User experience and privacy might seem like very separate concerns for businesses, but they go hand in hand once you start to dive into what UX actually involves. It’s mostly been in the past ten years, and especially the last five, that privacy issues have become a major point of concern.
New regulations and reporting by the media have made users more aware of how their data is being used. This is not a bad thing, but businesses now have to be more transparent with their customers about how their personal data is used, and the security around it.
Web Form Privacy Control
Mobile applications, web applications, and websites themselves all use web forms to collect customer and user data. It’s one of the most effective ways to collect data and information about a user, but it’s sometimes unwelcomed. Asking for too much is usually what puts users off. A long form with many boxes isn’t attractive from a user experience perspective.
In 2019, there was a study, however, that 70% of consumers would share some more personal data if it was a benefit to them. This is also accompanied by their concern of how data is used, but including the word ‘anonymous’ when collecting data has been found to alleviate some of that concern.
Tracking and User Preferences
It’s all about being open and transparent, creating a good user experience is to help the customer feel relaxed and happy to continue their journey. Touching on the ‘anonymous’ point again, explicitly stating the information being collected is not personally identifying helps to ease concerns.
Tracking is a difficult one. Preferences can be collected anonymously and even stored locally to the user. But, tracking a user can seem borderline. Tracking can involve websites visited, search history, or the most common one, location. Some users see this as personally identifying but from a UX perspective it’s to improve their experience, helping customers realize this is the key.
Targeted Ads
What is important here is that you state that you won’t use their data for targeted advertisements. You also must provide them an option to opt-in or opt-out of it if you really want to ask. This should be stated explicitly with just a single touch to confirm, and you should try to avoid any misinterpretation.
Providing data to third parties has been a rising concern with consumers, and it’s important that they know where their data is going. The majority have shown they don’t want their data ending up in strange places.
Uploading Photos
Sometimes for verification purposes or payments, some form of identification is required. This can mean a photo ID might also be uploaded for verification; consumers have to be warned of this prior to it being required. People are less inclined to provide things like credit cards, passport details or even a digital signature. Compared to gender and date of birth for example, these are major factors that can drive customers away.
All of these privacy issues have to be considered at every step of the user experience journey. You cannot just throw an input box on the UI without considering the implications. At Axis Software Dynamics, we have dedicated UX personnel that are experienced and well versed in all current privacy requirements.
Don’t give yourself a headache reading through pages of privacy documentation or exterior concerns raised by international GDPR. Get in touch with us today and let us help you create a user experience journey your customers will want to continue!
