Client
Twitter (now X)
Role
UX Researcher, UI Designer
Team
Bhavana Veeravalli, Anabel Russo
Re-Envisioning Twitter's Term's of Service
Re-Envisioning Twitter's (now X) Terms of Service
UX Research, UI Design, Speculative Design
Too often than not, users accept digital services without understanding that terms and conditions are a legally binding contract, equivalent to that of signing a signature with pen and paper. My colleague and I investigated how we could change this information asymmetry by focusing on one variable: typography.
Disclaimer: This project was complete in May of 2023, prior to the rebrand of Twitter to X in July of 2023.
DEFINE STAGE
What objectives guide the redesign of Twitter's Terms of Service (ToS)?
Improve the comprehension and retention of ToS content with a more distinct typographic hierarchy.
Minimize the cost-value of time that users spend on reading ToS while being aware of the fundamental pieces of information.
Streamline the internal navigation system while users are within the ToS, such as pages and sections.
DISCOVER STAGE
But First, Let's Talk About Research.
I took charge of prioritizing research. When conducting the soft and hard research, there was an interesting relationship between readability and perceived cost-value of time among users. We then analyzed the current mobile version of Twitter's terms of service (ToS). Below, I will explain the specific findings according to the research method used.
Market & Competitor
Analysis Findings
-
Information Overload: since there is a lot of content, it reduces the perceived importance of terms to users because everything is in large text with no clear hierarchy.
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Cost-Value Cue: I found that providing clear indication of how much time reader will spend reading terms increases time spent on terms as whole.
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Disempowering Users: in designing terms that are un readable, we end up neglecting a raft of the user population.
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Scroll Text: this effects the awareness of information in full text of the terms.
Flesh-Kincaid Readability Test
The Flesch–Kincaid readability tests score how difficult a passage in English is to understand. I ran the Terms of Service through the test and gained these insights:
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Flesch Reading Ease Score: 35.5.
In order to understand the ToS of Twitter, a user would need to have college level comprehension skills. -
Number of Sentences: 177.
This indicates the large degree of scroll text that deters reading of the ToS in the first place.
Semantic Analysis
With the results of the market research Flesch-Kincaid score, I also conducted a semantic analysis of the content. In do so, I was better able to classify the current contents into visual or linguistic cues to guide Anabel and I's design intervention.
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Global Structures:
These are defined as titles and subtitles; similar to the content page of a book. Side navigation bar remains fixed to left as form of way which is helpful, and there were headers with distinct size variations. -
Local Structures:
These are variations of characters at a micro level (letters, kerning, leading). In this ToS,. There are weird letter lists in paragraphs themselves: i,ii,iii. Additionally, the all caps in certain sections makes users more inclined to skip over that information.
Terms of Service on
Mobile Device
I searched for Twitter's Terms of Service on my mobile so I could see what the scroll length was on my personal device. In doing so, I learned that although there is a menu to navigate the contents, specific information I tried to look for, like privacy usage in and out of the United States, was difficult to find because it told me to navigate to separate page. Additionally, the sheer amount of content in the sections succeeding Privacy was overwhelming.
What the Research Indicates:
KEY FINDINGS
Users want a low cost-value of time when reading ToS with lots of vertical scroll.
There needs to be bite-sized pieces of information within sections so content can be understood by a more large demographic range.
A stronger typographical hierarchy and imagery needs to be explored so users don’t feel discouraged from reading ToS contract.
Dividing Sections into Pages
DEVELOP STAGE
Focus on Hierarchy and Navigation Round 1 Iterations
In iterations of the mobile UI, my partner and I experimented with various forms of navigation and textual treatment. In the end, we chose to incorporate the top section navigation bar and a system of expandable summaries to test.
Tweet Summaries for Accessible Comprehension
Clear Textual Variations for External Links
Bottom Navigation to Next Page
More Ergonomic Section Navigator
DEVELOP STAGE
Critique and Revisions Round Two Iterations
Anabel and I received valuable critique from our peers and professor to focus on expanding the summaries into threads similar to Twitter threads, and also developing iconography that differentiates summaries and account names, and also improving the way finding of specific sections. With those revisions, we were able to design our usability test.
Internal Bullet Points to Break Up Text
Tweets with Jump-to links for Internal Table of Contents
Task Criticality: How important is the task in relation to the functionality of the app (rated from 1-3, 1 being low, 3 being high).
Impact: The level of interference the issue created in allowing the user to perform the task (rated from 1-5, with 1 being a suggestion from the user and 5 being a blocker that prevents them from completing the task).
Frequency: How many times the issue occurred across all participants. For each participant that experienced the issue during a task, a tally of 1 is noted for that issue.
*Source: Outwitly
KEY TERMINOLOGY
ID
Task
Where
Task
Criticality
Description
Impact
1
2
3
4
Find information about copyright policy on ToS
Use Tweet Navigation as form of wayfinding
Navigate to & expand a Tweet Summary Thread in a specific page
Use Jump-To feature on a specific page
Content on the
Services page
Using the
Services page
Content on the
Services page
Disclaimers &
Limitations page
3
2
1
1
Participant spent more than 30s trying to find page and then information.
Participant perceived Tweet Navigation as odd hashtags rather than hyperlinks. Desired more emphasis.
Participants were slightly confused for 3s about interactivity of expand and close feed in the Tweet Thread.
Took 3s to realize hashtags could be clicked. Want more emphasis on the Tweet being interactive.
4
3
2
2
Frequency
P1
P2
P3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
DEVELOP STAGE
Usability Tests & Analysis
My partner, Anabel, was a phenomenal resource in conducting the tests and I was in charge of coding and organizing the information. We had four tasks, and we gained crucial insight into the effectiveness of our experiment. Some pertinent insights included:
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Our participants felt that the top navigation bar was an effective form of way finding, but the role of the Tweets threads and summaries confused them.
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They noted that having "#" for jump-to navigation was odd because it isn’t traditionally used in that way, and so they thought they would be redirected.
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Additionally, they thought having the same system of tweets for both summaries and navigation inconsistent across pages was odd.
DELIVER STAGE
Final Design &
Key Feature Updates
The usability test yielded key insights and testimony on what elements worked, and what could be tweaked. From the above test, the final design has three main revisions.
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Revised section navigation bar as a fluid horizontal scroll button.
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Internal jump-to navigation to subsections with a Tweet.
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Internal page integration of section summaries for more accessible comprehension of text.
Jump-to Hyperlinks More Prominent Without "#"
More Prominent Hyperlinks in Tweets
Fluid Expansion & Decompression of Feed
Clear Icon Variants Between Tweet Navigation & Summaries
REFLECTIONS
A Brief Conclusion
Can I confidently say that this re-envisioned Twitter Terms of Service will address the problem of users blindly accepting these legally binding contracts? No, probably not. However, this project has shown me the influence typography has in guiding what users should or should not read with hierarchy. The use of the Tweet format and breaking its traditional role as an image with hyperlinks, focusing on specific leading and kerning, clear roles of titles, subtitles, and bullet points, etc. I explored how typography exists in a macro and micro system in different digital environment. From the usability tests, I was also pleased to learn that although the willingness to increase the cost-value of time did not increase among users, the proposed redesign increased the comprehension level of users overall, which is a factor I believe shows how users could potentially be more empowered with understanding their rights when using the digital service. In the future, I would love to explore how gamifying the Terms of Service can influence information retention, comprehension, and increase cost value of time.