DATA CTRL
A collaborative project for the NYC Media Lab x Consumer Reports Privacy Policy Prototyping Challenge. Our team prototyped an online educational tool and chatbot to provide users with information on the consequences of their data agreement and a single location to control their data outcomes across multiple websites. Over the course of a short dialogue, users could ask about the different components of a privacy policy and specify exactly what settings they want. The focus of the project was on user research, content design, and art direction.
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To create and present a final pitch presentation on how we can make privacy policies and terms of service more useful to average consumers.
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Today, it is hard to manage how companies collect and distribute personal information on the web. Every company has its version of a policy. While a user can manage one’s policies, connecting what a service collects to its impact is specific and effort-intensive. It is challenging even to know the consequences of opting out.
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Laypeople who are not familiar with the data/advertising economy but may want more control over their own data.
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Our project aims to provide holistic information on the ramifications of data collection. We want to consolidate all your privacy policies to a single location for our users. Our online chatbot would keep track of your privacy preferences and show you how they are applied across multiple websites.
Process
Project Roadmap—
The project was a remote collaboration between a group of five students and NYC Media Lab and Consumer Reports mentors. To meet the project deadline, we created a project roadmap in order to manage tasks efficiently within the team. We divided the project into 3 phases:
Phase 1 —discovery, research, and wireframing.
Phase 2 —low-fidelity prototyping, research, and consultation with the Consumer Reports Digital Team.
Phase 3 —high-fidelity prototype idea to pitch for the final presentation.
I managed the team task and roadmap on Notion.
User Research—
We wanted to understand how people felt about this process, so we sent a Google Form survey to our academic cohort. Our cohort is primarily composed of people in the 28-35-year-old range. And in general, as critical technologists, we trend negatively against corporate power.
We tracked mean and mode responses on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is a strong disagreement and 5 is strong agreement. And we took mode to determine how a choice might have been trending.
Survey results breakdown.
Key Analysis—
From the survey results, we learned:
Many people found data consent and use confusion
The language used in privacy policies and terms of use is difficult to understand for a layperson
Decision making is often obscured by buttons/hidden behind pages of the contract
From these insights, we focused our goal as such:
Set the target audience as laypeople who are not familiar with the data/advertising economy but may want to have more control over their own data
Provide our users with information on companies' policy policies
Focus our design on the language and visuals so that it is approachable by users
Form —
DATA CTRL provides a clear privacy assessment experience, providing the users with obvious outcomes for the ramifications of their data agreements. The website provides some introductory information about how privacy policies are set up, and how companies use your data. Then our online educational tool and chatbot 'Deecee' engages in a more humane conversation with the users about the complicated components of privacy settings.
We wanted the overall design to be more playful, humane, organic, and relatable to the users. We used a lot of blobs and emojis to soften the heaviness of the topic and make it more approachable for our target users.
Brainstorm
User Flow & Wireframe—
Our team wanted to focus on the flow of the experience. We designed a more welcoming conversation to introduce audiences to the concepts of information privacy and what it means to accept the terms. Instead of building the actual chatbot, we spent our time on user research, content design, and art direction.
User Flow
Wire frames
Chatbot interaction mock up.
Prototype—
For our final pitch, we built out a preliminary web prototype. As the user scrolls through, they can learn about how privacy policies are set up and how companies use your data. For example, the three types of information you create every time you go online and the three things that businesses can use your information for profit. This intro would be an entry point for users who are not familiar with the typical ways companies use their data. In addition to the chatbot, our content team wrote an educational page with introductory information about how privacy policies are set up and how companies use your data.
First iteration of information layout.
Image of the finished splash page of DATA CTRL
Our chatbot, Deecee, would ask the user their comfort levels with different privacy settings, and explain what changing them would mean. Deecee helps users connect with the consequences of their data choices and have a single location to control their data outcomes across multiple websites. Over the course of a short dialogue, you could ask about the different components of a privacy policy, and specify exactly what settings you want.
Deecee chatbot page layout.
Final introductory information page.
Next Step—
Our hope for the future would be to build the backend of this product and figure out how to connect it to third-party websites so that users can seamlessly update their preferences.
Final Presentation —
We presented our prototype to a live audience of 80 people including the Consumer Reports team.
A collaborative project by Mary Ann Badavi, Jason Li, Bhava Gupta, Rosa Ng, Sohee Cho