Friday, December 17, 2010

Elements of Usability: Usability and Children Part 2 - Webucation


The Grossest Site on the Internet is an incredibly popular children's site.

In the year 2000, 99% of schools were connected to the Internet and already 20% of all digital media users were children. Two years later, 75% of children with computers at school went online regularly. One reason for this burst of Internet usage by younger demographics is due to both teachers and parents considering the Internet to be a primary developmental tool for their child's education. In fact, many teachers (66% to be exact) encourage extending learning outside the classroom by using the Internet as a vehicle for learning.

However, with increased Internet usage by children, new considerations have come to our attention for a very important reason: if a child cannot use a site, they cannot learn from a site. Children have less fun and learn much less when their interactions with the computer have more usability problems. Furthermore, it is very difficult to design one site that encompasses the entire age range of 3-12. Younger children have very different needs than a twelve-year old. While many children find using the Internet easier than many adults, there are still some important usability concerns to focus on when designing educational sites targeted at children.

Design to Your Target Audience

Every child has different needs, especially as the age gap widens between them. Creating a site that is “designed for children” is too broad a scope for your web project. It would be better to narrow down your goals, “The site is designed for boys between five years old and eight years old.” How do you decide who you are targeting and how to market to them? 4 sub categories can be defined to make designing easier:

3-5 years old: These toddlers are just starting to read and begin to explore the world in a more analytical way. These children can remember and apply what they have learned a day before. They don't understand the difference between fantasy and reality on the computer yet, and live in a preoperative world. Their attention span is only 8-15 minutes.

5-8 years old: These young children are starting to go to school In school they would be between the kindergarten and early grade 2. They are beginning to form their identities and are starting to learn to play cooperatively and are developing fine motor skills. They are learning to read and can handle short sentences a few at a time. At this time the world expands beyond their immediate surroundings. Sites targeted at this age group should consist primarily of images with sound alternatives to all text since some children may still have difficulty reading (but not interpretting voice.) Using familiar characters helps to keep content interesting and palatable for children.

8-12 years old: At this age children begin to think in abstract terms, and become more focused on their interactions with others. In school they would fall between grade 2 and grade 6. Since much development occurs during this stage (Though less common, puberty is possible late in this age bracket.) you may want to consider dividing this age group up further. For example, too much information on the screen makes the site difficult to use for children under the age of 10, but longer content is considered normal for older children who are 11 and 12 years in age.

Teenagers: While not the focus of this blog, teenagers do make up their own sub group of youth. Teenagers enjoy experimenting with new products and love to socialize with their peers. They place great importance on their peer image. They tend to like using the Internet, but statistics show they spend less time online than adults.

The age of a child is important in determining how you will market your site to them effectively. For example, younger children like larger fonts and lots of pictures to help guide them. The older children get, however, the more they associate large fonts and images with “little kid sites” and will be less likely to enjoy using sites that display similar features. Furthermore, special consideration should be taken when using advertising on children's Internet content. Ads distract children and diminish their ability to navigate the site. In particular, young learners are sometimes prevented from using sites that have pop-ups because they do not know how to close or move them. Many children click on advertisements and then are unable to independently navigate back to the original page. If you do decide to include advertisements on your site, be certain to include information about how you include ads in your policies section for parents. Parents will want to know how you have considered the age and maturity level of their children in your decision to include advertisements on your site.

Age, however, is not the only determining factor in how you will design your website effectively. In general males and females are equally active online but tend to be interested in different features that are available to them online. Males generally prefer more activity in general since they enjoy action. They like colourful pages with lots of sound and opportunity for interaction. They do not enjoy reading as much and will shy away from any pages with lots of text. Females, on the other hand, enjoy more social sites. They are attracted to sites that allow them to communicate with their friends or share their work with others of the same age bracket. Girls like reading more, and tend to leave pages after seeing text much less often than boys of the same age. They also enjoy creative activities like drawing, writing and creating. They still enjoy lots of colours, but sound and action are not as high on their priority list.

Navigating Children's Navigation

As with websites for adults, navigation in a website is very important. However, children tend not to understand the concept of search in the same way that adults do. Determining which pages are relevant is often the most challenging part of search. Kids cannot formulate search queries in the same way as adults and do not have the patience to sift through myriads of results, so being able to get to information by clicking around is essential.

