Textured Agreements: Re-envisioning Electronic ConsentTextured Agreements • March 4th, 2010
Contract Type FiledMarch 4th, 2010Research indicates that less than 2% of the population reads li- cense agreements during software installation [12]. To address this problem, we developed textured agreements, visually redesigned agreements that employ factoids, vignettes, and iconic symbols to accentuate information and highlight its personal relevance. Nota- bly, textured agreements accomplish these goals without requir- ing modification of the underlying text. A between-subjects ex- perimental study with 84 subjects indicates these agreements can significantly increase reading times. In our study, subjects spent approximately 37 seconds on agreement screens with textured agreements, compared to 7 seconds in the plain text control condi- tion. A follow-up study examined retention of agreement content, finding that median scores on a comprehension quiz increased by 4 out of 16 points for textured agreements. These results provide convincing evidence of the potential for textured agreements to positively impact softwar