Design Jam at Station F: Privacy Design for Startups
Startup Garage at Station F hosts a ‘Design Jam’
Last week in Paris, five startups hosted at Facebook’s Startup Garage took part in an intensive all-day workshop focused on designing for Europe’s incoming data protection laws in a way that works for the people who use their services. The hands-on ‘Design Jam’ saw Startup Garage and Station F members working with representatives from major European companies like Blablacar and Orange, as well as with policy makers from EU regulatory bodies like the CNIL and academics from the University of Southampton. Held here at Startup Garage, the Design Jam was the latest in a series of interactive workshops that Facebook and others have helped run to come up with innovative, design-led solutions to privacy challenges.
Design Jams: The thinking behind them
Drawing on a diverse mix of perspectives from the outset is key to meeting data privacy challenges. As Estelle Hary, designer at French privacy regulator the CNIL and a participant in last week’s Design Jam noted, ‘Privacy by Design is a key principle of the GDPR and there is a need to foster collaboration between lawyers, designers and technologists to design ways of implementing it.’ That’s why Design Jams assemble a group of cross-industry experts and encourage them to experiment to find new and better ways to help people understand how their data is used.
Previous Design Jams have taken place in Brussels, Berlin, Dublin, Sao Paulo, and Hong Kong, and have focused on specific privacy challenges, like how to inform people about cookies without interrupting their online experience. The new General Data Protection Regulation coming into force across Europe next year was a natural focus for the most recent Design Jam. The GDPR means that privacy is more than ever a focus for every company, from Facebook to the smallest startup. The GDPR is an opportunity to create a digital culture built on transparency and trust, in which privacy goes hand-in-hand with an enjoyable user experience. The Paris Design Jam aimed to help startups seize that opportunity.
‘Privacy by Design is a key principle of the GDPR and there is a need to foster collaboration between lawyers, designers and technologists to design ways of implementing it.’ — Estelle Hary, designer at French privacy regulator the CNIL and a participant in last week’s Design Jam
Design Jam attendee Marie-Charlotte Roques Bonnet, Director of EMEA Privacy Policy at Microsoft, observed that ‘Privacy is a real life exercise that needs to be understandable and accessible’, noting ‘We have to go beyond compliance towards accountability.’ The idea behind the Design Jams is that we need new thinking to tackle the challenges of putting people in control of their data online.
On the ground: What we did to generate new thinking and help startups overcome challenges
The Paris Design Jam kicked off with a group exercise on the most important step of all: getting in the mindset of the everyday user. Participants were presented with fictional personas of app users — like Victoria, a thirty-something time-poor career woman — and invited to imagine what she would need out of an app’s user interface to feel confident in how her data is used.
The startups then split into teams, each including experienced designers from Facebook or design agency Normally. Each startup came up with one particular challenge they hoped to solve, and worked with their teams to create a new feature that would improve their service. Mapstr, the first map-meets-notes app that lets users save their favourite places in the world and share them with their friends, came to the Jam hoping to discover how to avoid flooding users with long legal documents, while still ensuring they understand how their data is used. The startups then experimented with mock-up interfaces, with ongoing conversation, feedback, and brainstorming continuing throughout the day.
‘I’m usually rather skeptical of thematic events like this as their focus is often too broad,’ Camille observed, but for him, ‘the Jam was the opposite. From the start, it was clear that the focus was on user experience.’
‘The day was really great for us’, said Sébastien Caron, Mapstr’s CEO and founder, attesting that the Jam helped him and his team make great strides by focusing on one specific privacy challenge. ‘We were amazed by all the ideas we had from the team. For one issue, we came up with five different solutions we can readily use.’ Mapstr plans to use their Design Jam work as they develop their app.
Camille Noël at Karos, a carpool app that leverages machine learning and big data technologies to transform empty car seats into mass transit systems, likewise appreciated the Jam’s specific focus on the user. ‘I’m usually rather skeptical of thematic events like this as their focus is often too broad,’ Camille observed, but for him, ‘the Jam was the opposite. From the start, it was clear that the focus was on user experience’. The Design Jam helped Karos devise a new app layout with input from its diverse team. ‘As a start-up, having 7 specialists — 1 businessperson, 2 lawyers and 4 designers — from major companies, working on your project…It’s priceless.’
Likewise, Camille Billon-Pierron of OneCub, a data portability tool that allows individuals to collect their data from their emails and reuse it on other websites, attested that attending the Jam helped her and her team ‘to move forward quickly by focusing on one single challenge. The result was impressive: an interactive design prototype for our UX redesign.’
Working towards long-term collaboration: where do we go from here?
Participants appreciated the collaborative approach of the Design Jams, noting the importance of continuing this open and inclusive dialogue in the future. Emanuele De Leonardis, Deputy VP, Data Strategy & Governance at Orange, participated in the day’s activities, and reflected that ‘Consumer trust is a key and complex topic that deserves a collective, cross-industry effort as well as new methodologies of work’. Fellow Jam attendee Richard Gomer, Research Fellow at the University of Southampton’s Meaningful Consent project, further said ‘Delivering meaningful control over personal data requires co-ordination, communication and understanding between digital citizens and the digital services that they use.’
The best designs start with a thoughtful understanding of people, and recognise that progress often happens in small steps. We were inspired by the collaborative spirit, energy, and new ideas the Design Jam sparked and excited to help startups embrace a culture of trust and transparency. The aim is to make the outputs available to other startups next year.
