Reference
Title: Communicating Software Agreement Content Using Narrative Pictograms
Authors: Kay Matthew and Terry Michael
Presentation Venue: CHI 2010, April 10–15, 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
The functional overview provided to describe the fact that the ingimp software collects usage data that is sent to a website
Summary
Central Idea: using pictures instead of text to convey the End User Software License Agreements to the users.
This paper talks about narrative pictograms i.e. diagrams designed to convey the abstract concepts of a software agreement. Narrative pictograms arose out of a need to increase
the chance that subjects of any culture or language could understand the purposes and intent of a consent agreement accompanying publicly available experimental software. Accordingly, the diagrams presented in the paper were designed to be used without the aid of explanatory text. The authors first present their iterative design process and initial formative evaluation of the diagrams and then present example diagrams designed to describe the data collection policies of research software, and the more general composition rules used to create them. Finally, the authors demonstrate the diagrams’ ability to effectively communicate concepts by presenting results from an experimental study.
Discussion
I completely agree with the notion of using narrative pictograms to convey the End User Software License Agreements to the users. I never read the user agreements myself due the lengthy and verbose nature of the agreements. Most users don't read these agreements and click on the "I agree" button to proceed with the software installation. This shows ignorance from the user's side and gives complete freedom to the companies to sue the user in case he/she violates the agreement. I think using pictures instead of thousands of words gives a better idea to the user about his/her responsibilities and does it quickly.
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