DAN TARRANT
Writing
Why I write
Introduction
Having now made it to final year I find that my attitude to writing is one of love and hate. There is beauty in writing sentences, constructing paragraphs and making documents; one which I have not always appreciated. Yet, with writing, there are also rules to follow and criteria to meet.
What I like
The VCLP and GDLP elements of this course really helped me to see how ancient writing is as a way of communicating with others, and good communication is something I believe every true graphic designer wants to do. As a part of my Christian faith, I read the Bible and, beyond its spiritual value to me I also have a great appreciation for its value as an ancient written document. The Bible has been crafted together by hundreds of authors, over thousands of years, in different languages and across different countries and cultures. It contains letters, stories, poems, love letters, censuses’, legal documents, songs and biographies. It is utterly diverse and totally ancient and I have yet to come across any other document like it. One of the things I enjoy about reading it is that I find that many of the things I struggle with in my life are things that other people even thousands of years ago have also struggled with. I’m fascinated by how I can connect with a person from a different culture, another country and a different millennium; someone so different from me. Yet, In reading the words they wrote I can find comfort. Strength and best of all connection. In a few sentences I can share in the pain they are feeling or sing the songs they are singing and that to me is magical. At the time of writing, they wouldn’t have known that someone like me would be here reading them all these centuries later. This shows me that there is value in documenting our struggles and our mistakes because they may help someone else feel, know and experience the ancient act of humanity.
What I dislike
However, as I mentioned, I also find writing unenjoyable. Knowing the power communication holds makes me nervous to try, what if I get it wrong? Even worse, I have no way to control interpretation, what if someone interprets my words in a different way to how I meant them. My generation knows that the words we speak in a digital age need to be measured. The rise of cancel culture, the me too movement and BLM make it clear that in a digital world our words will be weighed and measured by all those that hear them and the consequences of getting them wrong is no small thing. This pressure to write the right thing and convey it in the right way is for me quite suffocating and adds to a growing fear of never being allowed to get it wrong. There are societal rules we must follow, even this essay will be marked and graded and so it's for these reasons that I find myself in this love/hate conundrum of interest.
Conclusion
Figure 1. Gospel of Matthew manuscript, Wikipedia, 20/10/21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_37
I hope that this year I will be able to continue practising how to convey my thoughts and feelings to others well, in ways that inspire and comfort rather than ways that inspire division and hate.
Bibliography
Figure 1. Gospel of Matthew manuscript
Introduction
As a designer I have found that much of my work focuses on digital functionality, meaning that I like to make functional pieces that use a digital output. As such I have specialised my design practice as a user experience and user interface (UX/UI) designer. This gives me the focus to make applications that solve problems and look aesthetically pleasing whilst also incorporating wider thoughts about design through UX design. One of these outputs is app design.
Consider the broader field
App design is a relatively new and emerging field, founded in the technological revolution of a connected world. Apps now provide essential gateways for users to connect with the world around them. From shopping, entertainment and even careers, apps are a foundational part of the modern person. As such, good design is vital and, for apps this means a good UI and creating a good UX as they address the users ability to use, understand and apply the app to their lives.
The Work
I will be looking at the NHS Track and Trace app. I think this is a great piece of design work to look at as it relates to my interest in UX/UI design whilst also being an extremely unique political piece due to its scale, function, timeframe and audience. I am also keen to understand how the UX/UI of this app contributes to its successes and failures so I can apply them to my own work.
The context of this application will be familiar to most, lives under threat as a coronavirus strand circles the globe making people seriously ill and killing others. The world waits for a cure. In the meantime, the British government is working on a number of ways to reduce the spread whilst still keeping the country running. One of these methods was the use of contact tracing.
For the UK this primarily came in the form of the new NHS Track and Trace app. The app is used to record users' interactions in an attempt to track the spread of the virus from user to user. If a user is deemed to have come in contact with someone who has tested positive then they are instructed to follow the government guidelines like self-isolating. This makes the app useful for individuals to reduce the risk of spreading the virus to those more vulnerable and for the government to be able to monitor the virus's spread. It was created by the Health Security Agency in 2020 (NHS, 2020) and released on the 24th September 2020 (Gov.UK, 2020).
