UX of Data: A practical teardown series (Introduction)
Recently I announced an intention on LinkedIn to start pulling together a teardown series focused on the design patterns of different data practices across industry verticals. The idea is that it compliments our Data Trust by Design series by supporting our principles, patterns and practices with a heap of real world examples. It’s about stuff we can all relate to and ideally learn from.
Funny thing is doing this was an intention ever since we founded Greater Than X. It was actually articulated very explicitly in our first ever strategy doc. Unfortunately, and fortunately, other stuff got in the way. So this is me announcing we’re actually doing it.
Wait, but why?
Like us, you’ve probably experienced a plethora of emails of late. If you didn’t know about the GDPR before the inbox carnage, you almost certainly do now. Although much of this experience has been driven by questionable legal guidance (and not necessarily ‘designed’), it’s an example of a design pattern, that‘s close to useless for the people the pattern intends to serve.
Think about it, have you taken any action based on these emails?
There are examples of this type of stuff all over the place. Everything from privacy policies, cookie consent notices, lengthy terms and conditions documents (that no one ever reads) through to all of the permissions requests we get whilst using apps on a daily basis. Much of this stuff is broken.
These patterns should serve the purpose of informing, empowering and enabling us to make choices about how our data is or isn’t used.
Some do this pretty darn well.
Others, not so much.
So, what will we focus on?
Our aim is to break down the experience people have with different data sharing design patterns (think UserOnboard for data). Things like upfront terms and conditions, consent-based data sharing and privacy policies are all fair game.
We want to look at what’s really working. We want to highlight some of the brands putting a heap of effort into this space. We also want to look for experiences that have potential, yet haven’t executed effectively.
Here’s why (we think) you should read
If you haven’t experienced this already, my bet is you soon will. The personal information economy is evolving and part of that means we need to get better at informing, empowering and enabling people to make choices about how their data is and isn’t used. A decent chunk of this effort is going to become the responsibility of researchers, designers and product people.
We’ll work closely with lawyers and other functions across the business to achieve this. But we may have to own a good chunk of it. At the very least we’ll be owning the experience to ensure our data sharing design patterns increase comprehension, decrease cognitive load and make it easier than ever for people to exercise control.
What can you do now?
We’re looking at a bunch of diverse experiences, but we’d love your suggestions. Feel free to call anything out in the comments below. It could be an email, an onboarding process, an app update or something entirely different. The only criteria to consider is that the brand you’re engaging with is asking for data in some way, shape or form, or is enabling you to manage your data in some way, shape or form.
Let’s make this a collaborative process.
If you want to stay in the loop, subscribe to our Medium channel. We do what we can to post valuable content frequently. If you want to talk more about the specifics of this work and how it might impact you, get in touch. I’d love to chat and am more than happy to dive into the nitty gritty of this space.
Nathan