The most important rule when considering menus for children is to keep it simple. The more information is on the screen, the easier it is for young learners to get confused. Keep your design straight forward and intuitive with highlighted, easily understood keywords instead of copious amounts of options. Keep in mind what language is commonly used by kids you know. Children are not likely to click on words like “almanac” to find information because it is unfamiliar. It is better to use more than one common word than it is to use one obscure word.

Another important detail to consider is the fine motor development of your audience. Sites using frames often require higher finesse in motor skills than sites without frames. These sites often place content on the right side of the page with navigation on the far left. Any content that requires scrolling will require the user to move the mouse back and forth across the screen many times to locate the content they want. Not only does such a requirement hinder younger users, it annoys older users as well.

A good way to aid children with your navigation is to include a vibrantly labeled help button at the top of the screen. Children understand the concept of help and are much more likely to use “help” functionality to explore your website than a search function.

Contain Your Content
 
The content itself plays a crucial role in educating children, but the location and organization of the content is also just as crucial. Children do not think to scroll through information at an early age even when reminded they may do so. That meant that anything located at the bottom of the page went unnoticed by most kids. Most young learners do not think to check the bottom of the page for information unless specifically instructed to do so.

The same reasoning applies to the length and volume of the content provided on websites. Since children often do not remember to scroll down a page, they assume that what they see on the screen is all that is there. To avoid having content that is never read, keep your information down to half a page of text or less. Too much information on the screen also has another effect. As I mentioned earlier, a high volume of information confuses children and influences how lost they feel.

Multimedia Can Enhance Usability

Most children prefer an interactive website where they are actively engaging in activities and learning. Active engagement has positive side effects such as increasing the attention span for learners. Children learn through all their senses, so often, reading text or hearing someone talk is not their chosen method for learning. As adults we are accustomed to learning from lectures and books, but children are not and require a different method of teaching.

Including multimedia can also give children the chance to customize their learning and pace so it suits them and their learning needs. Furthermore, multimedia allows for creative options which kids enjoy. Young learners love activities that allow them to have input on the site or leave a mark when they visit. By providing children with creative opportunities, a site both encourages learning and return visits from both a child and their friends.

Multimedia Can Hinder Usability

While multimedia is definitely an important component to creating an effective and engaging children's website, there are some trade-offs to consider when choosing activities to include on your site. One of the largest problems for children using the Internet by themselves is plug-ins. Any website that uses a plug-in is immediately less accessible because children surfing independently get stuck with no help from their parents or older siblings.

Take special care when including elements that knowingly force the user to wait. Introductions, animations that play before actions and controls rolling onto the screen that cannot be accessed until they have found their place are all examples of elements that make the user wait. Children may enjoy animation and movement, but they still have short attention spans and would prefer to be doing than watching. Furthermore, some computers are still technically incapable of handling such sites without significant performance reductions. If you are going to include animations that make users wait, the considerate option is to include a button to skip unwanted animations.

Along a similar trend, balancing load time with multimedia is very important for two reasons. First, children respond equally as poorly to long wait times as they respond well to rich interaction. More importantly, children learn through responses. When a young learner clicks an object and an action happens, they are stimulated and they learn. By contrast, when a young learner clicks an object and nothing happens, they may incorrectly assume that the object does not do anything. One way to allow for slightly longer wait times is to always include system status and feedback, but telling the user that the page is loading only goes so far. If the child is forced to wait too long, they most likely will not want to use that feature again.

Finally, an important aspect of multimedia is the focus. Maintaining a focused scope on interactivity and keeping with the theme of the page will help children learn more effectively. From a usability standpoint, having only one interactive panel displayed on the screen at once keeps the user focused and limits confusion. Another way to limit confusion is to ensure that all interactive portions of your site are directly focused at the top of the page where children will easily find it.

Catering to Adults

Children and parents often use educational websites together, particularly when children are younger. While the task of making a site both kid and adult friendly may seem difficult, it doesn't have to be. To begin with, consider all the previously established standards for usability that have already been proven to help. By adhering to both previously established standards for adults and newer standards established for children, you can create a site that is easy for parents and children to use. Testing with both parties is also essential to ensure that you have, in fact, created a usable product for each. Another important part of your site design for adults is a section specifically for them. Keeping a section for adults separate from the section for children helps maintain usability for each while still providing necessary information to the older visitors of the site. The adults section typically includes both a section for parents with privacy policies and site information as well as a section for teachers with activities and lessons that can used alongside the site.