The audience for this app is unprecedented. Everyone in England and Wales over the age of 16 is encouraged to download the app which is estimated as 36.3 million people according to the 2011 census (Gov.UK, 2018).
These pressures of time, accessibility, scope, economy, innovation, audience and human lives put an enormous pressure on the app to be successful before it had even launched. If successful it could be instrumental.
Download Campaign
To encourage people to download the app the Government hired Mullenlowe Group who created a range of media for an advertising campaign using the slogan “Protect your loved ones. Get the app.” (Figure 2). This drew on the public pressure to protect those who are immunocompromised such as the elderly. The app was downloaded 10 million app downloads in the first three days (Hancock, 2020) and as of August 2021 it has been downloaded over 26.8 million times (Staista, 2021) roughly 73% of the intended audience. This is a significant percentage, arguably indicating a successful campaign.
App UI Review
Figure 3 shows the apps Home Screen, the main interface that users interact with and from which they access other screens. The screen hierarchy indicates the three main features to reduce the virus spread.
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Firstly a symbol indicates if the Bluetooth tracing technology is active or not, this is the main function. This system works by collecting data from other app users using bluetooth connectivity. If one of the users test positive the system may then alert other users who have connected with them in the past based on different metrics. This is to mimic the way the virus may spread from user to user.
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Secondly, the ‘Check into a venue’ button takes users to a screen that uses a QR code reader to scan venue codes - another form of contact tracing.
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Thirdly, the ‘Check symptoms’ button takes users to a screen where they can check for the most common symptoms of the virus.
(These are the main features of the app, released since the beginning. Some features such as testing were introduced later.)
The UI is arguably simplistic and minimal; pointing users to the main app features using buttons and iconography. Figure 4 also shows some other screens which again are minimal.
Despite useful features, I believe the UI is lacking. In her article ‘Evaluating the UX of the world’s contact tracing apps’, Barkha Sharma, reviews several of the world's tracing apps. In it, she ranks Italy's Immuni app as the best.
Figure 5. Immuni, Italian tracing app overview. (2020)
“Immuni’s User onboarding is quick, clean, and helps users understand how the app works. The app follows a minimalist design approach. Information is presented in a clean and concise manner. The language used is simple and conversational style. A separate screen ensures a complete explanation of data use and privacy. Immuni follows an empathy-driven design.” (Sharma, 2020)
For this reason, I believe that Immuni’s UI is better than the NHS equivalent. By using illustrations, a more contemporary style and conversational copy, Immuni empathises with users. Getting down to their level and clearly explaining what the app does and doesn’t do whilst feeling modern and exciting. This UI enhances the UX, and highlights the emptiness and formality of the NHS Track and Trace app. This is the first of several concerns. As well as this, some practical issues have also been highlighted as user pain points.
Practical Issues
The main report is that it drains the device battery very quickly. The app requires that bluetooth be enabled at all times and despite claims by the app developers that special low energy technology was used, it does not outweigh the public opinion of users claiming excessive battery use by the app.
More notably, some reviews suggest that the technology is inaccurate. One concern is that Bluetooth technology doesn’t take into account the physical barriers that can obstruct COVID such as face masks, open windows and even walls meaning that some are claiming to have been ‘pinged’ unfairly by the app.
User Decline
These issues contribute to a wider issue of decline in app use. Figure 6 shows how the number of venue check-ins (done through the app) dropped in the north even despite rising COVID cases.
“There are fears that the effectiveness of Test and Trace is being undermined by people not checking into venues because they are worried about being told to self-isolate” (Borrett and Rao, 2021)
Arguably, this fear of self-isolation is also causing users to avoid use of the app. For many, a period of self-isolation (14 days at app launch) is not a risk worth taking when the app is simply not trustworthy enough to know for sure that the user even has COVID.
A combination of these issues is likely what has caused a decline in user usage as they create a negative UX.
