Increasing User Empowerment through Participatory and
Transcription
Increasing User Empowerment through Participatory and
Increasing User Empowerment through Participatory and Co-design Methodologies D1.3.1c September 2014 Authors Verónica Donoso, Maarten Van Mechelen, Valerie Verdoodt Affiliation ICRI & CUO ISBN ********* EMSOC T + 32 (0)2 629 16 14 E [email protected] W www.emsoc.be Twitter #emsocnews Powered by IWT Abstract In this deliverable we explore ways of increasing user empowerment by employing participatory and co-design methodologies. The deliverable summarises the main results of the Legal Design Jam and the co-design sessions with children and parents. Both these exercises constituted concrete efforts to increase the transparency of the Terms of Use of popular websites by actively integrating relevant stakeholders and end users into the design process. At the end of this report we suggest guidelines that can accompany the development of more meaningful, user-friendly and user-centric approaches towards designing legal communication in particular for more vulnerable consumers/users such as young children. Special thanks to… All the enthusiastic participants of the Legal Design Jams, especially to the master students, children and their parents, for providing their valuable input and original ideas for this publication. We would like to thank Microsoft and Ketnet, for providing us with the opportunity to propose new ideas and for being open to feedback. Last but not least we a big thank you to Ellen Wauters and Stefania Passera, for their valuable input and their help during the Legal Design Jams. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 3 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Special thanks to… 3 List of figures and tables 5 1 Executive summary 6 1.1 The EMSOC project .......................................................................................................6 1.2 Increasing transparency of social media as a mechanism for user empowerment .............................................................................................................................6 2 Empowering social media users to enforce their rights and respect their obligations through increased transparency 7 2.1 Challenges for transparency .....................................................................................8 3 Participatory design: An empowering methodology to increase transparency 11 4 The first Belgian Legal Design Jam 12 4.1 Legal Design Jam definition and methodology.................................................. 12 4.2 Participants and procedure .................................................................................... 13 4.3 Interaction among the participants ..................................................................... 13 4.4 The process of achieving a user-friendly “Purchase policy”.......................... 14 4.5 General results ............................................................................................................ 15 4.5.1 Problematic issues identified .......................................................................................... 15 4.6 Results by teams ......................................................................................................... 17 4.6.1 Team “User-friendly summary” ...................................................................................... 17 4.6.2 Team “Purchase policy” .................................................................................................... 19 4.6.3 Team “Return & refund policy” ...................................................................................... 21 4.6.4 Teams “Layout” and “Icons” ............................................................................................ 23 4.7 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 24 5 Ketnet Co-Design Session with children 24 5.1.1 Participatory Design with children: an emergent field? ..................................... 24 5.1.2 Beyond Representation: Interpreting Co-design Artefacts ............................... 25 5.1.3 Co-design as a tool for child-friendly Terms of Use .............................................. 25 5.2 Towards child-friendly terms of use ................................................................... 26 5.2.1 Co-design jam with children and parents ................................................................. 26 5.2.2 General procedure ............................................................................................................. 27 5.2.3 Sensitizing ............................................................................................................................. 27 5.2.4 Introduction and warm up ............................................................................................. 28 5.2.5 Ideation and selection ...................................................................................................... 29 5.2.6 Break ....................................................................................................................................... 32 5.2.7 Elaboration through making.......................................................................................... 32 ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 4 5.2.8 Presentation and discussion .......................................................................................... 33 6 Analysis and results 33 6.1 High-level expert review of Ketnet’s Terms of Use ........................................ 34 6.2 Classification of online risks following the EU Kids Online 3C`s model . 37 6.2.1 Classifying online risks: Children vs. parents` perspectives ............................. 37 6.2.2 Classification of risks: Ketnet`s perspective ............................................................ 42 6.3 Conclusions of the analysis..................................................................................... 44 6.4 Recommendations on how to improve the Ketnet Terms of Use.............. 46 6.4.1 Our agreement .................................................................................................................... 47 6.4.2 Rules of the game ............................................................................................................... 48 6.4.3 E-safety tips .......................................................................................................................... 52 7 Reflections and conclusions 53 8 References 55 9 Annex 1. Pre-assignments Legal Design Jam 59 9.1 Tasks common to all teams .................................................................................... 59 9.2 TASKS Team 1: Text and Layout ........................................................................... 59 9.3 TASK Team 2: creating a user-friendly, visually enhanced summary .... 60 9.4 TASK Team 3: visualization of the purchase process.................................... 61 9.5 TASK Team 4: visualization of the return policy process ............................ 62 9.6 TASK Team 5: icons ................................................................................................... 62 10 Dutch Summary 63 List of figures and tables Figure 1 designing a user-friendly “purchase policy”.................................................................. 15 Figure 2. Paper prototype of the proposed user friendly summary ...................................... 18 Figure 3 Digital mock-up of the user-friendly summary ............................................................ 19 Figure 4 Post-it draft of the Flowchart of the purchase process ............................................. 20 Figure 5 Digital prototype of the purchase process workflow ................................................ 21 Figure 6 Digital prototype of the return & refund policy scheme ........................................... 22 Figure 7 Digital mock-up of the suggested Terms of Use layout and related icons ......... 23 Figure 8 Sensitizing material: Timeline family activities ........................................................... 28 Figure 9. One of the three child characters used during the Jam ........................................... 30 Figure 10 Parents visualizing their top-10 tips ............................................................................. 32 Figure 11 EU Kids Online classification of risks relating to children`s internet use (exemplars only)............................................................................................................................... 34 Figure 12 Parental consent requires agreeing with the Terms of Use and the privacy disclaimer ............................................................................................................................................ 35 ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 5 Figure 13 Extract from Ketnet Terms of Use .................................................................................. 46 1 1.1 Executive summary The EMSOC project The goal of the EMSOC project, funded by IWT, is to critically assess the belief that the user is being empowered in a social media culture. The research is structured according to three main areas of interest in society where user (dis)empowerment is taking place related to social computing, namely, inclusion, literacy and privacy. An interdisciplinary team from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Universiteit Gent and KU Leuven has collaborated since the end of 2010 to provide fundamental and evidence-based answers to the challenging assumptions and principles of the EMSOC research project. 1.2 Increasing transparency of social media as a mechanism for user empowerment Throughout EMSOC we have studied social media use in Flanders with a special focus on how their use and appropriation can affect user empowerment. One important aspect that emerged throughout our research was the lack of transparency surrounding many (commercial) practices related to the use of social media services. In December 2013 we held the EMSOC transparency workshop where a selected group of experts and practitioners gathered together to discuss possible ways to increase transparency in and across social media platforms in creative, user-centred and meaningful ways. Even though the participants in the workshop had very diverse backgrounds, there was a general consensus that one problematic area affecting social media was the way (legal) information was provided to users/consumers. In general, information such as the Terms of Use or Privacy Policies governing the use of social media services are very hard to understand. This is partly because the language used in these texts (legalese) is complex but also because of users` cognitive and contextual constraints (e.g. lack of time or motivation). As a consequence, most social media users are unable to assess and process legal information such as contracts or Terms of Service correctly. During the workshop we also brainstormed on possible ways to improve the efficiency of information provision. Some of the ideas discussed included exploring the potential of visualisation techniques, simplifying legal language and timing the information provision in ways that can facilitate users’ understanding of complex (legal) information. In particular, the concept of Legal Design Jams developed and presented during the workshop by Stefania Passera caught the participants` attention and was considered as a very practical and useful methodology to increase the transparency of information provision towards social media users. Inspired by this idea, EMSOC decided to organize the first Belgian Legal Design Jam on April 4th, 2014. During this Jam we worked in collaboration with Microsoft on the Terms of Use and ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 6 Sale of their Microsoft Online Store. The main idea was to think about different ways to make the document more accessible and user-friendly. A second exercise was done in collaboration with the popular Flemish children`s Ketnet website, operated by the public service broadcaster. Here, we organized two co-design sessions with children and parents. The aim of these sessions was to let children and their parents think about ‘alternative’ ways to present Ketnet Terms of Use in a way that better responds to their life experiences and viewpoints. In this deliverable we summarize the main results of the Legal Design Jam and the codesign sessions with children and parents. Both these exercises constituted concrete efforts to increase the transparency of popular websites and above all to extract Best Practices that could guide the development of more user-friendly and user-centric ways of designing legal communication and to reflect on the lessons learnt throughout these processes. 2 Empowering social media users to enforce their rights and respect their obligations through increased transparency ‘Terms of Use’, which you have to agree to when you create a social network profile, are the traditional way of providing consumers with information so that they can make “informed” decisions regarding a particular product or service. Research, however, shows that even when supplied with the appropriate information most users are still unable to assess and process legal information such as contracts or Terms of service correctly. This is partly because the language used in these texts (legalese) is complex but also because of users` cognitive and contextual constraints (e.g. lack of time or motivation). The fact that Terms of Use in SNS are usually not read nor fully understood by users in social media platforms is, therefore, not surprising. What is new, however, are the challenges that the very nature of social media pose to transparency. Through the EMSOC project we attempted to look at these challenges and proposed ways to deal with them: • • • Social media users are a heterogeneous audience comprising all layers of society from very young children to the elderly. Conversely, Terms of Use are drafted with a single, standard user in mind making them difficult to grasp for a wide majority of the population. Documents such as Terms of Use and privacy policies are intended for users, but seem to be drafted by lawyers for lawyers. In order to enhance users’ trust but also to help users make really informed decisions, more userfriendly texts and formats are needed. Information about the rules governing social media services is usually provided when the user registers for the service and it is often made available through links at the bottom of pages or quite hidden in the navigation. Accessibility of such information is, thus, not always up to par. