Be careful with what you ask for

An article, posted more than 8 years ago filed in pruning, kiss, form, design, conversion, sex, lgbt, user, ux & interaction design.

Since we all seem to know that every other field in the registration form is another percentage of users failing to register*, we think of alternative ways to gather information. We gamify the user profile completeness by adding a progress bar to our user account, we present a full form after the confirmation link or we ask questions while using the application.

But there is another reason why we might not even ask all the questions. Ask the wrong questions and you may alienate your user.

It can be relatively minor things like picking your favourite colour, where the form just lets you pick one colour, while many have multiple. But it may also be more personal (or one could argue, more political): not everyone defines oneself as male or female, so why only present just these options (and do know that it isn’t particularly nice being referred to as ‘the other’ all of the time).

These issues are well discussed in this [talk by Ca…

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Wat is privacy eigenlijk?

An article, posted more than 10 years ago filed in toekomst, vrijheid, privacy, freedom, nadelen, voordelen & sex.

De afgelopen tijd is privacy redelijk vaak in het nieuws geweest. Maar wat is het eigenlijk? Ook ikzelf, al bekommer ik me er regelmatig over, heb soms wel wat moeite met het uitleggen van wat het is en het belang ervan.

Illustratie van: Deian Sedlarsk, uit: They will speak in my stead - virtual exhibition (licentie: creative commons non-commercial no derivatives)

Wat anderen zeggen dat privacy is

Volledige overeenstemming over wat privacy nu eigenlijk is, is er niet echt. Een ruime definitie komt van de verenigde naties, uit de rechten van de mens (artikel 12):

> No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or…

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