Thoughtful T&C design is one little step towards creating data transparency that truly makes sense to everybody.
TTC Lens
Through Design Jams across the globe, TTC Labs has been working to uncover the challenges that come with balancing brand, user experience, legal requirements, and designing for a worldwide audience.
All these dimensions come into conflict, for example, on your average Terms & Conditions page. So, we ask: how might we focus more on the needs of real people?
Lens snapshot
Data transparency is about so much more than Terms & Conditions.
But they’re a good place to start.This is typically what they look like.
The language is complicated.
There’s a lot of it.
These documents require college-level comprehension skills, but, in the USA, only 48%* of people can read at this level.
*Source: U.S. Department of EducationWe say we want data transparency, yet we design for inaccessibility from the start.
How might we think about this differently?
Could T&Cs be educational?
Could they explain — perhaps even justify — how and why a company is using data?
Could visual design and graphic elements make things easier to read?
Could we design with different audiences in mind?
Could we simply write for clarity and comprehension?
Thoughtful T&C design is one little step towards creating data transparency that truly makes sense to everybody.
Designing for the world means designing across a range of different needs and abilities. It's a huge responsibility to help people overcome barriers to understanding. Barriers that might be physical, economic, cultural, conceptual, or something else altogether.
TTC LENS Designing data transparency for all
Here are some ways product designers, privacy experts and policy makers have been exploring the problem, with TTC Labs.
Top
When people are first learning about data, the concepts can feel overwhelming and complex. Illustrations and visual metaphors can really help to bring abstract ideas to life, show connections, and get people to engage at a deeper level.
Read moreSam Royle
Content Strategist, Facebook
Read moreFoodvisor, a nutrition advisory app startup, worked with TTC Labs to rethink some aspects of their product that related to personal data usage. The improvements they made to their onboarding flow were not only more transparent regarding people's data–they resulted in a higher conversion rate, too.
Read moreYour interface might look amazing, sure. But if your content can't be understood and easily digested? You'll never build trust and provide transparency. There's an entire discipline focused on writing for digital experiences.
Learn more about how content strategy can make privacy more accessible.
Read moreRomain Bessuges-Meusy
CEO, Axeptio
Read moreDuring a Design Jam in London in 2018, we set out to design innovative interfaces that recognize teens as sophisticated digital users. We explored ways to give them more transparency and granular control over how their data is used.
Check out this TTC Toolkit exercise about the power of language in your privacy notices.
Read moreFlorian Schaub
Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
Read moreTTC LENS Designing data transparency for all
These design prototypes demonstrate how Design Jam participants have sought to design data transparency for all.
Top
Singapore 21st May 2019
AWH serves lower-income communites with varying education and digital literacy levels. That means that people may not fully understand or engage with data privacy or their rights when using the service.
This solution involved creating a step-by-step explanation of the Philippines' Data Privacy act, breaking down the information into bite-size pieces.
Learn moreSingapore 14th Nov 2018
Consent isn't always a binary choice. In fact, it isn't even always a choice you make with words at all.
It's possible to communicate consent with physical gestures and movement, allowing answers to become more nuanced. Shrugging your shoulders or raising eyebrows could prompt the app to give the users more information, for example.
Learn moreWashington 26th Sep 2019
Young people regularly create content to express their rapidly changing identities. As they mature, they may want to change who has access to their older content–but this process is time consuming and, thus, often neglected.
By offering periodic notifications and incentives, this solution could give people quick and playful ways to modify the visibility of their posts.
Learn moreFurther reading