
customers and did not like a bad comment, so I discussed with
the team leader and try to persuade him to put off the orders
until we can solve the problems. [1]
Since there are still defects, I suggested that we should stop
manufacturing the product and solve the problems, but that
idea was rejected by the team leader. The reason was obvious:
we have spent too long to make that simulation work well and
it surely will take longer to redesign the whole thing to meet
the need of customers. That delaying will leave other game
companies with a chance to surpass our development and we
will lose this chance to gain maximum profit from the new
product. Since I am only a team member, I certainly know I
could not change the decision of the team leader. I knew at
least we should announce that it was our fault and that we did
not take the complete situation into consideration and tell the
public how to avoid inconveniences. What companies usually
do to solve this kind of problem is to stress the good quality
of their products and ignore the bad user experience. However,
that conflicts with the engineer’s code of ethics.
ETHICS APPLIED
National Society of Professional Engineers
In the Code of Ethics from the National Society of
Professional Engineers, engineers are required only to issue
truthfully and objectively to the public. Specifically,
engineers should only publish reports, statements or
testimony with relevant information adhered. [2]
That is one of the code that I think should stop my team
from selling the new product. We already knew that our new
product has defects but if we tell the public the truth,
customers will surely deliberate before buying. However,
what makes people buying games is the desire for new game
experience and if people are not going to buy a game or a
peripheral of games when it is first published, they are more
likely to wait for a latter model. Although gaining profit is the
aim of selling new products, engineers still should not violate
the code of ethics for engineers.
There is a case about an engineer who did not report the
potential danger to his client and that was a violation to the
ENGR0011/0711 Section
Group #
code of ethics of engineers. The engineer was asked to
examine the structure integrity of an old house. During work
of the engineer, the client confided that even if the structure
was safe, there were still electrical and mechanical
deficiencies remaining. However, the engineer was not an
electrical or mechanical engineering, and he did not report the
safety violations to a third party. That turned out to be against
the code of ethics that engineers should let his client knew
relevant information of the reports he published. He should
not publish the report without mentioning his client that a
third party should be involved to finish the task he was not
responsible for. [3]
WHAT HELPED ME TO MAKE UP MY
MIND TO CHANGE THE CURRENT
SITUATION
At first I was not very confident about my decision
At first I thought I should not even think about to change
my leader’s idea. All the reason that we worked on this new
game suit is to gain more profits. As long as it can attract the
public’s attention, it’s already a success. What we need is to
tell the public that Nintendo is still alive and we are working
hard to provide customers with better games and game
experiences. I still remember what happened when the public
found out that Nintendo tried to be lazy in game developing.
That was a scandal that involved American and Japanese
players of Nintendo games. After Nintendo published another
edition of Super Mario in Japan on different video game
machines, American players also asked for the new edition.
However, same game of different editions was illegal
according to the law at that time. Nintendo could not sell the
new edition but they still wanted to earn money from
American players. What they did was to name a different
game that already existed and sold in Japan as Super Mario
and sold it in American. When Japanese players heard that the
new edition of the game in American was totally different
from theirs, they asked for the new game. Nintendo then
found another game that they sold many years before and sold
it as a new game in a different name. That game was not
famous at all so at first Japanese players did not realize that.
When a player found out what Nintendo did to its customers,
all players got angry because of this cheating and Nintendo’s
received a terrible reputation. [7]
That was a shock to the game industry those years.
Nintendo was considered as one of the best game companies
with the set of Mario games and Pokemons. However, when
the public found that Nintendo tried to cheat customers by
selling the same game to different countries in different names,
players got angry about that. No one wants this company
suffer the situation that players become unsatisfied with
Nintendo’s product and refuse to buy their games. Neither
did I. I knew as long as we did not tell the public in advance
that the new product would cause inconvenience, people
would not hesitate to buy it and we could gain profits.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
In the Code of Ethics from The American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, safety problem is raised to stress the
responsibility of engineers. More clearly, to take the public
safety problem into consideration is a professional duty for
engineers. [4]
If the only problem is that the simulating suit makes people
feel uncomfortable, I will not be so worried. The complaint
that the suit makes moves inconvenient is in fact a potential
danger. What if the inconvenience causes other bad effects?
Maybe he ca not hold things easily and drop what is in his
hand. What came up to me is that if there is a fire he even can
not run away easily because he got stuck in the suit. Although
the possibilities that customers met those problems are quite
small, I believe I should take them into consideration at least
to be ready for anything that is to come.
