Designing for Understanding: How Interface-Level Consent Designs Shape Attention and Understanding in Privacy Disclosures

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Xiao, Wei, Wu, Mengke, Jo, Yeeun
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Xiao, Wei
Wu, Mengke
Jo, Yeeun
author_facet Xiao, Wei
Wu, Mengke
Jo, Yeeun
contents Privacy policies are intended to support informed consent, yet users rarely read them fully. This study examines how common privacy policy interface structures influence attention allocation, reading behavior, and perceived experience. Using eye-tracking and post-task surveys, we compared three interface designs: continuous scrolling text, collapsible sections, and collapsible sections with brief previews. Results show that interface structure systematically shaped how users allocated attention and navigated policy content, but did not uniformly improve comprehension. Guided layouts supported more efficient and coherent reading patterns, whereas more interactive designs elicited higher perceived engagement and satisfaction. Importantly, comprehension was closely linked to sustained attention rather than interface type alone. These findings highlight the limits of interface-centered consent approaches and suggest that effective consent design must account for attention dynamics and selective engagement, rather than assuming that improved layout alone ensures understanding.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_13747
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Designing for Understanding: How Interface-Level Consent Designs Shape Attention and Understanding in Privacy Disclosures
Xiao, Wei
Wu, Mengke
Jo, Yeeun
Human-Computer Interaction
J.4
Privacy policies are intended to support informed consent, yet users rarely read them fully. This study examines how common privacy policy interface structures influence attention allocation, reading behavior, and perceived experience. Using eye-tracking and post-task surveys, we compared three interface designs: continuous scrolling text, collapsible sections, and collapsible sections with brief previews. Results show that interface structure systematically shaped how users allocated attention and navigated policy content, but did not uniformly improve comprehension. Guided layouts supported more efficient and coherent reading patterns, whereas more interactive designs elicited higher perceived engagement and satisfaction. Importantly, comprehension was closely linked to sustained attention rather than interface type alone. These findings highlight the limits of interface-centered consent approaches and suggest that effective consent design must account for attention dynamics and selective engagement, rather than assuming that improved layout alone ensures understanding.
title Designing for Understanding: How Interface-Level Consent Designs Shape Attention and Understanding in Privacy Disclosures
topic Human-Computer Interaction
J.4
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13747