Research to Identify New Ideas & Legal / Ethical Constraints

A2 — Legal, ethical and research considerations

Before designing anything, research what already exists in your chosen area, and understand the legal and ethical rules that apply to whatever you go on to publish.

Researching existing ideas

Look at existing websites in the same space as your chosen brand and note what content and features they include, what works well, and what could be done differently. This isn't about copying — it's about understanding what a visitor to a site like this already expects.

Copyright

Text, images, video and other creative work are automatically protected by copyright the moment they're created — you cannot use someone else's material on your own site without permission, a licence, or it being genuinely royalty-free (Lesson 13 covers how to source assets correctly).

Data protection

If your site collects any personal information — through a contact or enquiry form, for example — you're responsible for handling it appropriately: only collecting what you actually need, and being clear with visitors about what happens to it.

Digital accessibility

Beyond the specific design features covered in Lesson 4, accessibility is also a legal and ethical responsibility, not just a design choice — a website that excludes users with disabilities is failing part of its own purpose for a real proportion of any real audience.

Inclusive and diverse representation

The people, language and imagery a website uses should reasonably reflect the diversity of its actual target audience, rather than defaulting to a narrow, unrepresentative view of who that audience is.

Task

Start a research log for your own website: record at least 3 existing sites in a similar space (what you'd keep, what you'd do differently), plus one note each on how copyright, data protection and inclusive representation apply specifically to your own brief. This is direct evidence for PSAB Task 1 (A.P1/A.M1/A.D1).