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 7 • 2.1 We need to start exploring more effective ways of presenting such information. For instance, by providing intellectual property rights information when it is really relevant to users (e.g. when uploading a picture or a video). Citizens have the right to know what their rights and obligations in social media platforms are and this can only be achieved if the laws and rules governing these services reflect users’ and consumers′ needs, expectations and values. This means that user-centric, dynamic and contextual ways of providing legal and policy-related information to users are required. Avenues worthwhile exploring include ‘Smart disclosure’, i.e. using big data to provide users with personalized information as well as visualisation and information design. Research is needed to explore the most meaningful ways to put these concepts into practice and to explore the ethical and legal implications this could have for providers as well as for users. Challenges for transparency Many laws require companies to inform users about the terms governing their services. Nonetheless, research shows that they do not always employ user-friendly mechanisms to distribute this information effectively. As a consequence, company policy or legal documents, both offline or online, are rarely read or understood by users (Wauters and Donoso, 2014).. This implies that a large amount of people are agreeing to terms and conditions without knowing the content and possible consequences of these contracts. The fast evolution of new technologies and the Internet leads to new dynamics between users and technology, but also between citizens and the legal contracts ruling these services. This has posed important challenges to transparency. For instance, given the frequency with which people enrol for new online services, download applications or buy online products, they are more than ever being confronted with (online) legal and policy documents. These legal documents can sometimes pose risks to users, for instance, in terms of data protection and privacy. It is crucial, therefore, that users and consumers have a good understanding of what these documents entail, i.e. understanding the rules that govern the use of specific online services as well the implications of their online behaviour. In order for this to happen, users should not only be able to easily access such documents, but above all, they should be able to grasp them. Only then, will users and consumers be in a position to assess if it is really worthwhile opening an account on X social media service or if it is safe to buy X product on Y online shop. In the specific case of social media services, the rules governing these platforms are traditionally included in the ‘Terms of Use’, which users have to agree to upon registration, i.e. when they give their “informed” consent. Research, however, has shown that even when users are supplied with the appropriate information, most of ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 8 them are still unable to process these legal texts correctly. This is partially due to cognitive and contextual constraints, like lack of motivation to read the contract or lack of time1. The use of legal jargon and difficult sentence structures (‘legalese’) add up to the inherent complexity of legal documents. Indeed, already in 1963, Melinkoff found that “the language of the law has the strong tendency to be 1) wordy, (2) unclear, (3) pompous, and (4) dull”.2 He also found that “the language of the law is ‘full of long sentences, awkward constructions, and fuzzy-wuzzy words.’ The result is often nothing less than a failure of communication”.3 As legal texts are usually full of archaisms, redundancy and chaotic verb structures, some advocate the use of plain language to facilitate their comprehension. Adler (1991) for example discovered that the level of understanding of legal texts by people with a non-legal background was much lower than what solicitors expected.4 Similarly, a 2010 survey of the Canadian Plain Language Institute of British Columbia showed that out of ten types of publications, legal publications were considerably perceived as the most difficult to understand.5 Because of this, certain initiatives promoting the use of plain language in legal texts have already been taken, for example the implementation of the Plain Writing Act of 2010 in the US. In the EU, several European directives state that the information regarding the processing of personal data should be provided in an intelligible form, using clear and plain language.6 The plain language EISENBERG Melvin A., “The Limits of Cognition and the Limits of Contract”, Stanford Law Review, 47(2), 1995, 211-259, 213; JOLLS, Christine, SUNSTEIN, Cass and THALER, Richard, “A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics”, Stanford Law Review, 50(5), 1998, 1471-1550; KREPS, David, ‘Bounded Rationality’ in Newman (Ed.), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, 1998, 168-173; BAKOS, Yannis, MAROTTA-WURGLER, Florencia & TROSSEN, David R., “Does Anyone Read the Fine Print? Testing a Law and Economics Approach to Standard Form Contracts”, CELS 2009 4th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper, NYU Law and Economics Research Paper No. 09-40. 2 MELLINKOFF, David, “The Language of the Law, Little, Brown and Company”, Boston, 1963, 24. 3 Ibid., p. 27. 4 ADLER, Mark, “Bamboozling the Public”, New Law Journal, 26 July 1991, available at http://www.clarity-international.net/downloads/Bam.pdf. 5 PLAIN LANGUAGE INSTITUTE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Critical Opinions: The Public’s View of Lawyers' Documents, 1993, Plain Language Institute Vancouver, 5-6. 6 See for instance, Council Directive (EC) 93/13 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, 1993, OJ L095/29 (Unfair Terms Directive); European Parliament and Council Directive (EU) 2011/83 on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and 1 ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 9 approach was tested on the general public by Trudeau in 2011. The study established that the majority of respondents preferred plain language.7 Nevertheless, the use of plain and simple language in legal texts has certain limitations since there is always the risk of oversimplification resulting in a devaluation of the specific meaning of the legal concept.8 This also implies that the mere use of plain language will not be sufficient to solve the lack of transparency of legal documents such as the Terms of Use. Therefore, focusing on innovative ways to present textual information to users is also necessary. Presenting information digitally provides challenges but also opportunities which can be explored. For instance, apart from making sure that legal complex documents are easier to read (e.g. more user-friendly texts and layout), documents can also be designed and visualised in such ways that they can be integrated into the graphic user interface and be presented to users at times and places in the navigation structure which relate better to the user`s normal online behaviour.9 Nowadays, the form and design of legal information only plays a limited role in Regulation. However, the presentation of Terms of Use or other legal documents can have a crucial impact on the user’s decision-making process.10 Research has shown that design can enhance the level of understanding of users.11 Furthermore, the way information is presented can have an impact on the behaviour of users towards that information. 12 This is why it is repealing Council Directive 85/577/EEC and Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, 2011, OJ L304/64 (Consumer Rights Directive). 7 TRUDEAU, Christopher R., “The Public Speaks: An Empirical Study of Legal Communication”, 14 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 121 (2011-2012), 2011, Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1843415. 8 BEN -‐ SHAHAR, Omri and SCHNEIDER Carl, E. (2011), “The failure of mandated disclosure”, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 159, 713. 9 For example visual design techniques have been used in order to create textured agreements. These techniques include for instance the use of bold key terms and phrases, bullet points, catchy quotes or symbols. Interestingly, people were willing to spend more time reading these textured agreements. KAY, Matthey and TERRY, Michael, “Textured Agreements: Re-envisioning Electronic consent”, Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), 2010, July 14-16. 10 HELBERGER, Natali, “Form Matters: Informing Consumers Effectively” (November 15, 2013), Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2013-71. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2354988. 11 KIM, Nancy, “The Duty to Draft Reasonably and Online Contracts”, in: DiMatteo, Larry et al. (eds.) Commercial Contract Law: A Transatlantic Perspective, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2013, 191. 12 JOHN, Leslie, ACQUISTI, Alessandro and LOEWENSTEIN, George, “The Best of Strangers: Context Dependent Willingness to Divulge Personal Information”, 2009, available at ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 10 important to also pay attention to the way information is delivered to different types of users rather than just attempting to simplify written texts. 3 Participatory transparency design: An empowering methodology to increase In this deliverable we summarize the main results of the Legal Design Jam and the codesign sessions carried out with children and parents in the framework of EMSOC. Both these exercises constituted concrete efforts to increase the transparency of the Terms of Use of popular websites by actively integrating relevant stakeholders and end users into the design process. At the end of this report we suggest guidelines that can accompany the development of more meaningful, user-friendly and user-centric approaches towards designing legal communication in particular for more vulnerable consumers/users such as young children. Throughout these exercises, we employed Participatory Design as a guiding principle. Participatory Design is often defined as a set of theories, practices and studies related to end-users as full participants in activities leading to software and hardware computer products and computer-based activities (Greenbaum et al, 1991; Schuler et al, 1993). Participatory Design has urged us to consider ‘users’ as co-designers of their technology and of the practices that may be reified in that technology. The field is extraordinarily diverse and this diversity has not lent itself to a single theory or paradigm of study or approach to practices (Muller, 2002). Participatory Design originated in Scandinavia in the 1970s and 80s. This early Scandinavian work was motivated by a Marxist commitment to democratically empower workers and foster democracy in the workplace. Early work took the form of experiments conducted by university researchers in alliances with organized labour. Subsequent work supplemented the foundational democratic motivation with a need for combining complex knowledge for realistic design problems (Spinuzzi, 2005). Many researchers and practitioners in Participatory Design are still motivated in part by a belief in the value of democracy, a value that can be seen in the strengthening of disempowered groups, in the improvement of internal processes and in the combination of diverse knowledge to make better services and products (Muller, 2002). On the other hand, Participatory Design has also achieved a status as a useful ‘commercial tool’ in some settings or a sort of ‘corporate mainstreaming’ Participatory Design (Iversen, 2010). Such a pragmatic approach to Participatory Design is concerned with developing better products and increasing revenue by involving those SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1430482 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1430482. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 11 you design for. Involving potential users is believed to give you better insights, which you could not have if they were not part of the process. A more authentic Participatory Design vision goes beyond letting potential users participate throughout the design process with the sole aim of making better products. Under this less pragmatic conception, it is not the use of participatory methods that makes particular work as being Participatory Design. Instead it is about when, how and why these methods are used that renders the approach as being participatory. Foremost, Participatory Design is about negotiating values realised through participation. In this sense, people whose activities and experiences will ultimately be affected most directly by a design outcome should have a substantive say in what that outcome is (Iversen, 2010). We rely on Rokeach’s (Rokeach, 1973) notion of values as something that a person or a group of persons consider(s) important in life. 4 The first Belgian Legal Design Jam The EMSOC project organized the first Belgian Legal Design Jam on 4th April 2014. It was hosted at the KU Leuven by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT (ICRI) in collaboration with Miscrosoft. The workshop was led by Stefania Passera, the creator of the LDJ concept. During this Jam we worked on the Terms of Use and Sale from the Microsoft Online Store, thinking of different ways to make the document more userfriendly. Five teams worked complementary, each of these concentrated on improving a particular aspect of the document. In a period of only 3 hours each team had to move from concept and paper sketches to a digital mock-up of their proposed solution. All the teams succeeded in coming up with concrete, fresh ideas. 4.1 Legal Design Jam definition and methodology According to Passera (2012) “a Legal Design Jam (LDJ) brings together a group of motivated individuals from different fields (e.g. designers, lawyers, policy-makers, coders, innovators, business people, etc.) and, together, give an extreme user-centric makeover to a legal document. The idea is borrowed from hackathons and service jams, and seeks to engage people to rethink and innovate the very concept of what a legal document should be, look and feel”. The idea of the Legal Design jam has been inspired by the belief that citizens have not only the right to access legal information, but this should above all be clear and well-communicated. In contrast, policies, licenses and contracts are often boring, complex and inaccessible. Legal Design Jams attempt to improve the current situation by exploring new ways of designing legal communication which incorporate insights from information design and visualisation. An important aspect of Legal Design jams are their focus on user experience and a modus operandi ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 12 based on concrete scenarios of use. In practice, during a LDJ, participants will ideate and prototype a new version of a (complex) legal document (e.g. Terms of Use or privacy policies). This new version will go beyond the simplification of textual language and will include creating visualisations and good layouts as well as rethinking the structure of the document in terms of good storytelling. 4.2 Participants and procedure The participants included students from the LLM Research Master in Law (KU Leuven and University of Tilburg) as well as designers, coders and legal and user experience researchers who acted as facilitators. The Microsoft Attorney, Nick Owers, writer of the Terms of Use and Sale from the Microsoft Online Store, also joined the Jam. His presence was particularly useful to provide the background about these Terms of Use but also to directly answer the participants` questions about the document itself. During the LDJ participants worked in five different groups which focused on the following tasks: - Team 1: Redesigning the layout and the structure of the text - Team 2: Creating a user-friendly, visually enhanced summary - Team 3: Visualization of the purchase process - Team 4: Visualization of the return policy process - Team 5: Creating a family of icons to make the meaning of the text more intuitive Before the Jam each team received a pre-assignment which worked as a sensitising strategy whose aim was twofold: 1) Make sure that all the participants had read and understood the 13-pages document before the Jam. This was necessary in order to ensure that all the participants attended the jam with a similar level of knowledge about the document and to 2) maximize the effective working time during this rather short three-hour session. Annex 1 includes the pre-assignments each team received. 4.3 Interaction among the participants As it can be expected from any interdisciplinary group working together on the same task, against time, collaboration can be very enriching. However, there is also the possibility that conflicts arise, particularly because of the diverse backgrounds of the team members, but also because the tasks each team was assigned were quite challenging in themselves. As we could observe during the session, participants within different groups employed similar strategies in order to deal with potential difficult issues or conflict situations such as disagreements among team members on specific issues. In general, when confronted with sensitive situations participants tried to solve them in constructive ways by proposing ideas and asking the other team members for ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 13 their opinion until they reached an agreement. It was also interesting to observe how law students interacted with designers and tried to visualise difficult issues together following a kind of “trial and error” method. In all the participating groups, the final proposed solutions seemed to satisfy all group members and be the result of effective, intensive, cooperative work. 4.4 The process of achieving a user-friendly “Purchase policy” In the specific case of the team in charge of designing a user-friendly purchase policy, the designer started the discussion by asking the other participants one question: “Where do you think a Consumer would start with the whole return process?”