What is my opinion of the project
Personally, I dislike the app. Whilst I think it is a good idea, and the technical issues couldn’t have been avoided, fundamentally the execution of it didn’t work. The entire UI of the app is too cold and governmental and the other issues create mistrust and fear. At a time when people needed support and encouragement the app offered neither.
I believe this could have been avoided with a more creative UI and an empathy-driven UX. I think the app would have served better as a companion app, providing encouragement, tips, advice updates and support for those who had to isolate. It could even incorporate user participation, allowing users to add information such as venue density and reviews so that those who are especially vulnerable could find out information about venues to assess if they can go to them. By tapping into this sense of morale I think that it would have encouraged users to continue using the app because they want to help and they feel encouraged in their own effort. Without this, self-isolating became a point of dread when instead I think it could have been a thing people did because they want to help; something people do because they empathise with and understand the need to protect others.
Conclusion
Figure 1. (2020). App promotion image. Retrieved from: https://covid19.nhs.uk/ on 09/01/2022
NHS. (2020). ‘Who has been involved in creating the app? ’retrieved from:https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01106/en-us on 11/01/2022
Gov.UK. (2020). ‘NHS COVID-19 app launches across England and Wales’ retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-covid-19-app-launches-across-england-and-wales on 11/01/2022
Gov.UK. (2018). ‘Working age population’ retrieved from: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/demographics/working-age-population/latest on 11/01/2022
Figure 2. Mullenlowe group (2020). ‘NHS Track and Trace App download campaign’ retrieved from: https://www.mullenlowegroupuk.com/our-work/the-nhs-covid-19-app/ on 09/01/2020
Hancock. M. (2020). ‘NHS COVID-19 app has been downloaded over 10 million times’ retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-covid-19-app-has-been-downloaded-over-10-million-times on 11/01/2022
Statista. (2021). ‘Cumulative downloads of the NHS COVID-19 app in England and Wales as of December 2021’ retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1190062/covid-19-app-downloads-uk/ on 09/01/2022
Figure 3. (2022). ‘NHS Track and Trace app Home Screen screenshot’ retrieved from authors phone on 09/01/2022
Figure 4. (2020). ‘App Store Screen Overview’ retrieved from: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252489540/NHS-contact-tracing-app-for-England-and-Wales-launches-nationwide on 09/01/2022
Figure 5. (2020). ‘Immuni, Italian tracing app overview’ retrieved from: https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/01/italy-apple-exposure-notification-api-app/ on 09/01/2022
Sharma, B. (2020). ‘Evaluating the UX of the world’s contact tracing apps’ retrieved from: (https://uxplanet.org/evaluating-the-ux-of-the-worlds-contact-tracing-apps-77187d8c0535?gi=543358878092 on 09/01/2022
Figure 6. Borrett. A and Rao. G. (2021). ‘Check-ins vs cases graph’ retrieved from https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-how-effective-is-the-nhs-test-and-trace-app-12359278 on 09/01/2022
Borrett. A and Rao. G. (2021). ‘COVID-19: How effective is the NHS Test and Trace app?’ Retrieved from https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-how-effective-is-the-nhs-test-and-trace-app-12359278 on 09/01/2022
Critical Conversations
In conclusion, to me it appears that the biggest take-away from this is the need for empathy-driven design. An app can have the best technology, biggest budget and even the best cause but, unless it is able to connect with its users it will fail.
The purpose of the app was to ‘protect your loved ones’ yet it's cold tone and lack of trust in users only served to create a hostile experience that inspired fear and separation, the opposite of love.
Moving forward, I think designers need to remember to create apps that really solve emotional issues. People wanted to use the app so they could connect with their loved ones again but the app didn’t reinforce that message and users instead came two see it as the thing that would stop them from seeing those people.
Bibliography
Figure 6. Borrett and Rao, Check-ins vs cases graph. (2021)
Figure 5. Immuni, Italian tracing app overview. (2020)
Figure 4. App Store Screen Overview. (2020)
Figure 3. NHS Track and Trace app Home Screen screenshot. (2022)
Figure. 2. Mullenlowe Group, NHS Track and Trace App download campaign. (2020)
Figure 1. NHS COVID App Promotional Image. (2020)
Introduction
As an aspiring designer, I believe it is important for me to be aware of my cultural and professional surroundings; taking time to understand and reflect on the practices that will inform my practice as a designer.
