When we are faced with the challenge of incorporating AI into our designs, what is the effect of pouring untruthful data into the AI?
During a series of workshops on data quality in 2025, I discovered that nearly all of us admit to an occasional lie on a form or survey: this might be for privacy reasons, because we are trying to achieve a particular outcome, or because the question offers us wrong answer options only.
The aim of this session for UX Scotland 2026 was to help us identify what we are doing in our own designs that might force people into giving wrong answers. And to share strategies which encourage respondents to be more truthful.
My thanks to all those who attended my workshop and contributed their ideas and experiences during some lively sharing exercises. Thanks, too, to the event organisers for putting together such an interesting programme of talks and workshops. It’s always a pleasure to visit Edinburgh.