In Conclusion

Observations show that children have less fun when they encounter more usability problems. Furthermore, the more usability problems children encounter, the less likely they are to learn from the site they are using. Fun, familiarity and usability are all high on the priority list for consumers of educational websites. 

In summary, here is a short list of guidelines I have compiled for children's websites based on the material covered in this blog:

  1.  Design according to the age and gender of your audience.
  2. Keep navigation simple.
  3. Use common language in navigation and content.
  4. Organize objects in a way that minimizes mouse skill requirements.
  5. Include a vibrantly labeled "Help" link.
  6. Place content at the top of the page.
  7. Keep content short and eliminate scrolling.
  8. Include creative and content-oriented interaction.
  9. Keep load times short.
  10. Maintain usability for both children and parents.
 Read more on Webutainment usability... 


 
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Elements of Usability: Usability and Children Part 1 - Edutainment


The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis has been an Edutainment favourite for many years (And a personal favourite too!)


Traditionally, usability has been defined in a very particular way and with a very specific group of people in mind. ISO 9241-11(ISO, 1998) defines usability as "the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use."  Typically usability studies are performed for on the job software, where the user uses the software to complete a task that is related to their occupation or is required practically in their personal life. Software of this category is developed for adults. By contrast, software developed for children requires a completely new way of thinking of usability. Software in this category differs from other software because it is used voluntarily and is not necessarily task-oriented. Since using the software is, in fact, voluntary using the product must be fun or else it will not be used.

Edutainment is a specific classification of software that combines educational elements with fun elements of entertainment, hence the fusion of the words. The objective of edutainment is to provide a learning environment that is engaging and makes children want to continue to learn. However, if children are incapable of effectively using the software, they are not very likely to learn while using it. An application is therefore usable not when it can be used to complete tasks, but when it is effective at teaching the material. Furthermore, software with usability problems are neither fun nor engaging, and children will not want to use it regardless of its merits. One suggested way to evaluate the success of an edutainment application is through a child's reaction. If the child is willing and able to teach another child how to use it, you have a great product on your hands. Unfortunately, while this test is a good indicator, it is difficult to actually test it in any meaningful way. There really is no agreed upon definition for or method for finding usability of children's software, but there are a four pillars of that seem to be consistent: effective learning, effective teaching, effective communication and effective use of technology.

Before we get too focused on the educational portion however, there is another important stakeholder to discuss: children. Since usability is focused on user-centred design and children are the primary consumers of edutainment, children factor just as heavily into the usability equation. What do kids look for in an application? Ultimately, the answer typically comes down to one thing: fun. Children learn through play so they will gravitate towards activities they enjoy and shy away from those they do not. If edutainment software is not fun, children won't learn anything for one very simple reason: they won't use it. The challenge of the edutainment designer is to combine fun and function into an appealing and intuitive design. Sound hard? Get comfortable.

Putting the “Fun” in “Function”

The success of an edutainment game is strongly influenced by two factors: whether or not it is an effective teaching tool and whether or not is a fun pass-time. Without fun, children will not have the desire to use the application, meaning there is absolutely no opportunity to learn from it. Another important aspect to consider is fun's counterpart: frustration. Edutainment should not disregard the usability knowledge that has already been compiled for you to use simply because the target audience is different. The same standards should still apply, but with some extra considerations. The reason is simple: when a child has a difficult time trying to understand how to navigate your software, they have a lot less fun. The challenge of edutainment is getting amusement and education balanced appropriately.

Mudball Wall from The Zoombinis combines logic and fun with a zany machine, pattern matching, great animation and just enough hints to keep children both engaged and learning.

Good educational software should never be passive. The more activity that is on the screen, the more engaging it will be for children to play with. However, activity on the screen cannot be passive activity – good edutainment has learners constantly doing and interacting, not watching and listening. Meaningful interaction should integrated into your product as much as possible to ensure that your audience enjoys the time they spend with your product. Using multimedia to enhance engagement and stimulation can increase attention span for young learners. Customisation is also important when considering edutainment with multiple levels of both learning and game-play. Your audience should be able to customise the pace of the software to optimise the program for their individual learning style and specific needs. A good rule of thumb is to include two levels below and above the average difficulty. Despite your best estimates and tests, there will always be learners who enjoy a slower pace and those learners who crave the extra challenge.