I am passionate about user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design and, I believe their relevance is only growing as they become a core vertebrae in the backbone of this digitised society. As a user myself, I know the importance of good ethical practices when it comes to design, as I can remember the times I have been frustrated and disappointed by products and companies that have chosen to sacrifice good user experience, usually for short term gains instead of my user experience. As such, there comes a need for design practitioners in this field to use ethical practices in their work. These are things that help their users and treat them with respect and kindness, helping them in their confusion rather than trying to exploit it.
I believe that one of the foundations of good user experience and ethical practice has to be trust. In fact, in this essay I would like to explore the need for trust to be seen as a design principle for designers, especially digital designers.
A Digital Society
“Mankind are not held together by lies. Trust is the foundation of society. Where there is no truth, there can be no trust, and where there is no trust, there can be no society. - (Frederick Douglass,1869)
This quote argues the importance of trust in building a society and indicates to us that truth and trust are inherent needs for humanity to aspire to. Despite being written in 1869, these words arguably still bear fruit today and should encourage people to think about the ways that trust can be created, installed and valued in today's modern society. The modern landscape is one where people/users are increasingly trusting their lives on technology and digital services. For the first time in human history people today can likely manage their food, finances, health, entertainment, friendships, education and even love life all online.
Figure 1 shows just how quickly the number of internet users across the globe has increased over the past 15 years to now over 60% of all people. This should indicate the growing reliance and thus trust that is being put in digital internet services.
Yet, as the world tries new ways of digital integration users place themselves at increasing risk of being deceived. Trusting that the service they are using is going to perform in an ethical manner even when this is often out of the users control. Users find themselves drawn and pushed into digitisation but equally are nervous of the risk of theft and abuse in these unfamiliar environments.
Dark Patterns
Henry Brignull is a pioneer in the identification and awareness of ‘Dark Patterns’. These are UX/UI practices that are designed to deceive the user, often in the hope of benefiting a company. E.g. adding unexpected costs at checkout when buying items online, making it difficult to unsubscribe from a service, misusing user data. (Henry Brignull, 2022)
Figure 2 shows an example of how a game uses colour to try to trick users into buying more moves by making it the same colour as other positive interactions. These are dark patterns.
Companies often use them in the hopes that it will, in some form, profit them but Mr Brignull believes that these practices are also ultimately harmful for the businesses that use them because they create distrust by trying to trick the user into doing something they likely don’t want to do and he’s not alone;
“If you do not design for trust, your users will not trust you, your experience, your product, potentially even your brand, and may well trot off to competitors who know how to design things properly, and not be evil.” (H Locke, 2021)
Whilst business practices like these have been around for some time, dark patterns specifically regard digital experiences. They are important because they give users a voice and the ability to define and name these practices which is the first step in raising awareness and ultimately removing them.
Dark patterns however, don’t even have to be created intentionally. Mr Brignull hints that even just not highlighting important information, such as membership renewal dates, is a form of dark pattern. As such designers need to go even beyond just choosing not to be unethical but rather actively choose to pursue and create trust in their work with good practices that are beneficial to the user. A great list of such practices is found in Danny Sapio’s blog post “10 Principles for ethical designers” on Medium.com.
Pursuing Trust
Despite many examples of deceit and shady practices, one company, AirBnB provides a great example of what it looks like to seek and instal trust.
In his TEDx talk ‘Designing for trust’ AirBnB CEO Joe Gebbia describes how in order for AirBnB to overcome societal distrust in strangers, they had to actively try to create it between their users. For AirBnB itself they created a strong brand identity with a clean and open website that avoids the use of dark patterns; helping create a sense of honesty, clarity and most importantly trust between them and their users.
