A Note on Terminology
Throughout this thesis, User-friendly is treated as a noun rather than an adjective. This usage follows Lori Emerson’s approach in Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound (2014). Capitalization is used consistently to mark this distinction.
Abstract (EN)
What is worth talking about on the topic of User-friendly? This research studies a classic interface design notion from a new perspective: the perception of friendliness in online privacy control.
Cookie consent banners from 30 websites on mobile viewport were sampled to study how the procedures for privacy control are handled. The analysis showed: 1) the design-imposed effort required to reject non-essential cookies and the opacity of information display differed depending on the functional category of the service provider; 2) a visible decrease in obvious dark patterns such as deprioritizing or hiding the opt-out button; 3) yet the design still failed to provide sequential affordances to users, due to an overuse of standardized interfaces and ambiguity in technical writing.
The summarized patterns were then applied to a guided experiment with six users to identify their general attitudinal and behavioral patterns towards online privacy control. The analysis showed that users recognized the use of cookie-tracking technologies, but they weren’t confident about what exactly they were consenting to and felt insecure about how their personal data was handled. This insight proved that usability-oriented design is not necessarily User-friendly. While the six users collectively admitted the importance of privacy protection, their critical attitude remained situational and hypothetical due to the convenience of services offered online.
Based on the consolidated findings from the interviews, the case study, and the experiments, this research proposes that the notion of User-friendly relevant to this generation should be clearly distinguished from Usability and Accessibility. The issue sits at the intersection of interface conventions, service design driven by profit, and regulatory frameworks; yet, design is just the surface where users encounter this issue. Rather than a measurable usability property, User-friendly should be dealing with the reconnection between digital and physical realities, and its form should go beyond touch-based interfaces.
Following a critical and speculative design approach, two projects were produced to materialize this argument. Project I: How to Crack Open a Stone is a short video that speaks to the critical now - that interface design is used as a disguised friendliness to exploit privacy. Project II: Cookies as Archival Objects is about cookies as speculative objects accompanied by a fictional story: what if the cookie consent we give online were required to take a physical form and be delivered to our home address as an archival object? The opinions from a small group of selected interviewees places the suggested User-friendly in an arguable position.
Abstract (DE)
Wie lässt sich das Thema Nutzerfreundlichkeit diskutieren? Diese Arbeit betrachtet einen klassischen Begriff des Interface-Designs, „User-friendly“, aus einer neuen Perspektive: die Wahrnehmung von Freundlichkeit bei der Kontrolle der eigenen Online-Privatsphäre.
Um zu untersuchen, wie die Abläufe zur Privatsphäre-Kontrolle gestaltet sind, wurden Cookie-Consent-Banner von 30 Websites in der mobilen Ansicht erfasst. Die Analyse zeigte: 1) der design-imposed Effort, um nicht notwendige Cookies abzulehnen, sowie die Intransparenz der Informationsdarstellung variierten je nach funktionaler Kategorie des Anbieters; 2) eine sichtbare Abnahme offensichtlicher Dark Patterns, etwa das Verstecken oder Zurückstufen des Ablehnen-Buttons; 3) dennoch gelang es dem Design nicht, den Nutzer:innen sequenzielle Affordances zu bieten — bedingt durch den übermäßigen Einsatz standardisierter Interfaces und durch Mehrdeutigkeit in der technischen Sprache.
Die zusammengefassten Muster flossen anschließend in ein begleitetes Experiment mit sechs Nutzer:innen ein, um deren allgemeine Einstellungs- und Verhaltensmuster gegenüber der Kontrolle der Online-Privatsphäre zu erfassen. Die Auswertung zeigte: Die Teilnehmenden erkannten zwar den Einsatz von Cookie-Tracking-Technologien, waren sich aber unsicher, wozu genau sie ihre Einwilligung gaben, und fühlten sich im Hinblick auf den Umgang mit ihren persönlichen Daten verunsichert. Dieses Ergebnis legt nahe, dass usability-orientiertes Design nicht zwangsläufig nutzerfreundlich ist. Während die sechs Nutzer:innen die Bedeutung des Datenschutzes übereinstimmend anerkannten, blieb ihre kritische Haltung situativ und hypothetisch — bedingt durch die Bequemlichkeit der online angebotenen Dienste.