. After discussing potential answers to this question, the participants first separated the text into chunks and tried to identify different steps for the consumer to take. As soon as they started the discussion, they immediately decided to work with a poster and started writing ideas on post-its in different colours which they stuck on the poster. This, at first sight simple decision, denotes the willingness of the team members to work together collaboratively. Indeed, a poster represents an attempt to include everybody in the design process allowing all participants to share ideas in an open, democratic way. The decision of working with post-its gives flexibility to the creative process as it allows participants to change their mind and immediately be able to incorporate new insights into the design by just moving or replacing post-its. After moving post-its around constantly and through long discussions, they finally reach an agreement. In parallel to these discussions, and mainly due to the short time to come up with a digital mock up, the designer simultaneously draws a draft flow chart trying to reflect the ideas represented in the poster. Whenever necessary, participants addressed the Microsoft’s representative to ask him questions and clarify aspects which were not clear to the group (e.g. the difference between EDS, Services), this allowed them to understand the text better, and to close certain discussions. The designer’s first draft was displayed on the wall and participants were asked to provide their feedback by first looking at it from a distance and then afterwards give suggestions for improvement. After exchanging ideas, the designer decided to draft a totally new flow chart. The participants worked in a very structured way, namely by taking the post-its of the poster according to the different steps the consumer has to follow and then showing them to the designer one by one. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 14 Figure 1 designing a user-friendly “return policy” In general, we could observe that in all the working groups there was a lot of discussion, for instance, about which should be the first question that a customer should get to see, i.e., how to present information in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the consumes? In spite of these lively discussions, participants were always polite and had a positive mind-set. They were also very committed to the task and they made evident efforts to try to cover as many options as possible. In sum, we could observe that in the different groups the designer and the participants with their legal background, were thinking in different, but complementary ways, which resulted in an interesting, lively and constructive interaction. 4.5 General results 4.5.1 Problematic issues identified Even though all the groups focused on different tasks there were a number of problematic issues identified and shared by all groups. Among these, the most pressing ones according to the participants were the following: ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 15 1. The text is too long (13 pages) and it contains too much information. They assume a common person/customer will not be willing to read all that information before acquiring a product or service. In particular, specific sections of the contract were difficult to grasp even for this group of Master Law students. For instance, many did not understand the difference between the services or goods mentioned in the contract such as “ESD, Services, Software”. There are also specific clauses which are not very clear. For instance, what happens when a service/product has been opened/used/consumed? Are customers still able to return it within the 14 days period stipulated? Other comments referred specifically to the use of sentences such as “to the extent permitted by law”. They assumed this is not very helpful for consumers, as it is difficult to understand what sentences like this concretely mean. According to the participants, there were a number of instances similar to these which made the text obscure and difficult to understand for potential customers. Therefore, they concluded that the textual aspect of the contract needed some serious improvement. Participants also indicated that they would use plain language in order to facilitate the contract comprehension. They also referred to the use of icons and pictures to help achieve this goal. 2. In terms of layout, participants mentioned that they would make big changes to the current structure of the text. The main issue being the fact that information was too dispersed across the text so there was the need to categorise information differently placing information that belongs together under more meaningful categories/headings. 3. As regards accessibility of information, different issues were discussed. For instance, in the specific case of “exceptions”, i.e. those cases where the return and refund policy does not apply, participants noted that these were not easy to find. Another example was information on the “trial period offer” which, according to participants, should be given more attention as it is important for the consumers to be aware of this type of information. Discussing what type of information should be made more prominent from a consumer`s point of view led participants to exchange ideas regarding what information a particular consumer would actually find most interesting or relevant. They also mentioned the fact that different types of consumers may require different solutions, but in general, the point was made that important pieces of information should be made more prominent. This could be achieved, for instance, by: Layering the information. This means that instead of providing a full contract at first sight, consumers would be provided with a ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 16 summary of the most relevant information. This summary would contain hyperlinks to direct users to specific sections of interest within the contract. Using keywords, but also capital or block letters would make the text more readable, according to participants. Moreover, this strategy would help users to find the most relevant information quickly by facilitating the search for important information. A few aspects of the documents were considered as not presenting major difficulties, among these, participants liked the fact that the text was formulated in an active way, i.e., putting the customer in a prominent position and addressing him/her as having the possibility to make decisions by themselves: “You may withdraw”, “you must inform us”. 4.6 Results by teams 4.6.1 Team “User-friendly summary” This team was in charge of creating a user-friendly summary, i.e., an easy-access, visually pleasant overview of the content of the Terms of Use. Users without a legal background find it hard to read through a long legal document to find the information that is relevant to them. With the help of a user-friendly summary a simpler overview of the most important topics is provided so the readers can more easily find their “way” through the clauses and navigate deeper into the document only when it is meaningful or necessary to do it. This team elaborated a visual user-friendly summary inspired by Microsoft’s tiles motif. In their proposal they suggest that every topic in the summary works as a link to a relevant piece of text in the Terms of Use. Figures 1 and 2 show the paper prototype and the finalized digital mock-up of this idea respectively. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 17 Figure 2. Paper prototype of the proposed user friendly summary ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 18 Figure 3 Digital mock-up of the user-friendly summary 4.6.2 Team “Purchase policy” The challenge of this team was to guide the users through the purchase process of goods, software and services in the Microsoft Store. Depending of what is being purchased, different “rules” apply. In order to inform customers well, these differences should be communicated in a simple and clear way. As a possible way of tackling this issue, this team chose to develop a flowchart which summarises the actions customers would normally go through when purchasing online products via the Microsoft Store. As Figure 4 illustrates, the actions performed by customers during the step-by-step purchase process are represented by the green tiles at the centre of the flowchart. Green was chosen as a colour which traditionally represents actions which are OK/allowed to be performed. Keeping this information in a central position also responds to the need of making the most relevant information easily accessible to (potential) consumers. Additionally, the yellow tiles represent the additional, but still relevant information the customer needs to know in relation of each choice or action ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 19 made during the purchase process. As part of the conceptual design, this team envisioned that the flowchart would be better implemented as an interactive visualisation, so that users can click on each tile to get, firstly, a plain language explanation of what it means, and, eventually, at a later step access the original clause of the Terms of Use in order to get the full information in all its detail. Layering makes it possible for every single user to read only the amount of information they are looking for, no more, no less. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the post-it draft and the finalized digital mock-up of this idea respectively. Figure 4 Post-it draft of the flowchart of the purchase process ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 20 Figure 5 Digital prototype of the purchase process workflow 4.6.3 Team “Return & refund policy” But what happens if the purchase process doesn’t go completely smoothly, and the customer wants to return the product? One of the teams took up the challenge to explain in a simple way what to do, and which rules to follow, in order for customers to obtain a refund. Consumers are often worried that there is going to be some fine print preventing them to return the product. Therefore, it is crucial that this type of information is presented in a transparent, clear and simple way. By doing this not only customer experience and service can be greatly improved, but also trust will be enhanced. As figure 5 illustrates, the complex “return & refund policy” can be simplified in a few steps. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 21 Figure 6 Digital prototype of the return & refund policy scheme ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 22 4.6.4 Teams “Layout” and “Icons” The presentation of the original text of the Terms of Use also needs to be well designed to avoid the “wall of text” first impression, which can easily scare readers away. The two remaining teams worked at a clearer, less cluttered layout, and at a system of icons, which, by providing salient “visual anchors”, can make the text more transparent and memorable. Figure 6 displays the proposed layout and alternatives so that the icon system can be integrated into the text. Figure 7 Digital mock-up of the suggested Terms of Use layout and related icons ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 23 4.7 Conclusions Our main conclusion deriving from the Legal Design Jam is that transparency is crucial for user-friendly legal communication. Throughout the exercise, different ways of enhancing transparency were brought forward. Firstly, all teams agreed that simplification of textual language is key for a better understanding. Thus, a plain language explanation for each important topic could be useful. Besides this, lay-out and length of the text can have an important impact on the level of understanding of consumers. As information is often dispersed and most consumers only want to have certain information, for example they specifically want to know how a product can be returned. In this regard, adding different layers to the text makes it possible for consumers to navigate deeper into the document only when it is meaningful or necessary to do it. Other visualisations that were found particularly helpful were providing visual anchors or icons, using different colours, a flowchart, etc. Another lesson we learned is that the cooperation between people from different backgrounds can lead to interesting debates and can push participants to think out of the box. As a final observation, it is important to note that there are certain aspects we were not able to tackle during one single jam but which could also be important to explore in the future as these can present challenges to transparent legal communication. Examples include the timing of the information provision, i.e., when should what information be presented or finding the right balance between providing thorough and complete information versus the use of plain language, i.e. exploring the risk of oversimplification. Last, in spite of the attempts we have made to suggest more userfriendly ways of presenting these legal documents and policies, we lack the empirical evidence to guarantee that these changes will be enough in order to engage consumers and nudge them towards becoming better informed consumers able and willing to read legal documents, such as Terms of Use or privacy policies. 5 Ketnet Co-Design Session with children 5.1.1 Participatory Design with children: an emergent field? Within the area of Child Computer Interaction (CCI) children have participated in the design of technology for over two decades using a variety of established methods (e.g. Dindler et al, 2005; Druin et al, 2002; Scaife et al, 1999; Walsh et al, 2010). Generative techniques such as ‘co-design’ are often used in Participatory Design with children. Sanders (2009) defines co-design as a specific instance of co-creation, referring to all kinds of collective creativity with users and other stakeholders as it is applied across the whole span of a design process. Co-design has been found to make it easier for participants to reflect upon and express their knowledge, feelings and dreams than when talking without any concrete reference materials. The basic principle behind codesign is to let people make designedly artefacts and tell a story about what they have ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 24 made (Sleeswijk Visser, 2005). These methods typically involve children in dyads or groups, rather than individually, reflecting a theoretical commitment to the notion that meanings are socially and collectively produced (Buckingham, 2009). During design activities, children’s values may be implicitly expressed as something they care about and find important. Values do not progress stepwise in one direction. Rather they emerge, develop and ground recursively and dialogically over the course of the design process (Iversen et al, 2010; Halloran, 2009). The way we work with values in participatory design with children is centred on dialogue. Therefore, one of our core tasks as researchers is to orchestrate this dialogue with and among children and to make sure value conflicts are transcended and translated into meaningful design concepts. Special attention should thereby be given to group dynamics that may impact this dialogical process (Van Mechelen et al., 2014). 