Paper Reading #8: Communicating Software Agreement Content Using Narrative Pictograms

Commentary

See what I have to say about ___'s and ___'s work.

References

Kay, M., and Terry, M. (2010). Communicating software agreement content using narrative pictograms. Proceeding of the Acm conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2705-2714). Atlanta: http://www.sigchi.org/chi2010/.

Article Summary

These researchers set out to address several common issues with software agreements, such as End User License Agreements, and their reception by a user base. A few key issues that they cite are the amount of text and its relative reading level, the fact that some agreements are only localized to several locations, and the success of pictorial communication of ideas and the absence of its use with respect to software agreements.

The researchers set up a system of pictograms depicting how content and usage information would be collected from an image editing program. They utilized four sets of diagrams, each depicting a different type of data that would be collected and how it would be used. Below is one such diagram with the explanatory text removed, as one of the subjects of the study might have scene and have had to interpret:

Image courtesy of the above-cited article.

In general, the results were promising: their initial test group had some difficulty identifying the concepts outlines by the pictograms, but with some slight modifications, the rest of the subjects did sufficiently well. Having basic text explaining the images did much to increase understanding of the images, and was much easier to read than the software agreement itself

Discussion

I enjoyed the concept of pictorial descriptions of license agreements, but I doubt that the licenses will ever go away entirely. They are obviously necessary for legal reasons, and in some instances a user will trudge through an agreement out of boredom or curiosity or out of a genuine desire to know his limits and freedoms. A main issue that the researchers will have to overcome is comprehension of the pictures. The licenses themselves, while sometimes inherently incomprehensible due to the high level of "legalese," still provide an accurate and complete description of the responsibilities of both the user and the company providing the software. The pictures, while only meant to "augment the text," as the researcher put it, will still have to provide an accurate description of the text. I can only imagine the problems that would arise, what with this country's affinity for frivolous lawsuits and the like:

Image courtesy of Natalie Dee

.