Auf Grundlage der zusammengeführten Erkenntnisse aus den Interviews, der Fallstudie und den Experimenten argumentiert diese Arbeit, dass der für diese Generation relevante Begriff von User-friendly klar von Usability und Accessibility unterschieden werden sollte. Das Problem liegt an der Schnittstelle von Interface-Konventionen, profitgetriebenem Service Design und regulatorischen Rahmenbedingungen — Design ist dabei lediglich die Oberfläche, an der Nutzer:innen diesem Problem begegnen. Statt einer messbaren Usability-Eigenschaft sollte sich User-friendly mit der Wiederverbindung von digitaler und physischer Realität befassen, und seine Form sollte über touch-based interfaces hinausgehen.
Im Sinne eines kritischen und spekulativen Designansatzes entstanden zwei Projekte, die dieses Argument materialisieren. Projekt I: How to Crack Open a Stone ist ein Kurzvideo, das die kritische Gegenwart adressiert — dass Interface-Design als getarnte Freundlichkeit eingesetzt wird, um Privatsphäre auszubeuten. Projekt II: Cookies as Archival Objects befasst sich mit Cookies als spekulativen Objekten, begleitet von einer fiktiven Geschichte: Was wäre, wenn die Cookie-Einwilligungen, die wir online geben, eine physische Form annehmen müssten und uns als archivarische Objekte an unsere Wohnadresse zugestellt würden? Die Meinungen einer kleinen Gruppe ausgewählter Interviewter rücken das vorgeschlagene User-friendly in eine diskutierbare Position.
Outline
The theoretical foundations, research analysis and materialization of the analytical findings are interlocking with each other. To read the full thesis, you can download the PDF file here.
Introduction
Page 11-42
- Introduces the historical background of the notion User-friendly and the existing criticism around it.
- Reasons why I chose Privacy as a new perspective to study how User-friendly is played out in reality.
- Refers to the Theory of Affordance (Gibson, 1979) and Technology Affordances (Gaver, 1991) as the theoretical foundations of this thesis.
- Gives an overview of stages and methods of this thesis and how each part is interlocking with each other.
Research Documentation
Page 43-92
Documents the process, data, analysis and syntheses of each stage of the research, which includes:
- Preliminary interviews (n=11)
- Case study (n=30)
- Experiments (n=6)
Consolidated Analytical Findings
Page 93-98
- Confirms that Privacy is an emerging aspect of User-friendly.
- Rejects the notion that Easy-to-Use = User-friendly.
- Argues the currently available User-friendly in privacy control works only in favor of the service providers' but not encouraging the end users to strengthen their digital sovereignty.
Interdisciplinary Practices
Page 99-118
Presents two projects that materialized what it is like to about User-friendly through the lens of privacy control from the designers and end users perspective.
Project I: How to Crack Open a Stone is a wordless performative monologue contained in a video format. It symbolizes the force given destruct something suppose to be solid and indestructible;
Project II: Cookies as Archival Objects follows the speculative approach that invites a small group of people to answer the What If questions: what if each time a physical cookie like this is posted to your address an archival object to your online privacy consent?
Discussion
Page 119-123
As final discussion of this master's thesis, I argue that Privacy Consent is only one site where User-friendly is played out and misinterpreted. The key problem is that digital friendliness has become increasingly detached from its literal sense. To propose solutions to this problem, we need to broaden the understanding of User-friendly. Therefore the subject itself cannot remain confined to the conventional digital surface nor limited to designers; it must be interdisciplinary.
Book Format
The end format of the thesis is 110mm by 180mm, stitch-binded with hardcover. It is intended to be a pocket-sized handbook that is easy to carry and store. As there are in total 8 copies of the printed thesis in total, I chose three different colors for the cover. Amongst which four copies are in dark green, two in olive green and beige each.
