Developing a Criteria-Based Evaluation Tool for User Experience Design that Balances Standardization and Creativity; Personalization and Privacy: Conflicting Views of Targeted Digital Advertising

How can the digital user experience be improved? In an environment where digital interactions are common, businesses must respect users’ data privacy concerns in their creation of digital experiences. How can user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designers balance creativity and standardization in the development of an interface? Design systems are used to create consistent UX and UI patterns across a website or application. The absence of a design system can lead to inconsistencies and stylistic flaws in interface elements, thus, leading to a poor end user experience. However, due to their rigid requirements on structure and uniformity, traditional design systems can discourage flexibility, creativity, and customization. By allowing designers to prioritize their artistic freedom when creating consistent designs, a criteria-based evaluation tool balances standardization and creativity in the interface development process. This tool allows inconsistencies to be managed in a collaborative manner that promotes consensus-based decision-making in all stages of design and evaluation. How do proponents of targeted digital advertising advance their agendas? Targeted digital advertising utilizes consumer internet activity data to identify ads that are relevant to a user. Companies that specialize in web applications, such as Google and Facebook, value this advertising method because of its efficiency. Targeted advertising’s reliance on consumer data makes it controversial; 79 percent of Americans are concerned about how their data is being used. Regulatory bodies also question the effects this advertising method has on consumer privacy. To persuade consumers and regulatory bodies to accept the data practices that fuel targeted advertising, web application companies appeal to users’ values in company statements, utilize strategic linguistic and design choices in their interfaces, and influence the development of data regulations.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering
Technical Advisor: Gregory J. Gerling
STS Advisor: Peter Norton
Technical Team Members: Erin Hopkins, Jacqueline Mazzeo, Vinh Nguyen, Emma Peck