By Megan Brown (opens in new tab)
Keeping children safe in the digital world is a concern for parents, teachers, public servants, and many others across society. As children are using technology in their daily lives, their data is being collected, stored, and used. Every time a child posts online or submits their homework assignment to their online classroom, data could be recorded about how long they were on the page, the actions they took, and who they interacted with. And while data can be used to enable fantastic user experiences, it can also be misused and has the potential to cause harm.
Designing for children’s privacy
The Microsoft Office team recently studied how to improve children’s comprehension of privacy settings in order to improve our privacy consent and control experiences for children. Before making any changes, there are many user experience decisions to consider. We want to get the tone, language, and interaction right. We also want any change in the experience to be understandable.
Research findings
In March 2021, our team conducted virtual 60-minute interviews with users ages 13 – 15. The research helped inform our design decisions, as well as revealed that more work is needed to improve children’s comprehension and the understandability of our privacy settings for all users. We hope others in our industry can benefit from our findings, so we are sharing insights from this study. Here’s what we learned:
- There is value in notifying children that we’ve made changes to better protect their privacy. Most participants appreciated seeing a notification that their privacy options had changed. In fact, those who understood more – that Microsoft Office is not collecting certain data and making privacy updates for kids and families – had stronger positive reactions to seeing the notification. Those who did not fully understand the message were still ok with seeing the dialog, though this was an early indicator we still need to work to make our message more understandable.
Screenshots were used for the purposes of research and may not reflect current privacy screens in use.
2. It is beneficial to show all privacy settings, rather than hide settings that children cannot adjust. Would a pane that shows only the settings that children can adjust, or one that shows all the privacy settings, even if they can’t be changed, be more understandable for children?
Screenshots were used for the purposes of research and may not reflect current privacy screens in use.
Both options were good and received similar feedback – both were perceived as trustworthy, direct, and transparent about what’s happening with users’ data, and it was a positive experience to know Microsoft protects children’s privacy. Children’s reactions indicated areas for improving the language to be more understandable, and participants suggested using color and visuals to make it more engaging.
While preference varied between the two options, the longer settings pane, as shown above, was easier to understand, and more participants preferred this design. The shorter pane had the drawback of giving children the misperception that some data might be taken away; this was resolved with the longer pane.
3. There is value in telling users when they are now “of age” and can make privacy decisions on their own. We explored displaying a dialog box to notify children who have reached the age of consent that they have new privacy options available to them. Participants found it valuable to be notified of this change and wanted a more tailored message to clearly indicate that they are now of age and able to make new privacy choices as a result.
Screenshots were used for the purposes of research and may not reflect current privacy screens in use.
These research findings helped inform our UX decisions as well as resulted in our team developing content writing guidelines for language to use with children when discussing their privacy. Our priorities are transparency, respect, and comprehension to improve privacy experiences for kids and teens.
Moving forward, we see the need for future research in children’s privacy. Understanding how to improve children’s comprehension of privacy concepts could help further privacy experiences for children and inform additional design guidelines.
What do you think? What concerns do you have about children’s privacy? How might this information help you? Tweet us your thoughts at @MicrosoftRI or follow us on Facebook (opens in new tab) and join the conversation.
Megan Brown is a user researcher and product planner on the XC Planning & Research team. She works on experiences that span the Microsoft Office suite including security & compliance, collaboration, and privacy. Before Microsoft, Megan studied Psychology at Duke University, where she also taught Computer Science 101 to undergraduate students as a teaching assistant. She enjoys work that brings together multiple disciplines, and collaborating closely with designers, program managers, and engineers to bring thoughtful user experiences to life.