5.1.2 Beyond Representation: Interpreting Co-design Artefacts Co-design artefacts are often regarded as a neutral means of accessing children’s perspectives. Hence, design researchers tend to limit themselves to a descriptive analysis of co-design artefacts or rely exclusively on what participants say or write about their creations. Co-design artefacts are, however, always ‘constructed’ and therefore do not give access to the ‘voices’ or even the ‘inner lives’ of participants in a direct an unmediated way. Buckingham (2009) refers to this approach as ‘naïve empiricism’, arguing that data from creative research cannot be taken at face value: these data need to be analysed with special attention for its visual dimensions. Besides this ‘celebration of representation’, there is a tendency to analyse co-design artefacts solely in ‘computing terms’, that is, on a functional or attribute level (e.g., Guha et al, 2013; Walsh et al, 2010). Many design researchers fail to recognise that the values that are implicitly expressed in co-design artefacts are often more interesting than the design ideas as products per se. Focusing on the underlying motives behind design choices can reveal why specific design attributes are important and how they serve children’s values. Climbing up the ‘value ladder’ enables researchers to reach out into the ‘opportunity spaces’, rather than being limited to problem solving right from the onset. Moreover, making values explicit opens up possibilities for a re-alignment of values between adults and children, as well as across groups of children working together (Halloran et al, 2009). Since values are dynamic in nature, we cannot simply identify them, and design for them. Participatory Design, in its authentic sense, aims at reformulating values and transcending possible value conflicts (Iversen et al, 2010). These ’negotiated values’, in turn, provide researchers with a well-grounded starting point for (re)design (Van Mechelen & Derboven, 2014). 5.1.3 Co-design as a tool for child-friendly Terms of Use Terms of Use, the contract users have to agree to when they create online accounts, social media profiles or when downloading applications, are the traditional way of ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 25 providing users with information so they can make ‘informed’ decisions regarding these services. Agreeing to the terms of use of online services establishes certain rights and obligations that both users and the online service provider have to respect. Therefore, the way users behave on these online services can have legal consequences. A well-known problem with Terms of Use is that people, let alone children, do not read them carefully or do not fully understand its content, nor its consequences. For these reasons, there is a strong need for user-friendlier Terms of Use which are transparent, unambiguous and easy to understand (Wauters, Donoso and Lievens 2014). To tackle this problem for Ketnet, a Participatory Design approach was employed as a way of giving children a ‘voice’ in redesigning their Terms of Use. Since technology can no longer be considered value-neutral (Manders-Huits, 2011), we need to take children’s ideas and underlying values into account to detect and transcend potential value conflicts between children, parents and, in this case, also Ketnet. This way, we can make the Terms of Use more meaningful and child-friendly. During co-design activities, children exchanged ideas and visualised ‘alternative’ Terms of Use that better resonate with their life-world and viewpoints. Throughout this process, children could implicitly express their values as something they care about and find important with regard to Ketnet’s Terms of Use. 5.2 Towards child-friendly terms of use 5.2.1 Co-design jam with children and parents Over a period of two weeks, two co-design jams were organised at the Centre for User Experience Research (CUO, iMinds – KU Leuven). 12 children aged 9 to 11 and one of their parents participated in our study which consisted of two co-design sessions with 6 children and 6 parents (the mother or the father of each of the participating children). In both co-design sessions, after a short introduction, children and parents were split up into two groups which worked separately and in parallel on one assignment. When both groups finished their task they presented their proposal to each other and had a discussion about the ideas presented. According to existing literature this is probably the most optimal group size (Heary et al, 2002). Children and their parents were recruited via the Flemish broadcaster Ketnet and were not familiar to each other, resulting in a ‘heterogeneous’ group of participants representing different parts of Flanders, Belgium. Many authors suggest that heterogeneous groups are more capable of coming up with diverse ideas (e.g. Franz, 2012; Sawyer, 2008). The design challenge for both co-design jams was: “How can we make the Terms of Use of Ketnet.be more child-friendly so that they could better resonate with children`s lives and at the same time be more meaningful to children and their parents. * (footnote) Ketnet’s television channel aims at Flemish -12 year olds by offering them a diversity of children programs. The site Ketnet.be provides children with a funny, ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 26 safe and interactive online offer. Ketnet goes beyond TV or computer screens as well. For instance during the school holidays, Ketnet and its wrappers organise external events to be present amidst the world of their viewers: the children. Ketnet aims at stimulating children to be creative, to use their imagination and to discover and understand society at their own pace. This is the reason why children play a very important, active role on Ketnet. 5.2.2 General procedure We used a blend of two different approaches to co-design: ‘Cooperative Inquiry’ (Druin, 2002; Guha et al, 2013) and the ‘Context mapping’ procedure as described by (Sleeswijk Visser et al, 2005). The goal of Cooperative Inquiry is to support intergenerational design teams in understanding what children as technology users do now, what they might do tomorrow and what they envision for the future (Druin, 2002). Context mapping on the other hand is a systematic approach to elicit contextual information of product use. Generative techniques are often used in Context mapping. The basic principle thereby is to let people make designedly artefacts and tell a story about what they have made (Sanders, 2000; Sleeswijk Visser, 2005). Three researchers were involved in each co-design jam: two facilitators, one for the children and one for the parents, and a “fly-on-the-wall” observer making notes. In addition to these notes, the presentation and discussion at the end of each co-design jam were recorded on video and a report was written immediately afterwards. Each session lasted for about three and a half hours and typically consisted of the following stages: Sensitising (one week in advance) Introduction and warm-up (30 minutes) Ideation and selection (45 minutes) Break (45 minutes) Elaboration through making (45 minutes) Presentation and discussion (45 minutes) 5.2.3 Sensitizing By means of individual assignments for both children and parents we triggered reflection in a playful and creative way before the actual co-design jam. Approximately one week ahead of each session, we introduced the assignment via e-mail. Participants were asked to map activities they did together with their child/parent during the past week on a continuum ranging from ‘not so fun’ to ‘super fun’. They could either write it down or draw the activity on the continuum (see figure 8). Through this ‘sensitising activity’, children and parents were better able to access their experiences and underlying values regarding the design challenge. Besides triggering reflection, the ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 27 sensitising assignment was also used as an icebreaker at the start of the co-design jam since none of the participants had met each other before. Therefore, participants were supposed to bring their completed assignments to the session, where they served to initiate the dialogue among the participants. For more detailed information on sensitising we refer to Sleeswijk Visser et al (2005). Figure 8 Sensitising material: Timeline family activities 5.2.4 Introduction and warm up The co-design jams took place in the Design room (i.e. a big open space that can be used and rearranged for different purposes) at the Centre for User Experience Research (CUO, iMinds – KU Leuven). First, one of the researchers introduced the design challenge and the goals of the day. He/she explained that Ketnet is interested to know more about children’s and parents’ ideas on how to make their website a safe environment for children. What kind of tips would they give to other children about what is allowed and what not on Ketnet.be? What kind of behaviour do they expect on the website? We pointed out that Ketnet was interested in ideas on how parents could foster children to actually apply these tips. Next, we divided children and parents in two teams and each team moved to a different room so that they could work on their assignment without being distracted by the ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 28 other team. The researcher allocated to a group made sure the children/parents felt at ease before continuing. He/she asked questions such as ‘How many children do you have and of what age?’, ‘Do you have a profile on Ketnet.be, and if so, what do you use it for?’, ‘Where do you go to school? Do you like going there?’ etc. As part of this warm up, the facilitator discussed the sensitising assignments for another 10 to 15 minutes. During these discussions, children implicitly expressed their underlying values concerning (fun) activities with their parents. Finally, the researcher explained the ‘rules of the game’ for the co-design jam. These were by no means hard but rather soft rules such as ‘listen to each other’, ‘there are no bad ideas’ and ‘you may walk around but stick to your team’. 5.2.5 Ideation and selection As a tool for ideation we developed three ‘extreme characters’ (Jansen et al, 2013). A familiar problem with brainstorming is that, generally speaking, participants have a hard time thinking beyond the familiar (Bowen, 2009). Therefore, we prepared three sheets presenting humorous and somewhat extreme child characters in their bedrooms: one bully with a catapult who likes to play violent games, one nerdy looking kid with an iPod interested in archaeology and a big fan of Star wars and, finally, one girl whose favourite colour is pink and who loves horse riding (See figure 9). In addition to these ‘extreme characters’ we provided a list of activities these children might want to do online (i.e., on the Ketnet website). The activities include among others: liking something, uploading photos and videos, posting a comment, modifying your profile, adding friends, updating your status, etc. Extreme characters combined with scenarios or, in this case, activities have shown to be a powerful tool for ideation (Jansen et al, 2013). ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 29 Figure 9. One of the three child characters used during the Jam Both children and parents were asked to come up with tips for these fictitious characters. We encouraged children to brainstorm for tips by reminding them that they could express their ideas freely, since there were no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ ideas (see figure 10). Also, we encouraged them to build on the ideas of others in the group and to go for as much diverse ideas as possible. Each team was divided in three duos and each duo had approximately five minutes to come up with tips for one of the ‘extreme characters’. All tips were written down on post-its. After approximately five minutes, each duo received a new sheet with another character until each duo had worked with all three character sheets. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 30 Figure 10. Children working in groups, each group discussing a character. Next, we asked the team to group all similar ideas across the different character sheets together. Each team member could then vote for his or her favourite ideas by means of three little stickers (i.e., sticky dot voting) (Gray, 2010). Only one vote could be given to a tip they themselves had come up with. The 10 most popular tips were taken to the next stage for further development. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 31 5.2.6 Break We provided quite a long break of 45 minutes since 9- to 10-year-olds’ attention span is rather limited. Participants could grab a sandwich and have a drink, and children could play outside if they wanted to. 5.2.7 Elaboration through making In this phase, each team was asked to elaborate on the selected tips by visualising their top ten on a big sheet of paper. Each team had creative material at their disposal such as coloured markers, scissors, tape, coloured paper and a big sheet of A1 paper. Both teams had about 45 minutes to visualise their top ten tips. They were free to choose how to approach this task (e.g. by drawing the tips, designing an interface for the tips, illustrating the tips with concrete examples, etc.) (See figure 11). The only thing they had to keep in mind is that the visualisation will be used to present their tips to the other group (i.e., the team of parents or children) and in front of a camera. Figure 101. Parents visualising their top-10 tips ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 32 5.2.8 Presentation and discussion In approximately five minutes, the teams prepared a presentation about their top ten tips. While one team presented their tips, the other team (i.e., the team of children or parents) functioned as a jury. After the presentation, the jury could ask critical questions. We stressed that the jury should focus on the content rather than on the form of the presentation. The facilitator moderated this dialogue between jury and presenting team and asked some additional open-ended questions inspired by UX laddering as described by Zaman et al (2010). Thereby, the deep reasons and values behind teams’ choices were revealed. Questions included among others: ‘Can you give a concrete example of how and when a child should apply this tip?’, ‘Why is this tip so important for you?’, ‘How can parents and Ketnet help children to get to know these tips?’, ‘Why/why not?’ etc. Presentation and discussion took about 20 minutes per team. After each team presented and discussed their visualisation, a short wrap-up followed and the session ended. Before leaving, each child and his/her parent received a Ketnet goodie bag and two cinema tickets. 6 Analysis and results We qualitatively analysed the data without using pre-set expectations. The raw data used for analysis consists of various elements from the co-design jams: observation notes, reports written after the sessions, visualisations, video footage and verbatim transcripts from the presentations and discussions. The following structure was applied for data analysis: Transcribing and coding the presentations recorded on video. Contextualising the tips of each team with all the sessions’ materials. High-level expert review of Ketnet’s Terms of Use. Classifying Ketnet’s Terms of Use and the tips from children and parents in three main categories of risks following the EU Kids Online model for the classification of online risks (3C`s) (Livingstone et al., 2011) (See figure 12). This model classifies online risks into three main categories: o Content: child as receiver (of mass produced contents) o Contact: child as participant (in (adult-initiated activity) o Conduct: child as actor (perpetrator / victim in peer-to-peer exchange) Further subdividing the tips of each main category into five subcategories: ‘aggressive’, ‘sexual’, ‘values’, ‘commercial’ and ‘other’. This last category was added by the researchers analysing the data as some of the risks mentioned by either the children, their parents or in the Ketnet website did not fit the 3C`s model. Comparative analysis to show relations and differences in the views (and underlying values) of Ketnet, parents and children. