Photo by Privecstasy on Unsplash

The year 2018 was a complete turning point for anyone working with consumer data. The reason was the implementation of the GDPR in the EU. Since then, you can’t collect data about your EU users online without explicit consent, a step that I believe, was very good for the world of UX design.

Since 2018 the state of California (CCPA), and Brazil (LGPD) have already jumped the data privacy bandwagon, and soon we’re likely to see Canada joining as well (DCIA). Take a look at the graph below to see the level of interest data privacy has generated on Google since 2018, with a big spike around May 2018, the month when the GDPR was implemented.

Data privacy — interest over time on Google. Taken by the author.

Where are we at right now?

Fast-forward to 2021.
There are lawsuits against companies operating in the EU that didn’t follow the GDPR rules, and even Amazon got a heavy fine for that same reason.
The new situation gives more transparency and power to users about the way their data are used. As a result of these restrictions, companies can probably see a bit less information about all our interactions with their websites and apps.

Why are these policies good for UX people?

When I started re-imagining the world with stricter data privacy laws I realized it can potentially be very beneficial for the field of UX design. Here are three of the main reasons why:

It gives UX designers a whole new challenge to work on

The need to implement data privacy laws puts us, UX people, in a position to shape new user flows and journeys around giving consent and changing cookies settings. Don Norman says that “everything is a system” and indeed, a change in one part of the “e-business system” (data privacy laws) led to a necessary change in another part of it (the need to create consent flows).

Many of these flows are a bit cumbersome and unclear, and it could be a very interesting challenge for UX people to solve. To illustrate that, I invite you to take a look at the image below or read Aegean Airlines’ cookies policy (typical policy in the EU).

In addition, new digital ecosystems such as Open Banking will only pose new challenges around consent for data sharing.

A typical cookies policy explanation in EU-based websites. Taken from Aegean Aielines website.

From a UX and content design perspective, there’s definitely some work to do here. These challenges also gave rise to a new academic field within the discipline of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) called Human-Data Interaction or HDI. It deals with the way people engage with their data online, and it’s a young and developing field.

It will be interesting to see the developments in both industry and academia in this field in the coming years.

It’s an opportunity to use proper user research

Many companies prefer to rely only on quantitative data to make design and business decisions. There are a few problems with taking such an approach:

1. Technical problems can easily corrupt data — Issues with data quality due to technical reasons can lead to people not trusting the numbers
2. Quantitative data without context doesn't tell the full story — oftentimes, even if the data are in good shape, lack of context doesn’t allow you to understand what’s behind the numbers
3. Big data isn’t always necessary — around 2015 we’ve seen a big hype around big data that plateaued over time because now we understand that often, small and high-quality data can be more useful (aka “Think Data”)

Therefore, it’s not uncommon to see product managers and UX designers starting to make assumptions about user behavior and try to build their plans under these assumptions.

Here’s the thing many people don’t yet think of.
Data privacy might reduce the amount of data available to business stakeholders even more, but will present a new opportunity to actually do proper user research, get consent, and invite your users to tell you what the big numbers can’t do.

It will only take a few years before people around the world will become more educated about data privacy and will not be willing to share everything about their online behavior 24/7. There is already an ongoing conversation about ethics in design, and all you need to do is go on Netflix to watch documentaries about it such as the Social Dilemma. In addition, data breaches in companies and government organizations could lower consumers' trust in sharing their data. We as UX people should see these situations as an opportunity rather than as a new challenge.

After all, Design Thinking is all about empathizing with our users the starting point for the UX design process, and now it’s the best time to advocate for it.

It will give companies a great reason to do more co-designing with users

I mentioned that companies might need more user research in the future due to the smaller amount of data they might have. With the opportunity to do more user research, comes another great opportunity to not only do user research but also co-design with your users.

I recently learned about the IKEA effect that says that when someone contributes to a process of building something, even a little bit, they attach a higher value to the final product.

Imagine the following scenario, you involve a few of your users who gave you consent in the design process and get actual feedback from them instead of just relying only on live A/B tests that do not give you context, and these users become your advocates over time since they helped co-design the product with you.

Don’t get me wrong, live A/B tests can be super valuable in specific situations when you want to test conversion rates with a minor change between version A and B of a landing page, but they cannot give you any context about the general usability of your product.

Users want to be part of the solution, not the problem. If they give you consent to do usability tests and interview them, you’ll see that some of them will be enthusiastic to be even more proactive by taking part in co-design sessions.

In short, I hope I convinced you in this short article that we, UX people, have a great opportunity here to plan around the new data privacy laws, and see the benefits these laws bring to our niche. We will still rely, at least partially, on quantitative data because it could bring important value, as long as it comes with consent.

The important thing to remember is that now is the right time to start advocating for proper user research and co-design as part of our efforts as a field to do a more inclusive and ethical design. This will be the way to ensure our designs benefit both our shareholders and our stakeholders in the community. The choice is in our hands.