Textured Agreements: Re-envisioning Electronic ConsentTextured Agreements • November 24th, 2008
Contract Type FiledNovember 24th, 2008Research indicates that less than 2% of the population reads license agreements during software installation [7]. To ad- dress this problem, we developed textured agreements, visu- ally redesigned agreements that employ information layering, vignettes, sensationalism, and visual variety to accentuate information and highlight its personal relevance. Notably, textured agreements accomplish these goals without requir- ing modification of the underlying text. A between-subjects experimental study with 84 subjects indicates these agree- ments can significantly increase reading times. In our study, subjects spent approximately 30 seconds longer on consent screens than the in control condition, where subjects spent only 7 seconds, on average. Furthermore, the study results indicate that the effects observed are not due to the novelty of the textured agreements’ visual appearance alone, but rather, particular features of the designs. These results provide con- vincing evidence of the potentia