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 33 Summarising results and formulating a well-founded advice for Ketnet. Figure 112. EU Kids Online classification of risks relating to children`s internet use (exemplars only) 6.1 High-level expert review of Ketnet’s Terms of Use Terms of Use, the contract which users have to agree to when they create online accounts, social media profiles or when downloading applications, are the traditional way of providing users with information so that they can make “informed” decisions regarding these services. Agreeing to the terms of use of an online service establishes certain rights and obligations that both users and the online service provider have to respect. Therefore, the way users behave on the website can have legal consequences. In the case of Ketnet the “Terms of Use” (Gebruiksvoorwaarden) are divided into two subsections, namely “Tips” and the actual “Terms of Use”. The “Tips” section does not only contain information on the house rules (e.g. “don`t publish personal information about others”) but also recommendations on how to behave safely on the internet in general (e.g. “Don`t believe everything you see or hear online”). When a child creates a Ketnet profile known as a Ketprofile (Ketprofiel) they must provide their parent`s e-mail address so that an e-mail is sent to their parents informing them that their child has created a profile on the website and explaining to them what the site is about and how it works. Without providing a parent`s e-mail no Ketprofile can be created. In order for parents to grant parental consent they must read and accept the Terms of Use as well as the privacy disclaimer governing the site (See ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 34 Figure 13). Without ticking the box that says “I agree with the Terms of use and the privacy disclaimer’ no Ketnet account can be created. This step is probably parents’ and children`s first encounter with the Ketnet Terms of Use. There is no guarantee, however, that parents (and their children) will actually read the Terms before ticking the box that says that they agree with them. Figure 123. Parental consent requires agreeing with the Terms of Use and the privacy disclaimer The Terms of Use are also accessible via a hyperlink placed at the bottom of each Ketnet page but they are not prominently placed on the website, so finding them may be difficult especially as some scrolling is required. Scrolling is a feature that especially younger children usually find difficult (Nielsen, 2010). The current version of the terms of use contains two separate sections, one named “Tips” and one named “Terms of Use”. As the name indicates the Tips section provides pieces of advice for children on how to behave safely on the internet. It describes what users are allowed to do on the website and what they are not (e.g. “Do not pose naked in front of the webcam”). It also provides tips regarding a responsible and safe use of the website (e.g. “Never talk to people you do not know in the real world”). The information is presented through 26 bullet points, which is quite long, especially considering the audience these tips are written for, i.e. young children and their parents. These 26 ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 35 bullet points are not grouped in any meaningful way what makes their comprehension even more difficult. Moreover, they refer to a wide range of very specific allowed and prohibited behaviours on this specific website such as “Don`t send long chain letters” but, at the same time, they also refer to netiquette rules which apply to safe and responsible internet behaviour in general (e.g. “behave in the online world as you would in the offline world”). In the last bullet points users are warned that if they don`t follow “these rules of the game, KETNET can decide to terminate their Ketprofile” The subsection called “Terms of use” (Gebruiksvoorwaarden) contains 12 bullet points which explain in a formal legal tone the rights and obligations of children using the Ketnet website. The first bullet points deal with issues related to copyright law and portrait rights. Similar to the first subsection, it describes what users are not allowed to do (e.g. “Do not post any copyright protected material”). Additionally it mentions what users should do in order to be compliant with copyright law or portrait rights (e.g. “Ask consent of the owner of the copyright before posting music of videos”). Besides this, there are bullet points mentioning the KETNET privacy policy, the terms of use of other websites and a topic seemingly out of place related to viruses (e.g. “ Any files that you send to KETNET should be virus free”). This subsection also contains a series of exoneration clauses related to both infringements of users of the website (e.g. “KETNET cannot be held liable by any third party in case users do not abide by copyright law or portrait rights”) as well as technical difficulties (e.g. “KETNET is not responsible for technical problems such as malfunctions or interruptions”). Thus it can be said that these 12 bullet points contain a rather broad range of legal issues, not all of them grouped in a meaningful way. Furthermore, the language used in this subsection is rather difficult and not really suited for young children, as they might not be able to grasp the meaning, let alone the legal implications, of terms like “liability”, “copyright” or “privacy”. Users are warned that if they do not respect these Terms of use, their profiles might be terminated. Lastly, the Terms contain a number of recommendations of a preventive and coping character. For instance, in the case of preventive measures the Terms provide tips such as the following: “Keep your password safe”, “First discuss with your parents, if you want to call someone you met online” or “Be careful when you use the webcam”. In the case of coping, some examples include: “Let your parents and Ketnet know about what you do or experience on the website”, “Confide in a person you trust”, or “If something happens to you on the Ketnet website you can communicate this to the Ketnet editorial staff”. Ketnet Terms of Use also offer information about points of contact where children could report unpleasant or problematic situations they may have encountered on the website, including the Belgian Safer Internet Centre. Finally, Ketnet warns its users that they are not responsible for the unintended consequences related to the use of the Ketnet-site. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 36 6.2 Classification of online risks following the EU Kids Online 3C`s model After the expert review of the Ketnet terms of use, it was evident that much of the content of the Terms of Use related to the prevention and coping of online risks. Therefore, we attempted to classify Ketnet’s Terms of Use and the tips from children and parents according to the EU Kids Online model for the classification of online risks (3C`s) proposed by Livingstone et al. (2011) (See figure 12). This model classifies online risks into three main categories: o Content: Here the child is positioned as recipient of mass produced content o Contact: The child is viewed as participant in adult-initiated activities, if unwillingly o Conduct: Here the child is perceived as having an active role either as perpetrator or as victim in peer-to-peer exchanges (i.e. child as actor) Each of these categories is further subdivided into four subcategories, namely: ‘aggressive’, ‘sexual’, ‘values’ and ‘commercial’. For the sake of our analysis we added the category ‘other’ because some of the tips mentioned by either the children, their parents or the Ketnet website did not properly fit any of the risk subcategories proposed by the EU Kids Online model (e.g. “Play outdoor more often; there is more out there than just the internet”). In some cases, it was necessary to classify the same tip under different risk cells, for instance, in the case of children`s tip “ Don`t lie about your age when signing up for an SNS” was associated to both exposure to potentially inappropriate content (e.g. adult content) as well as the risk of being contacted by (adult) strangers. An important conclusion from our analysis is that the same online behaviour can be associated to several areas of online risks. In our analysis we tried to focus on the children`s and parents` views as expressed during the sessions. Therefore, in a few cases the same (or very similar behaviour) is categorised differently by parents and by children as they do not necessarily perceive the same actions as leading to the same potential online risks (See tables 1 and 2). 6.2.1 Classifying online risks: Children vs. parents` perspectives When categorising the tips proposed by children we observe that most of them fall into the category “conduct”, i.e. the child as actor either as victim or perpetrator. We also observe that within this category children tend to focus on aggressive and valuerelated types of behaviour. In terms of aggressive conduct, they mainly warn other children to behave nicely towards others (“don’t be naughty or negative towards others”; “don`t use dirty language, for instance in an email where others can see it”). They also recommend children not to cyberbully (“don't cyberbully because some children don't like it and they might commit suicide”); and not to hack someone else`s profile (e.g. Don`t hack someone`s profile, e.g. erasing their games or memory). ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 37 General Aggressive Content (child as receiver (of mass production) Don`t lie about your age when signing up for an SNS Be careful with viruses Contact (adult-initiated activity); child as participant Don`t lie about your age when signing up for an SNS Don’t give your address Only add people you know in real life as SNS friends. Don’t put private content on the Ketnet website such as your bank account or address Conduct (child as actor) Perpetrator/victim Think first, act later, e.g. when adding a new friend Think before you post pictures on your profile Don’t put private content on the Ketnet website such as your bank account or address Don’t play violent games, e.g. one in which you have to kill opponents Sexual Values Commercial Watch out for Don’t add people you ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: Don’t use dirty words; don’t offend others Don’t be naughty or negative towards others Don’t use dirty language, e.g. in an email or where others can see it Don’t cyberbully because some children don’t like it and they might commit suicide Don’t hack someone’s profile, e.g. erasing his/her games or memory Be aware that some people might want to steal your (online) identity Don’t put private content on the Ketnet website, such as naked pictures Think before you post pictures in your profile, e.g. a selfie in bikini Use your profile well, i.e. be honest Be a good loser, e.g. when playing an online game Don’t upload pictures of your friends if they don’t want you to Don’t brag, e.g. when you’re the best gamer Always be honest on the Ketnet website Warn your parents when you 38 phishing practices don’t know; it might be an older man phishing for your bank account Other want to buy a song online Ask your parents for permission when signing up for an SNS Don’t sit in front of your computer the whole day Play outdoor more often; there is more out there than just the internet Table 1 Classification of risks according to the children`s perspective In the category conduct/values, children advise others to behave positively online (e.g. “always be honest on the Ketnet website”, “be a good loser when playing an online game” or “don't brag that you are the best gamer”). Within this category, children also refer to privacy-related concerns as well as privacy-responsible behaviour (e.g. “Think before you post pictures on your profile”, “don`t upload pictures of your friends if they don`t want you to”). The privacy-related concerns (e.g. don`t post naked pictures) usually appear accompanied by the “think before you post” discourse which has traditionally been associated to the protection of someone`s (online) reputation. Even though children refer to a few examples which could be considered as sexual in nature (e.g. “ don`t post naked pictures”; “Think before you post pictures on your profile, e.g. a selfie in bikini”), the analysis of children`s quotes seems to indicate that children`s main concern relate to reputational issues, for instance the fear of particular types of content being found/seen by people for whom this content was not meant to be shared with. The fear of being contacted by strangers with sexual intentions (e.g. grooming) was not explicitly mentioned by any of the children during the co-design session, although other types of contact risks by (adult) strangers were implicit such as “Only add people you know in real life as SNS friends”. Of course, we cannot discharge the possibility of children being inhibited by their parents or the researchers` presence which may have prevented them from talking about more sensitive issues such as sexuality. It is also possible, however, that because of their young age they simply do not perceive sexual risks (by strangers) as a real threat. Other concerns/risks expressed by children but which are not mentioned too often refer to commercial conduct (e.g. “warn your parents when you want to buy a song online”), age-appropriate use of the internet (e.g. ask for permission when signing up for a SNS”) and avoiding excessive internet use (e.g. Don’t sit in front of the computer the whole day”, “play outdoor more often, there is more out there than just the internet”). The second most popular category of risks that children referred to are contact-related risks. Within this category children mainly warn other children not to give away ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 39 “contact” information (e.g. “don`t give out your address” or “Don’t put private content on the Ketnet website such as your bank account and address”) but also not to add people they do not know to their profiles (e.g. “only add people you know in real life as SNS friends”). When it comes to commercial contact types of risks, it is interesting to observe that few children seem to be aware of them. In one case, one child referred to the case of phishing (“Don’t add people you don’t know; it might be an older man phishing for your bank account”) which would typically be a risk an adult would run rather than a child. This probably indicates that some parents talk about these types of online risks at home and this is why some children might be aware of them. It is important to stress, though, that only one out of 12 children referred to this type of risk. Last, the type of risks children refer to least often are content-related risks. Within these, children mention violent video games (“Don’t play violent games, e.g. one in which you have to kill opponents”), but also being confronted with viruses. Children also warn other children that they should not lie about their age when signing up for socialnetworking sites (SNS). We interpreted this warning as belonging to the category general content as signing up to websites as an older person may allow children to get in touch with content which may be inappropriate for their age. Nevertheless, “ageappropriateness” can also refer to contact-related types of risk because signing up as an older person would allow children to be potentially contacted by adult strangers. From the analysis of children`s tips it seems relevant to make a distinction between “contact” information such as address, phone number, e-mail address, etc. (i.e. information that would allow children to be potentially contacted by ‘inappropriate/dangerous” people such as strangers) and “private” information, i.e. information/things children do not wish to share with everybody, but rather with a select group of people such as close friends, same gender classmates or other people they may trust (e.g. pictures in bikini). In the case of parents, it is interesting to observe that their tips target different types of potential online risks by children. As opposed to children who give emphasis to conduct-type of risks, i.e. giving emphasis to an active role of the child, parents display a more protective type of behaviour by suggesting tips to children which would help them “protect” themselves from risky adult-initiated activities (e.g. “Block adults with bad intentions in a chat environment”) as well as from potentially inappropriate content (e.g. “Avoid child inappropriate content”). Not surprisingly, parents seem to view their children mainly as potential “victims” rather than as active participants of potential peer-to-peer online risks (See Table 2). Parents also seem more aware of potential commercial risks. Indeed, they provide several tips such as “If you have to pay for a certain service/game on the website, always ask your parents’ permission”. Even though, most parental tips concentrate on contact and content risks, parents also gave children some tips as regards their online conduct. These mainly focused on preventing ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 40 cyberbullying (e.g. “Do not approve of or like bullying action”), respecting other people`s privacy (e.g. “Don’t