WHEN TERMS OF SERVICE ARE LONGER THAN A SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY: EASING THE UNDERSTANDING OF LEGAL DOCUMENTS THROUGH A USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN METHOD

Abstract

Whenever a user uses an Internet service, he accepts Terms of Service and Privacy Policy agreements, which describes how his personal data are going to be managed. This became even more evident during the global pandemic of 2020, which proved the world how precarious our living habits are. The enforcement of lockdown measures by the majority of the governments left a huge amount of people studying, working and spending their free time inside their homes, which ultimately lead to a huge increase in Internet based services for both work and leisure. This phenomenon undoubtedly shaped our future, with a new approach needed in design education connecting responsibility, user experience, products and services, and we can see how this share of market is about continue its growth even when the pandemic will be over. However, using those services such as accepting Terms of Service and Privacy Policy agreements is not so straightforward and there is a need to enhance this in design education. The complexity of managing this process gets often overlooked, and the full documents are seldomly read by the users. This paper addresses the issue of informing the user on how their data is being managed via a qualitative approach including in-depth interviews to people in different demographics and in different user groups. Results reveal how coupling icons with easily understandable texts can improve the user’s awareness regarding the management of his data, leading to a more mindful approach to these services.