Then I came up with the case that happened to Wayne
Davidson, a software engineer working for Occidental
Engineering. He was once assigned to a team to program an
air traffic control system. When he was doing tests on the new
program, he found that that program would lose track of some
planes if too many planes are added into it. He told his boss
about that problem, but his boss asked for the program even
if it was not safe and completed. Her reason was that since the
new software would be used in small areas first and customers
would ask for new version after testing them, they could make
the problem fixed in the next version. Even knowing that the
program was unsafe, Wayne signed on it and sent it to his
customer. Although no one revealed the problem, Wayne
retired after that project and decided to write books about
engineering and ethics. [5]
Another case happened in Spain. When working in a
construction site, Carlos found 3 of the workers were illegal
immigrants and did not have health insurance as well. When
the time came that the task needed professional knowledge,
he asked his boss to hire new workers. That is what a
professional engineer should do: care about safety problems
for his work. [6]
Then I changed my mind because of…
However, the safety problem is still confusing me day and
night. Even thought I knew all the potential danger I listed is
quite unlikely to happen, I just can not stop the fear that those
problems might burst out and threats the players’ lives. When
I thought of a news I saw from the Internet, I made up my
mind that I would try my best to change the team leader’s idea
and encourage my group members to work on the suit to
improve it.
2
ENGR0011/0711 Section
Group #
That was a tragedy that happened in Shanghai. On 15th
November, 2010, a big fire killed 58 people. That was a
building full of retired teachers and workers were working on
using insulation materials. However, while one welder was
doing his work, a spark flew over and caused fire on the
scaffolding. The exposed insulation material was also
combustible and all people living above that fire were stuck
in their rooms. Fire soon spread and killed lots of people. [8]
to tell the truth and gain profits. However, that is not what a
professional engineer is supposed to do. Engineers should be
proud of their job and regard the reputation as one of the most
important things. To follow the code of ethics is one of the
basic rule that an engineer should obey. Only by doing so,
engineers can be a respected job and bring people with a better
life.
REFERENCE
How I persuaded my colleagues
[1] Story from my friend Thomas Zhang
Since I have made up my mind that I would persuade my
colleagues, I decided to find some evidence that supports my
idea. I knew I can not use the potential danger as a supporting
reason to show my colleagues that we should work on the
project. However, I collected lots of the feedback I received
from buyers and told them why those are so important. To
work on customers’ comments on their using experience is
not an easy way to see what should we improve. In fact, that
is a chance that customers provide to let the sellers make up
mistakes.
In 2013, Chinese Consumer Protection Council revealed
that Apple’s after-sale service in China was different from
that in other countries. Some consumers found that their back
covers were not changed during fixing at Apple’s factory
while changing the back cover was required for repairing in
other places around the world. Apple’s selling met great
resistance in China that year. [9]
In the past people did not know their right. No one would
complain if he bought a product that broke soon. However,
when electronic appliances were invented, people could not
throw away broken products because those appliances usually
cost much money. They would rather complain to the
organizations and let them punish the retailers who sell lowquality products. I told my colleagues that even if telling the
public that our product still needed improvement might cause
decrease in selling, that would be much better than waiting
until one of the customer prosecute us. That would lead us to
lose both profit and reputation and a good reputation is what
supports a big company to survive.
[2] NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers.
http://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics
(2007)
[3] Public Health and Safety- Delay in Addressing Fire Code
Violations.
(2014)
http://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/BER%20Case%20No
%2013-11-FINAL.pdf
[4]
ASME
Code
of
Ethics.
(2006)
https://www.asme.org/getmedia/3cd4a989-d024-47cd-93b774cf6b257977/Student-Design-Competition-EngineeringCode-of-Ethics.aspx
[5] Michael McFarland, S.J. (2012) Occidental Engineering
http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases/OccidentalEng
.aspx
[6] Engineering Ethics in Spain: The Risky Tank
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/murdoughcenter/products/cases.ph
p
[7] Story from my roommate Zhongyang, Qu.
[8]
2010
Shanghai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Shanghai_fire
Fire
[9] Issues about guarantee of Apple products in China
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/苹果中国保修问题事件
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Conclusion
First I would like to thank Rachel who helped me with my
grammar and structures of the paper.
Then I would like to thank Brian who gave me advices on
how to cite cases and codes clearly.
I would then thank to Zhongyang, who talked to me about
the example I wrote in the paper.
As an engineer, either cheating to customers without
revealing all the facts or risking the customers’ safety for a
better profit is against the code of ethics. Engineers are
professional workers who work on the newest technologies to
make people’s life better. Since most people have no idea
about the new technologies, its quite easy to for engineers not
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Kaichen Sun
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