post pictures of others without their permission”) and protecting children`s online reputation (e.g. “Do not post naked pictures”). The latter tip was also classified as a sexual/contact type of risk as posting naked pictures seemed to be seen by parents as both a potential risk for children to be contacted by adults with “bad intentions”, but also a risk to their child`s reputation (e.g. sexting). Aggressive Content (child as receiver (of mass production)) Avoid child inappropriate content Sexual Avoid child inappropriate content Values Avoid child inappropriate content Contact (adult-initiated activity); child as participant Block adults with bad intentions in a chat environment Only add people that you know as friends Block adults with bad intentions in a chat environment Only add people that you know as friends Only use your webcam in the presence of your parents Do not post naked pictures Only add people that you know as friends Conduct (child as actor) Perpetrator/victim Do not cyberbully Do not approve of or like bullying actions Do not curse on the Ketnet website Do not post naked pictures Commercial Do not post nor “like” negative messages Whenever posting pictures or videos online, think carefully about what you want to post Don’t post pictures of others without their permission Whenever you want to participate in an online contest, first discuss this with your parents Provide neutral and commercial-free information about child-appropriate topics If you have to pay for a certain service/game on the website, always ask your parents’ ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 41 Other permission Do not post personal information like your address, telephone number, email address, bank account number, etc. Avoid excessive Internet use Table 2 Classification of risks according to the parents` perspective 6.2.2 Classification of risks: Ketnet`s perspective As opposed to the classification of risks resulting from the analysis of the co-design sessions with parents and children, the classification of tips proposed for the Ketnet website is solely based on the information contained on the Terms of Use of the website and, therefore, it lacks contextual information to interpret if certain tip should be classified under a specific single category of risk or under several ones (See Table 3). Therefore, we decided to interpret every tip as broadly as possible and we put them under all the categories where they seemed to fit best. For instance, “Don`t give out personal information” was categorized under contact risks as a potential sexual risk (e.g. grooming), but also as a commercial (e.g. targeted advertising) and value-related risk (e.g. by sharing personal information you may compromise your privacy). Aggressive Content (child as receiver (of mass production)) self-harming content is forbidden Contact (adult-initiated activity); child as participant talking to strangers is forbidden Conduct (child as actor) Perpetrator/victim Sexual Don`t give out personal information Don`t talk to people ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: Don`t make threats to others Don`t incite violence in the “real world” Don`t promote selfharming behaviour Don`t promote eating- disorder behaviour Promoting drugs use is prohibited Bullying is forbidden Stalking is forbidden (repeated friendship requests) Hacking is forbidden Make sure you don`t hurt or make other people feel uncomfortable Everyone is unique, don’t insult/discriminate on the basis of gender/origin/disabilities Don`t pose naked in front of a webcam Don`t upload images where nudity appears 42 Values self-harming content is prohibited that you don`t know in real life Grooming identity theft or hacking are prohibited Don’t meet (nor get in touch) with people that you don’t know in real life Don`t pose naked in front of a webcam Only add friends that you know Don`t give out personal information Only add friends that you know Don`t divulge erotic messages Don`t give out personal information Don`t talk to people that you don`t know in real life Only accept friendship requests from people that you know Commercial Be honest when you play online games and in the contests where you participate Never pretend to be someone else behave online as you would offline Don`t publish personal information about others Think before you post something online Be polite Respect everybody Hacking is forbidden (and penalized) Don`t post pictures/videos of people unless you`ve asked them for permission to do it Don’t post pictures or videos of yourself without thinking Don’t start a chain letter Use a real picture of yourself Behave like you would do in the offline world Ask permission before you tag someone Don’t post any copyrightprotected material (e.g. music) Don`t give out personal information Only add friends that you know Other ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: All the material that you post 43 should be virus-free, should not have any technical problem and should not damage any computers Table 3 Classification of risks according to the service provider`s perspective In general, the current version of the Terms of use give particular attention to conduct risks. Indeed, the Tips section (within the Terms of use) are a long list of prohibited behaviours on the site (e.g. “Don`t upload images where nudity appears”, “Don`t divulge erotic messages”, “Don`t give out personal information”) plus a number of a number of general suggestions on how to keep safe online (e.g. Don`t talk to people that you don`t know in real life”, Think before you post something online”). Some of the tips go beyond e-safety and refer to general socially expected (online) behaviour (e.g. “Be polite”, “respect everybody”). As previously explained in section 6.1, apart from esafety tips the Terms of Use contain a subsection which focuses on legal issues. This specific sub-section of the Terms contains 12 bullet points which mainly refer to copyright issues and potential consequences of law infringement on the site. 6.3 Conclusions of the analysis When comparing the current version of the Ketnet website Terms of Use with the views expressed by parents and children during the co-design sessions we can observe that even though they differ from what the service provider currently offers on the website, we can still recognize interesting and complementary elements which can help us elaborate Terms of Use for online service platforms which can be more meaningful and engaging for children. From the tips elaborated by children one of the main conclusions is that they recognize themselves as active users of the platform. As such, they feel the need to teach other children to behave responsibly on the website. From here we can conclude that new generations of Terms of use should find ways of successfully teaching and guiding children to behave responsibly on the online platforms they employ. This could be achieved by, among others, providing concrete examples of behaviours users of the platform (do not) approve of. Parents, on their turn, put the emphasis on protecting their children from third-party (e.g. commercial content) and adult threats (e.g. grooming). They somehow seem to have a view of children as vulnerable individuals, not yet fully aware of the dangers that the internet offers and, therefore, also not fully capable of coping on their own with these risks. They expect, therefore, that Ketnet not only provides tools to educate children regarding online risks and how to best tackle them, but they also expect the service provider to offer a platform which is extremely safe by design. This is reflected in the “protective/preventive” character of the tips they devised, but also in the general design recommendations they came up with, for instance, that the website should offer differentiated access to sections and functionalities depending on the age of children, or offering additional safety features on chat or other communication features present on websites (e.g. monitoring features on chat so that no adults “with bad intentions” ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 44 can interact with children). It is also interesting to observe that parents expect media literacy and, in particular, e-safety information to be embedded throughout the whole website. According to them this would be useful to increase its effectiveness, but also to ensure a real positive impact on children`s behaviour. According to them this could be achieved by, for instance, providing contextual e-safety tips or reminding children of the “rules of the game” at relevant times rather than keeping this information in specific sections of the website such as the Terms of Use. According to parents, keeping this information only on dedicated sections of the website increases the risk of this information not being found or read, or simply not being meaningful enough for users. On the contrary, providing this information at key, relevant moments, for instance, when uploading a picture or when adding a new friend, could be more effective in fostering children`s safer online behaviour. As opposed to parents and children`s views, the service provider seems to struggle in finding the right balance between educating children to behave responsibly and safely on the Ketnet website and trying to make clear to users what their (legal) rights and obligations on the website are. This conflict is evident in the structure (and content) of the current version of the Ketnet Terms of Use, characterized by a long list of unrelated general netiquette rules, specific e-safety tips, allowed and forbidden behaviours on the website, and legal clauses (See figure 13). In the following section we discuss concrete ways of making the current Terms of Use more child-friendly based on the general tips offered by parents and children as regards the Ketnet website and on our expert review of the Terms of Use13. 13 The version of the Ketnet Terms of Use that was reviewed for this report is dated ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 45 Figure 13 Extract from Ketnet Terms of Use 6.4 Recommendations on how to improve the Ketnet Terms of Use One of the most important conclusions of our analysis is the need to have transparent and child-friendly Terms of Use. As suggested by Passera (2012), more user-friendly legal documents can be achieved in a number of ways, for instance, by simplifying the textual language, by including and creating visualizations and good layouts as well as by rethinking the structure of the document in terms of good storytelling. In the ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 46 specific case of children, we believe that the timing of the information provision also plays an important role. In this section we try to look at some of these aspects with the aim of increasing the child-friendliness of the current Ketnet Terms of Use. Because of the scope of this deliverables, our recommendations remain on a rather conceptual level. Future work should focus on empirical research to test the validity of our suggestions. The need to distinguish legal from non-legal content: In the current version of the Ketnet Terms of Use there is no clear distinction between the ‘do`s and don`ts governing the website), the ‘e-safety tips/examples’ and the actual legal aspects of the ‘Terms of Use’. It is important, therefore, to separate this information into clear-cut categories and provide each of them with easy-tounderstand labels. A possible division of content could be the following: 1. Our agreement: a section devoted to the legally-binding aspects which govern children`s use of the platform (e.g. copyright issues) 2. Rules of the Game: a section containing examples of the “do`s and don`ts” ruling the use of the website 3. E-safety tips: a dedicated section providing advice to ensure children`s safe online experience on the website Below we discuss each of these categories in more detail. 6.4.1 Our agreement Probably the most challenging aspect of this exercise was trying to convey legal communication in a child-friendly way. In the case of Ketnet this is particularly difficult due to the young age the website targets. This is why it is fundamental to rethink the Ketnet Terms of Use from a perspective that better fits children`s needs, their rights and their not-yet fully developed cognitive capabilities. Increasing transparency in the case of children means communicating things differently, but openly, establishing clear boundaries regarding what is allowed on the website and what is not and, above all, relating the legal content as much as possible to the children`s worldviews and experiences so that it becomes truly meaningful and engaging. Children are not adults, and therefore when it comes to legal communication, they should not be treated as such. This is why when children register on the Ketnet website, they should be informed about, on the one hand, the rules that apply on the website (i.e. “the rules of the game”) and, on the other hand, the legal aspects (i.e. “our agreement”) governing the use of the website. In the case of the “agreement”, a transparent contract with young users should consider: It is important to think carefully about what the service provider wants to achieve when establishing a contractual agreement with children (and their parents). Therefore, it is crucial to consider the legal aspects involved and translate this into a child-friendly language that is easy for children to grasp, ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 47 but which also clearly conveys that you are talking about issues which should be taken seriously. The “agreement” should be easily-accessible to children at all times. Whenever necessary (e.g. when performing an action that could risk breaking the agreement) children should be reminded of this “agreement” or specific parts thereof. These reminders should be “dosed” so that children get the right amount of information at the right time and are not overloaded with information. In order to encourage children to follow the “agreement” they should receive positive incentives for their good behaviour on the Ketnet website. Possible incentives could include offering additional features on the website such as immediate access to higher levels in games or special access to episodes of their favourite TV show, etc. only accessible to those children who fully respect the agreement. It may be a good idea to add as an article which clearly stipulates that the acceptance of the “rules of the game” is an important part of the “agreement” itself. 6.4.2 Rules of the game Based on the tips provided by children and their parents, we came out with a new, more concise categorization of “do`s and don`ts” which apply to the Ketnet website (See Table 4). During the co-design sessions participants proposed to refer to this section as the “Rules of the game” (rather than Terms of Use) as it was believed that most children would be acquainted with the terminology and it would be easy for them to understand the meaning of the metaphor. As opposed to Terms of Use, the rules of the game have a more generic character. They serve to explain to children (and their parents) what is expected of them on the website. They should clearly, but also concisely communicate to children the idea of what is “good/accepted” behaviour on Ketnet and what is not. Just as any “rules of the game” which should be well-known and accepted before a game begins, the Ketnet rules of the game should also be presented to users before they start using the platform. Table 4 suggests a more meaningful categorisation of items more in line with children`s reality. It is also important to use generic categories rather than long lists of exhaustive examples. This can be done by using “umbrella” labels which can cover a wide range of potentially unlimited online risks. By following such an approach, the amount of information presented to children will be drastically reduced and the text will gain in simplicity and readability. We also suggest that less relevant items such as very specific or too general examples (e.g. “don`t refresh the page too often” or “behave online as you would offline”) can either be deleted or placed under a ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 48 second layer of information only accessible to users interested in finding out more about the “Rules of the game”. Rules of the Game Examples of possible content/tips under each rule 1. SHARE YOUR KETNET Let your parents (and Ketnet) know EXPERIENCES WITH US AND about what you do or experience on WITH PEOPLE YOU TRUST the website If something goes wrong on the Ketnet website, talk about it with your parents or someone you trust. And please let us know by clicking HERE! 2. PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION PERSONAL Keep your personal information such as your telephone number, address or e-mail safe and only share it with people you know and trust, never with strangers! Think before you post pictures, videos, messages or other content on our website. Remember that once you post it other people can also see it! Don’t share your password and keep it safe! 3. PROTECT OTHERS` INFORMATION PERSONAL Don’t post pictures or videos or tag people in pictures of people unless you are sure they are OK with it Respect other people’s privacy Never use someone else`s account. Every account is personal and should only be used by its owner 4. BE CAREFUL WITH STRANGERS ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: Don`t accept friends` requests from people you don`t know in real life First discuss with your parents if you want to get in touch with someone you have only met online. 