Paper Reading # 2 - Communicating Software Agreement Content Using Narrative Pictograms

Comments:
Joe Cabrera
Steven Hennessy



Reference Information:
Communicating Software Agreement Content Using Narrative Pictograms
Michael Terry, Matthew Kay
CHI 2010, April 10-15, 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA

Summary:
The article describes how End User License Agreements can be simplified for the user due to their length and lack of knowledge and concept level of the average user. Most EULAs are too long and reading requires postgraduate reading levels making it tedious for the user. The authors propose using a pictogram to aid the EULA (not replace them). For data collecting, 4 different sets of pictograms would be used for the functional overview of the software, and for environmental, interaction, and privacy data collecting. Examples are shows by showing a cartoon of a user interacting with a computer and a graph next to it, illustrating what data it is collecting. The data rangers from user keystrokes to the OS they are using. Each graph gives a clear representation of the type of data being collected. Environmental data would collect the machine's OS, the country where the machine is being used, the screen dimensions, etc. Interaction data collects, mouse clicks, zoom ins/outs, keyboard usage, etc. Only the fact that a keyboard or mouse click was used is recorded in this scenario, not the location of the pointer or the specific key pressed. Privacy sensitive data collection such as planned use of software, referred to as activity tags, and publicly accessible. The pictogram in this scenario shows data being collected and an arrow pointing directly to a website opposed to a graph. This indicates specific information opposed to general statistical data collection being graphed. The way these pictograms are set up is by rules and conventions to inform the user of what is going on. Breaking convention draws attention to details users must know about the software. The pictograms are culturally aware as they do not use text as a mean of communicating an idea and are planned out so as not to be misrepresented by users in different locations around the world. Using repetition will establish patterns for simple interpretation which can be broken to draw attention to specific details. Also, avoiding numbers will refer users from interpreting the pictogram as a sequential user manual with step-by-step instructions. Research was done to assure the easy representation of the illustrations. The paper goes on to describe the proccess of their research to come to the final designs.

Discussion:
I would really like to see these illustrations on software so that I can intuitively know what data is being collected and avoid reading the EULA. This is a clever idea to get the information across such a large audience from different backgrounds. This form of interaction will educate a lot of users on software use and the data collecting that goes on behind it. Users can no longer be blindsided when using products. I can just imagine the Facebook page being plagued by a plethora of Privacy Sensitive Data Collecting pictograms all over their sign-up page. It may differ a lot of users from using certain software products.