The Quest for Clarity: How Visualization Improves the Usability and User Experience of Contracts

In today’s networked economy, contracts are everywhere. Many of them are watertight and legally perfect documents attempting to refer to every conceivable contingency. For people expected to use or comply with them, such contracts are often difficult to read, comprehend, and/or implement. As an alternative to the current predominantly legal and textual approach, the authors propose a user-centered, visualized approach aimed at better usability and easier implementation. Both consumer and commercial contracts should be communicated in simpler and more user-friendly ways, and we believe that visualization can play a fundamental role in achieving this. This chapter introduces the concept of contract visualization and some early examples produced in this novel field. Results obtained in the first year of a five-year research project, carried out in collaboration with a partner company, indicate preliminary confirmation of positive effects in improving contract usability and related user experience through visualization.

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