49 Never go to a meeting alone and without letting your parents know! 5. BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU UPLOAD CONTENT Please make sure that you do not use material that others have created without their permission (e.g. a song of your favourite band) Make sure that all the material that you post to our website is free from viruses so that you don`t damage yours nor other people`s computers Be careful when you use the webcam and don`t pose naked in front of t. The person on the other side may record what you do or say 6. BEHAVE IN A POSITIVE WAY Share interesting, fun, educational and other types of positive content online Don`t share websites which can be harmful for you or others (e.g. don`t post sites about drugs, unless it contains educational information) Be honest when you play online games and in the contests you participate 7. BE NICE TO OTHERS Be polite Respect everybody Don`t hurt people nor make them feel uncomfortable. Ketnet is for everybody and everybody should feel happy and safe by using our website! Bullying is absolutely forbidden on Ketnet, so if you hear or see someone trying to hurt someone else, please let us know by clicking ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 50 HERE! Table 4 Examples of possible “Rules of the Game” for the Ketnet website Timing and layout of the information provision: The rules of the game should first be mentioned during the registration procedure, but should also be accessible on the website at all times. For each rule of the game, a second layer can provide specific examples. The latter can also appear in the form of contextualised e-safety tips (e.g. when posting a picture). These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but should help children grasp what is meant by that particular rule. As children`s online behaviour evolves continuously, but also because the Ketnet platform also does (e.g. when adding new features or sections), it is important to find ways to remind children of these rules in subtle, but effective ways so that they can have a positive impact on children`s behaviour on the Ketnet platform. Last, the rules should be kept updated, ideally based on the input Ketnet received from its users (e.g. through the input received via the reporting mechanisms). It goes beyond the scope of this deliverable to discuss the most appropriate format the “Rules of the Game” should have as this will be highly dependent on the “Look and feel” of the Ketnet website and on their young audience`s taste. What is important though is that they should be designed keeping the following guidelines in mind: Generic, but clear rules. The rules should be relevant, concise, formulated in a child-friendly language and general enough so as to cover a number of related behaviours. It is advisable to include a few concrete examples that illustrate the rule well so that children can easily grasp what the rule is about (See table 4). If the child doesn`t understand what the rule is about he won`t be able to follow that rule. Limited number of rules. Do not overload the children and their parents with unnecessary information, certainly not on the first encounter. There are plenty of opportunities to present more information afterwards (e.g. through layering). Therefore, keep the number of rules limited to the most essential ones. Layering: Do not present all the information at once, but in layers. Overloading children with information will hinder the comprehension of the rules. If a child wants to know more about a specific rule, a second layer can provide additional examples to illustrate that rule. A third layer could be useful to link the rules to other existing content on the Ketnet website (e.g. a related video on the “Vet op het net” section) or in other relevant external websites. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 51 Easy to read: Make “the rules of the game” and the content under these rules easy-to- read. This can be achieved by improving the legibility of the texts (e.g. using child-appealing typography) and their readability, i.e. facilitating the text comprehension by means of child-friendly language and avoiding legalese. Emotional appeal: Make the rules attractive to children. This can be done by incorporating non-textual elements, such as child-appealing characters, music, videos, etc. In other words accompany the written texts by audio-visual and interactive elements that children would find attractive. Engaging rules: The rules of the game are meant to help children and Ketnet ensure a pleasant, but at the same time, safe experience on the website. In order to guarantee this all Ketnet users should follow a number of rules. These rules should work in the best interest of the child, but should also be coherent with the service provider`s mission and vision. It is, therefore, important to find the right balance between providing a fun user experience and providing the right level of protection for the children active on the platform. In order to achieve this, the rules of the game should be engaging so that children feel it is meaningful for them to follow these rules, rather than perceiving them as being imposed on them. Giving children a voice in the rule-making process can be useful in elaborating rules that really matter to them. A concrete idea could be providing an 'idea-box' for children to send suggestions about new (examples of) rules or agreements, or modifications to existing ones. Another possibility would be to develop a sort of “crowd-sourcing” feature where children can actively interact, discuss, propose and eventually vote on current and new rules. Such a mechanism would serve two important purposes. On the one hand, it supports children’s active participation in the rules-making process, and on the other hand, it serves an educational and awareness-raising function because by actively engaging in discussions children would learn about their peer`s online experiences on the platform. Ultimately, children would be given a real opportunity to have a say and be heard in the Ketnet policy-making process, essential in order to ensure an effective policy uptake (Donoso and Lievens, 2013). 6.4.3 E-safety tips As regards the e-safety tips, we suggest, whenever possible, to follow these guidelines: Context-specific tips: e-safety tips should be offered to users at relevant moments through their interaction with the website, for instance, as examples for the rules of the game during the registration procedure but also whenever it is relevant for users to be reminded of potential online risks (e.g. right before uploading a video). Ideally, they should be context-specific and be presented unobtrusively so that the users perceive them as useful rather than as a hindrance to their online experience. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 52 7 Relevant tips at relevant moments: The number of e-safety tips is theoretically unlimited, as long as they are relevant and appear only in relevant contexts (e.g. when posting a picture, when changing your password, etc.). Easy to read: e-safety tips should be easy for children to understand. This can be achieved by improving the legibility of the texts (e.g. using child-appealing typography) and their readability, i.e. facilitating the text comprehension by means of child-friendly language and avoiding legalese. Multi-modal formats: e-safety information should not only be presented through text but in a multi-modal way. Ketnet already does this through their videos and quizzes on their “Vet op het Net section” section. Perhaps it would be interesting to explore other multi-modal formats which can be appealing to children as well, such as (mini) games, etc. Emotional appeal: In order for the tips to be really appealing to children they should be presented in formats which appeal to children. Therefore it is highly advisable to incorporate audio-visual, interactive and fun elements into the tips. Engaging tips: Just like the “rules of the game”, the e-safety tips should also serve the purpose of helping children to enjoy a pleasant, but also safe experience on the Ketnet website. It is, therefore, important to provide tips which are engaging enough and which motivate children to follow them. The tips, should, on the one hand, reflect areas that could be problematic for children on the website, and, on the other hand, it should offer them different options to cope with such issues (e.g. informing them about available reporting tools, etc.). Last, the tips should not only be used to warn children about potential online risks, but they should also reinforce children`s positive behaviour on the website. Reflections and conclusions In this deliverable we explored how the use of participatory and co-design methodologies can support and guide the process of designing more user-centric legal communication. Our study confirms previous research that claims that users/consumers need to be provided with more transparent, user-friendly and meaningful Terms of Use. As literature suggests, this can be achieved in a number of ways, for instance, by simplifying the textual language, by including and creating visualizations and good layouts, by rethinking the structure of legal documents as well as by timing the information provision in more effective ways. Arguably, even more crucial is the active participation of users during the design process. Only by actively engaging all relevant stakeholders (including lawyers who write these documents) and users/consumers it is possible to give them a real opportunity to have a say and to be heard in the policy-making process. Increasing their level of involvement in this ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 53 process will also serve to create more engaging, appealing and meaningful legal documents. In the specific case of young children, we conclude that one of the most challenging aspects is to convey legal communication in a way that they can understand. This is why it is fundamental to re-think legal documents such as Terms of Use and Privacy Policies from a perspective that better fits children`s needs, their rights and their notyet fully developed cognitive capabilities. Increasing transparency in the case of children means communicating things differently, but openly, establishing clear boundaries regarding what is allowed on the website and what is not and, above all, relating the legal content as much as possible to the children`s worldviews and experiences so that it becomes truly meaningful and engaging. Children are not adults, and therefore when it comes to legal communication, they should not be treated as such. We hope that the analysis and guidelines proposed in this report can guide the development of more user-centric approaches towards designing legal communication, in particular for vulnerable consumers and users such as young children. We also hope that these ideas will be useful for Microsoft and Ketnet, whenever they decide to update their Terms of Use or other policy documents. Hopefully many other organizations will follow these steps and will start producing user-friendlier, transparent, useful legal documents for their customers and users. Last, in spite of the attempts we have made to suggest more effective ways of presenting legal documents and policies, we lack the empirical evidence to guarantee that these changes alone will be enough to nudge users/consumers towards becoming informed consumers, able and willing to read legal documents. We, therefore, encourage future research to focus on translating these guidelines into concrete ideas and to develop evidence that can guide the design of future legal communication so that it is really effective in reaching its audiences and in informing them the way they deserve. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 54 8 References 1. Barnes, S.B. (2006). A Privacy Paradox: Social Networking in the United States. First Monday vol. 11 no. 9, available at http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/139 4/1312 2. Bowen, S. J. Critical Artefact Methodology (2009). PhD thesis available at: http://www.simonbowen.com/downloads/research/aCriticalArtefactMethodol ogy.pdf. 3. Buckingham, D. (2009). Creative visual methods in media research: possibilities, problems and proposals. Media, Culture & Society, 31(4), 633-652. 4. Dindler, C. et al. (2005). Mission from Mars: a method for exploring user requirements for children in a narrative space. Proceedings of the IDC 2005 conference. ACM, NY. 5. Donoso, V. and Lievens, E. (2013). Participatory policy-making as a mechanism to increase the effectiveness of school policies against cyberbullying. EMSOC report. Available at: http://emsoc.be/5367-participatory-policy-making-as-amechanism-to-increase-the-effectiveness-of-school-policies-againstcyberbullying/ 6. Druin, A. (2002). The role of children in the design of new technology. Behaviour & Information Technology, 21,1 -25. 7. Franz, T.M. (2012). Group Dynamics and Team Interventions. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester. 8. Gray, D. (2010). Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers. O’Reilly, Sebastopol. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 55 9. Greenbaum, J., and Kyng, M. (1991). Design at work: Cooperative design of computer systems. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum. 10. Guha, M.L., Druin, A. & Fails, J.A. (2013). Cooperative Inquiry revisited: Reflections of the past and guidelines for the future of intergenerational codesign. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. 11. Halloran, J., Hornecker, E., & Stringer, M. (2009). The value of values: Resourcing co-design of ubiquitous computing. Co-Design, 4(5), 245-273. 12. Heary, C.M. & Hennessy, E. (2002). The Use of Focus Group Interviews in Pediatric Health Care Research. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27(1), 47-57. 13. Iversen, O.S., Halskov, K., Leong T.W. (2010). Rekindling Values in Participatory Design. PDC ‘10 Proceedings of the 11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference. ACM, NY. 14. Jansen, A., Sulmon, S., Van Mechelen, M., Zaman, B., Vanattenhoven, J., De Grooff, D. (2013). Beyond the familiar? Exploring extreme input in brainstorms. In CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '13). ACM, New York. 15. Manders-Huits, N. (2011). What Values in Design? The Challenge of Incorporating Moral Values into Design. Science and Engeneering Ethics, 17(20), 271-287. 16. Muller J. M. (2002). Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI. In: The Humancomputer Interaction Handbook (pp. 1051-1068). Hillsdale: L. Erlbaum Associates Inc. 17. Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., Görzig, A., & Ólafsson, K. (2011) EU Kids Online II final report http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/39351/| 18. Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., Görzig, Anke and Ólafsson, K. (2011). Risks and safety on the internet: the perspective of European children: full findings and policy implications from the EU Kids Online survey of 9-16 year olds and their parents in 25 countries. Deliverable D4. EU Kids Online, London, UK. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 56 19. S. Passera (2012). Legal Design Jam. (webpage). Retrieved from http://legaldesignjam.com/about/ 20. Rokeach, M. (1973). The Nature of Human Values. Free Press, NY. 21. Sanders, E. B.-N. and Simons, G. (2009). A social vision for value co-creation in design. Open Source Business Resource, December. Available at: www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/1012/973. 22. Sanders, E. (2000). Generative Tools for CoDesigning. In S. Scrivener, L. Ball, & A. Woodcock, eds. Proceedings of CoDesigning 2000. Springer, 3-12. 23. Sawyer, K. (2008). Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration. Basic Books, New York. 24. Scaife, M. and Rogers, Y. (1999). Kids as informants: Telling us what we didn’t know or confirming what we knew already, in A. Druin (Ed.), The design of children's technology, pp.29-50. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. 25. Schuler, D., and Namioka, A. (1993) (Eds.). Participatory design: Principles and practices. Hillsdale NJ USA: Erlbaum. 26. Sleeswijk Visser, F. et al., (2005). Context mapping: Experiences from practice. CoDesign, G (2), 119-149. 27. Spinuzzi C. (2005). The Methodology of Participatory Design. In: Technical Communication. Volume 52, 2, pp. 163-175. Twente. 28. Van Mechelen, M., Gielen, M., Vanden Abeele, V., Laenen, A. and Zaman, B. (2014). Exploring challenging group dynamics in participatory design with children. In Proceedings of IDC '14. ACM, NY, 269-272. 29. Van Mechelen, M. and Derboven J. (2014). Multimodal Analysis of Participatory Design Results. In NordiCHI 2014 Workshop ‘The Fuzzy Front End of Experience Design’. ACM, NY. 30. Van Mechelen, M., Slegers, K. & De Groof, D. (2013). User Empowerment in a Social Media Culture Preventing and coping with (cyber)bullying: participatory mapping towards self-regulatory strategies. EMSOC Project, www.emsoc.be. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 57 31. Walsh, G., Druin, A., Guha, M.L., Foss, E., Golub, E., Hatley, L., Bosignore, E. and Franckel, S. (2010). Layered elaboration: a new technique for co-design with children. In Proc. CHI 2010. ACM, NY, 1237-1240. 32. Ellen Wauters , Verónica Donoso , Eva Lievens , (2014) "Optimizing transparency for users in social networking sites: ", info, Vol. 16 Iss: 6, pp. - ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 58 9 9.1 Annex 1. Pre-assignments Legal Design Jam Tasks common to all teams Read through the document: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msuk/en_GB/DisplayTermsOfUseAndSalePage / 1) Look at the structure of the document and the headings used for parts and paragraphs. Could it be made easier? Could important information be given more salient position? a. Reorganize the document for better “storytelling” - this means possibly changing the order and the numbering of the clauses, merging clauses, splitting clauses and creating a clear, possibly plain language hierarchy of headings. As a guiding principle, think of the target readers of this documents (Online Store customers) and what would be the best information order for them. b. Lastly, create a table of content for the old and for the new documents, so as to clearly show your modifications. 2) Highlight in red sentences and paragraphs that could be eliminated (e.g. they are redundant). 3) Highlight in yellow sentences and paragraphs that are confusing, or hard to understand, or could benefit from a visual explanation and/or reformulation in better language. 9.2 TASKS Team 1: Text and Layout During the Jam, your team will be responsible of creating the final structure/order of the document and design its layout. For the 2 following tasks, it is enough that you list and describe in a nutshell your ideas, maybe with the aid of a small sketch. Just make quick, small experiments, so during the jam you will be ready to discuss concrete ideas and suggestions with your team-mates. These 2 tasks can be saved in a separate document, if for example you find it easier to use a different software to collect and show your ideas. 1) Identify parts of the text could be more effectively be replaced by bulleted lists. 2) Develop ideas for visually effective headings 3) Think of ideas in which bolding and/or italics and/or text in a different color could be used consistently to highlight key concepts or structure in the text. For example, what if all terms like unless, nothwithstanding, including, excluding etc. would be italic? Or if important words would be bold? Would it make the flow of the text clearer? ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 59 4) Experiment with alternative approaches, while avoiding to make the text messy — you want to create distinctive cues, not more noise. You can look at the following examples of legal texts with clear(er) layouts for inspiration: - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trademark_policy - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trademark/License/GLAM - have a look, but don’t share further the file! - - https://www.dropbox.com/s/0bwk37xopvo0n7b/Legislation-layout-RW071113.pdf - http://nl.about.pinterest.com/terms/ - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ - examples at the end, and a good read in general: http://www.davidberman.com/NewFormatForCanadianLegislation.pdf 9.3 TASK Team 2: creating a user-friendly, visually enhanced summary During the Jam, your team will be responsible of creating a summary of the document, to be placed for instance at the beginning of the existing document, that can work as an easy, fast, clear way for the readers to get an idea what the key contents of the document are. For the following task, you don’t need to fully develop your idea, but just sketch and explain few solutions. Just make quick, small experiments, so during the jam you will be ready to discuss concrete ideas and suggestions with your team-mates. This tasks can be saved in a separate document, if for example you find it easier to use a different software to collect and show your ideas. 1) Start collecting preliminary ideas of what type of user-friendly summary could be used for the Microsoft Terms of Use and Sale. What key information would be there? What format would be better (e.g. a table? a summary test enriched with icons? a process diagram? a mix of elements? something else…?) You can look at the following examples of user-friendly summaries for inspiration: - last image at http://legaldesignjam.com/2014/03/20/ldj-with-domusacademy-students-things-milano-report/ - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trademark_policy - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy - https://www.lookout.com/legal/privacy - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 60 - 9.4 results from Group One (abstract) and Group Four (poster) at http://legaldesignjam.com/2014/03/20/ldj-talent-garden-milano-report/ page 4, 6 and 7 of http://legaldesignjam.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/CISG_booklet.pdf TASK Team 3: visualization of the purchase process During the Jam, your team will be responsible of creating a visualization that summarizes the rules about the purchase process, and puts them in context, by showing the process itself. For the following task, you don’t need to fully develop your idea, but just sketch and explain few solutions. Just make quick, small experiments, so during the jam you will be ready to discuss concrete ideas and suggestions with your team-mates. This tasks can be saved in a separate document, if for example you find it easier to use a different software to collect and show your ideas. 1) Focus on the description of the purchase process [bits of relevant information might be spread around different clauses, from 12 to 17] 2) Think of ways to create a process diagram explaining how a purchase process works (e.g. a flowchart? a “metro map”? etc). Think of ways to avoid confusion if there are process differences between the purchase of hardware, software and downloads. You can look at the following examples of process diagrams for inspiration: - registration procedure diagram at http://legaldesignjam.com/2014/03/20/ldjwith-domus-academy-students-things-milano-report/ - page 5 and 8 of http://legaldesignjam.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/CISG_booklet.pdf - from page 6 onwards https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1tiw27bhctdf7c/JYSE_English_translations_DRA FT.pdf - http://www.legaltechdesign.com/visualawlibrary/2014/03/11/how-acriminal-case-moves-through-the-court/ - http://www.legaltechdesign.com/visualawlibrary/2014/02/14/dormantcommerce-clause-analysis/ - some of the visualizations in these slides https://www.dropbox.com/s/91qkmx68gbj1kpt/visu_slides.pptx ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 61 9.5 TASK Team 4: visualization of the return policy process During the Jam, your team will be responsible of creating a visualization that summarizes the rules about the return/refund process, and puts them in context, by showing the process itself. For the following task, you don’t need to fully develop your idea, but just sketch and explain few solutions. Just make quick, small experiments, so during the jam you will be ready to discuss concrete ideas and suggestions with your team-mates. This tasks can be saved in a separate document, if for example you find it easier to use a different software to collect and show your ideas. 1) Focus on the description of the return policy process [clause 18]. Think of ways to create a process diagram explaining how this process works (e.g. a flowchart? a “metro map”? etc). Think of ways to avoid confusion if there are process differences between the return&refund of hardware, software and downloads. You can look at the following examples of process diagrams for inspiration: - registration procedure diagram at http://legaldesignjam.com/2014/03/20/ldjwith-domus-academy-students-things-milano-report/ - page 5 and 8 of http://legaldesignjam.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/CISG_booklet.pdf - from page 6 onwards https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1tiw27bhctdf7c/JYSE_English_translations_DRA FT.pdf - http://www.legaltechdesign.com/visualawlibrary/2014/03/11/how-acriminal-case-moves-through-the-court/ - http://www.legaltechdesign.com/visualawlibrary/2014/02/14/dormantcommerce-clause-analysis/ - some of the visualizations in these slides https://www.dropbox.com/s/91qkmx68gbj1kpt/visu_slides.pptx 9.6 TASK Team 5: icons During the Jam, your team will be responsible of creating a system of small icons that can enrich the document by signalling and marking key concepts. During the Jam, your team will also have to coordinate with Team 1 (layout) as to decide where the icons would be placed best in a good document layout. For the following task, you don’t need to fully develop your idea, but just sketch preliminary few solutions. Just make quick, small experiments, so during the jam you will be ready to discuss concrete ideas and suggestions with your team-mates. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 62 This tasks can be saved in a separate document, if for example you find it easier to use a different software to collect and show your ideas. 1) Think of ideas on how icons could be used to enrich this document. For instance, some examples: - One icon per clause, opening up its meaning? - A set of icons used to refer to recurring concepts (e.g. “you need to look up your local law”, “to do: you need to take action in a certain way in order to maintain your rights”, “prohibition”… etc.) - Two sets of icons (e.g. must, must not, no obligation towards the other party…), one for Microsoft and one for the customer used to mark the role of each party in each clause You can look at the following examples of icons for inspiration: - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ - page 4: http://legaldesignjam.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/CISG_booklet.pdf - NB! This is a mockup, don’t share it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e3uu8vvw5ssfzwz/hoas_%20T%26C_A3.pdf - NB! This is a mockup, don’t share it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fxgv1j0syfcvegv/HOas_housing%20rules_A3. pdf - https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1tiw27bhctdf7c/JYSE_English_translations_D RAFT.pdf - https://www.lookout.com/legal/privacy - http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/privacy-icons/ - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trademark_policy 10 Dutch Summary “Doorheen het EMSOC project bestudeerden we het gebruik van sociale media in Vlaanderen, met een bijzondere focus op hoe dit gebruik een invloed kan hebben op het empoweren van gebruikers. Een belangrijk aspect dat naar voren kwam in ons onderzoek was het gebrek aan transparantie omtrent vele (commerciële) praktijken in het kader van het gebruik van sociale media diensten. In december 2013 organiseerden we een workshop rond transparantie, waar een selecte groep van experts en mensen uit de praktijk werden uitgenodigd. Samen gingen we op zoek naar mogelijkheden om transparantie te verhogen in en omtrent sociale media platformen, op creatieve, gebruikers-geïnspireerde en betekenisvolle manieren. Hoewel de deelnemers verschillende achtergronden hadden, waren ze het er toch over eens dat ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 63 de manier waarop (juridische) informatie wordt vertrekt aan gebruikers/consumenten problematisch is. In het algemeen is de informatie die we terugvinden in Gebruiksvoorwaarden of een Privacy beleid voor het gebruik van sociale media diensten heel moeilijk te begrijpen. Deels komt dit door het complexe taalgebruik van deze teksten, maar evenzeer door de cognitieve en contextuele beperkingen van gebruikers (bijvoorbeeld een gebrek aan tijd of motivatie). Ten gevolge hiervan zijn de meeste sociale media gebruikers niet in staat om juridische informatie zoals contracten of Gebruiksvoorwaarden correct te begrijpen. Tijdens de workshop brainstormden we ook over mogelijke manieren om de efficiëntie van informatieverstrekking te optimaliseren. Sommige ideeën die hier werden voorgesteld waren het gebruiken van visuele technieken, het vereenvoudigen van juridisch taalgebruik en het timen van de mededeling van informatie, dit alles op een manier waarop gebruikers complexe juridische informatie kunnen begrijpen. De deelnemers waren in het bijzonder geïnteresseerd in het concept van de Legal Design Jams dat werd ontwikkeld en gepresenteerd tijdens de workshop door Stefania Passera. Dit concept werd beoordeeld als een zeer praktische en handige methodologie om de transparantie van informatieverstrekking aan sociale media gebruikers te verhogen. Geïnspireerd door dit idee besloot EMSOC om de eerste Belgische Legal Design Jam te organiseren op 4 april 2014. Tijdens deze jam werkten we samen met Microsoft aan de Gebruiksvoorwaarden van de Microsoft Online Store. Het idee was om na te denken over verschillende manieren om het document toegankelijker en gebruiksvriendelijker te maken. Een tweede oefening werd georganiseerd in samenwerking met de populaire Vlaamse kinderwebsite van de openbare omroep, Ketnet. Samen met Ketnet organiseerden we twee co-design sessies met kinderen en ouders. Het doel van deze sessies was om kinderen en hun ouders te laten nadenken over alternatieve manieren om de Ketnet Gebruiksvoorwaarden voor te stellen, op een manier die beter overeenstemt met hun levenservaringen en meningen. In deze deliverable geven we een samenvatting van de meest belangrijke resultaten van zowel de Legal Design Jam als de co-design sessies met kinderen en ouders. Beide oefeningen waren concrete pogingen om populaire websites transparanter te maken en bovenal om ‘Guidelines’ te definiëren, die kunnen helpen bij de ontwikkeling van meer gebruiksvriendelijke en gebruikers-centrale manieren voor het ontwerpen van juridische communicatie en om na te denken over de ‘lessons learnt’ tijdens deze processen. ©EMSOC – IWT - Brussels Leuven Ghent - 2011 – Authors: 64
Similar documents
Expert evaluation of e-safety measures on Ketnet.be
broadcasted on TV, playing online games and doing quizzes. Children can also choose to become members of the Ketnet online commun...
More information