From this they use their platform to help build trust between their two user groups, the guests and the hosts. An example of this he mentions in the video is how they specifically chose the size of the information box guests fill out when enquiring with the host of the place they want to stay. This encourages them to share a healthy amount of information with their host; more than one sentence but not a long essay either. The host then is more likely to accept their stay because they now know and understand who this stranger is and what their intentions are a bit more. This helps break anonymity by generating identity which leads to accountability and then trust.
By choosing to put features like this box in, AirBnB are actively trying to create trust between their users, helping them to feel in control and safe to overcome the potential perceived threat of ‘stranger danger’
“Good design was able to overcome a deep rooted stranger danger”
(Joe Gebbia, 2016)
Prioritising trust can cost AirBnB some short term benefits e.g. a host may choose to decline an offer to stay more often based on the guest text introduction and AirBnB loses their cut. But in the long run, it assures hosts that they can trust AirBnB more and they believe that that is of greater benefit because it leads to more committed users who have better user experiences.
The Future
I believe that we are on the tip of an iceberg and that with the potential development of the metaverse the world is soon to be even more digitised allowing even more aspects of our lives to be digital. Whilst this is exciting it presents a choice, an opportunity for the pioneers of this future to set a precedent. Either creating a place of trust or a place where users have to guard themselves against other users and organisations from exploiting them. Yet, I believe only one of these ways will lead to a thriving and more exciting future, one that really thrives too. Designers need to choose now to devote themselves to trust-building design practices for everyone.
Conclusion
Designers have a unique ability to facilitate interactions between people, crafting the user’s experiences of each other. Traditionally this could be via the design of the shop front, salespersons clothing, product packaging, radio/TV advert and brand design but more recently designers are crafting user interaction through websites, apps and social media content. Despite these changes, designers still must choose to use ethical design practices like trust, honesty and openness in these new formats if society is to thrive even if that is harder to do and easier to neglect.
Yet something needs to change. According to the research of Edelman, over 50% of people say they distrust their government and the media and in fact see it as the job of businesses to take responsibility and fix social issues (Edelman, 2022). These figures can’t be ignored and haven’t come from nowhere. We need to strive for a society where trust is prioritised again and truly valued and, I see designer as a core cog in the engine that can bring about that change. Installing a new attitude towards the services they use and users they interact with, helping to feed trust back into our day to day experience.
Bibliography
Figure 1. ITU. (2021). Individuals Using the Internet. Retrieved from https://digitalregulation.org/access-for-all/ on 22/04/2022
Figure 2. Deceptive Design. (2018). How Dark Patterns Trick You Online (video). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/kxkrdLI6e6M at timestamp 3:15mins on 22/04/2022
Collins. (2022). Identity. Collins. Retrieved April 22nd 2022,https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/identity
Danny Sapio. (2022). 10 Principles for ethical designers. Medium. Retrived April 22nd 2022,https://uxdesign.cc/10-principles-for-ethical-ux-designs-21faf5ab243d
Edelman. (2022, January 24th). 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer. Edelman. Retrieved April 22nd 2022, https://www.edelman.com/trust/2022-trust-barometer
Frederick Douglass. (7 December 1869). Our Composite Nationality Speech. Boston, Massachusetts
Henry Brignull. (2022). Deceptive design. What is Deceptive Design. Retrieved April 22nd 2022, https://www.deceptive.design/
Henry Brignull. (2022). Types of deceptive design. Deceptive Design. Retrieved April 22nd 2022, https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern
H Locke. (2021, February 4th). 14 ways that good design builds trust with users. Medium. Retrieved April 22nd 2022, https://medium.com/@h_locke/14-ways-that-good-design-builds-trust-562ffaddaf1f
Joe Gebbia. (2016). How Airbnb designs for trust. TED. Retrived from https://www.ted.com/talks/joe_gebbia_how_airbnb_designs_for_trust?language=en on 22/04/2022
Leo Sands, Catrin Nye, Divya Talwar and Benjamin Lister. (2022, Febuary 21st). Jobfished: the con that tricked dozens into working for a fake design agency. BBC News. Retrieved April 22nd, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60387324
things that matter
Figure 1 ITU, 2021. Global Individual Internet Usage
Figure 2. Deceptive Design. (2018)