For children, much of their ability to enjoy themselves rides on their ability to both immerse themselves in and relate to the physical design of the interface. The appearance factor often outweighs other factors such as functionality. Children tend to choose the application that features characters they recognise, lots of colours and vivid designs. Young learners tend to click on icons that look familiar to them, such as a paintbrush or pencil tool in a paint application. They are less likely to click on icons that look unfamiliar to them such as the dropper tool. Furthermore, simplistic, yet colourful designs tend to better than complex designs. More complication often means more confusion on the part of the user.

An important aspect of both fun and usability is to ensure that users are always aware of what is going on, both in game and out of game. For example, often instead of a navigation menu, the child is presented with an image. Menu controls are undetectable by the user until they roll over the elements of the screen to find which ones have roll-over effects and which ones do not. The lack of clear, definable navigation means that some areas may be overlooked or may frustrate the user. In game, enemies and obstacles should be clearly shown as such. If it is impossible to distinguish what is good from what is bad, an edutainment game will be unplayable, meaning that instead of the focus being on learning the lesson while playing a game, the game's mechanic becomes the central focus and learning does not take place as much. A general rule is to include a mechanic that distinguishes elements that a child can interact with from everything else. Subtle signals to indicate possible interaction keeps the game moving at a good pace as well as curbs frustration with the software.

Moreover, the quality of the instructions plays a role in how fun the game is. Since you cannot play the game before understanding how to play it, instructions are crucial. Keep your audience in mind when designing your instructions. Children should be comfortable with what they are reading, not pushed to frustration. Instructions should be clear, typed in a font large enough for young eyes to read without straining and no longer than a few sentences. Images and animations are also very helpful, displaying on screen which key to press for a certain action is more helpful than stating the key on screen only. Furthermore, many children do not know the names of all the keys on the keyboard. Most children simply have not had the exposure required to be able to identify every key. To further complicate the issue, some keyboards do not label every key, or label keys with their symbols instead of their names making them difficult or impossible for young learners to find. Some keyboards label keys with acronyms or have different names for keys altogether. For example, some keyboards use the term “enter key” while other use the term “return key”. 
 
 
The Pizza Man describes instructions orally to children in The Zoombinis.
 
Beyond the basic interface of the game, the game-play itself should be engaging, informative and fun. There are many approaches to this aspect of edutainment, and for every genre the guidelines for making a game fun are different, mostly because of the variance in the niche audiences they target. Since there are many gaming styles, I cannot possibly focus on all of them, but I can give some general tips to keep any kind of educational game on the right track.

A good rule is to analyse and imitate current trends in gaming. If you are making a game that already has a successful, non-edutainment counterpart, it would be worth your time to invest some time playing it and figuring out what it is that makes it fun to play. In particular make sure that common mechanics like jumping are similar to non-edutainment games of the same genre. Your audience most likely plays games that are not educational as well and will be used to certain mechanics that will be difficult to “unlearn”. Do your homework and understand how your game works. Often the games that are the most fun are the games with smooth, simple controls but incremental creative challenges. Games that are the most fun to play give games a rush when they win. That rush comes from having just the right amount of challenge that it isn't easy but not so much that it's impossible. Overcoming obstacles and achieving that “epic win” is a driving force in the level of enjoyment experienced by the player. The most memorable games tend to be the games that are easy to play, but difficult to play well.

Making the Grade

The other half of edutainment is the educational portion. Since the reason for the existence of edutainment is usually the educational half of the equation and not the gaming half, the unique usability needs of teaching through software should also be addressed. Teachers use educational software in classrooms and school computer labs and parents use educational software with their children at home. Edutainment is becoming increasingly common as more pressure is placed on parents to help their children excel academically. Edutainment is not just about the fun, it is also about the learning.

One of the most crucial elements, and one of the hardest to incorporate is effective and appropriate feedback. Many edutainment applications highlight negative feedback or positive feedback but very few highlight both and even fewer explain why a young learner received the feedback they received. One of the main reasons why being taught by another person is because of the feedback they give. Think of how a tutor might teach a young child. The child makes a mistake and the tutor observes it. The tutor determines what the error is and figures out what may have led them to the answer they gave. The tutor then explains to the child where in the process they are having difficulty, and teaches them the correct method to arriving at the answer. Software often tells a child whether they are right or wrong, but rarely has the capability to determine why a child came up with the answer they input, or to highlight exactly where they think the child may have gone wrong. One solution is to display the correct answer if the child has given an incorrect answer, however this solution only identifies the data the child got wrong and does not address the root of the problem. Despite its implementation restrictions, feedback is one of the largest overlooked elements of edutainment when assessing the learning portion of the product.

Zoombinis cannot sit next to each other on the raft if they do not have something in common.  When a zoombini cannot be placed next to another zoombini the rafting frog explains why in his amusingly funny voice.

As I mentioned previously, the range of difficulty should be varied for game-play. This rule also holds true in terms of the informative content of edutainment as well. Provide your audience with two levels of difficulty both below and above what you believe is a reasonable difficulty. Consider carefully whether or not you will tie your game difficulty to your educational difficulty. One benefit of keeping the two separate is that children are even more able to customise their own learning pace, relieving frustration. However, by separating the two difficulties the product may open itself up to becoming less educational when children interested in the game discover they can turn the information difficulty to beginner and the game-play difficulty to expert in order to relieve themselves of the need to think.

One question that is debated is whether or not to include quizzes as part of the game. Quizzes definitely lower fun but they arguably encourage learning. There is a common fear that making edutainment too much fun lowers the value children place on education, that because edutainment makes learning more fun children will be less likely to take their academic careers less seriously. This theory has been neither proven or dis-proven to my knowledge, but it is a pervasive view point nonetheless. Some games attempt to graft quizzes onto game-play, but this style of fusion often makes both the game and the learning more difficult. In one example, the quizzes were too difficult not because of the content but because of the developmental stage of the target audience. Younger learners often didn't realise that they could pause the game to give themselves more time to read the quiz questions. Often, the hand dexterity required to move the mouse amongst so many different on-screen locations in order to answer the quizzes was not developed enough and led to frustration. In a different study, tests were used successfully at the end of game sessions to test the child on the knowledge that had been presented during the level. Quizzes used in this manner seemed to be effective, linking the testing to the lessons in a very direct way, without impeding either education or entertainment. In this approach the student not only receives games and lessons separate from evaluations (just like they would in the classroom) but they are taught to connect the evaluation with learning and understand that testing does not just pop into the teacher's brain, but comes from structured lessons and curriculum that takes place before the testing.

An important rule for highlighting the informative content of the game is to design the ambient stimulation to enhance learning instead of distracting from it. Games generally require mood to be effective, which is traditionally established through graphics and sound. Some other examples of stimulation includes physical movement such as moving the mouse in specific ways or motion technology such as using controllers that shake. Regardless of the choice of stimulation, make sure that it is consistent with the content of the application. Music, graphics and participation should all feel natural so that it does not distract from the learning that should be taking place. Intuitive controls shift the focus away from figuring out how to navigate menus and play the game to solving problems and overcoming challenges.

The Balancing Act

As an aside, children tend to have much more fun when they use educational software with other children. Edutainment applications that are stimulating for both participants are far more successful both at entertaining children and at teaching them. Moreover, children working with a friend are much more likely to talk about a problem, feel more confident trying new things and comfortably explore new functionality.

In conclusion, there are clearly differing concerns from the differing purposes of edutainment software. If all the educational aspects are effective, if the game itself is not fun then the player will not play it, receiving no education at all. By contrast, if the application is fun, but users do not learn anything than the application is really no more than a game and cannot be considered edutainment at all. However, since edutainment products are used voluntarily and are not used strictly for completing a task, fun is an important factor. Since children learn through play, the “fun” factor and the “learning” factor have to be kept in balance all the time.

In summary, here is a short list of guidelines I have compiled for children's edutainment software based on the material covered in this blog:

  1. Integrate meaningful interaction.
  2. Allow for a wide range of difficulty and provide incremented challenge.
  3. Include familiar symbols, graphics or character.
  4. Use simple, but colourful design.
  5. Clearly define what the user can interact with.
  6. Keep instructions simple and straight forward.
  7. Keep your game consistent with the classics.
  8. Aim to make your game easy to play but hard to play well.
  9. Give effective and prominently visible (and/or auditory) feedback.
  10. Maintain natural and unobtrusive background stimulation.
Read More on Edutainment Usability...
 
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Thursday, December 2, 2010

An Element of Unfairness: End User License Agreements


You Have Just Been Screwed...


Every time you want to use a piece of software, you follow a few basic steps. You probably look for the software, purchase or download the software, then install the software then use the software. Oh wait, you also probably spend a few hours doing research into the license agreement and making sure that your rights as a user are respected while using the product or service provided to you by the vendor. You don't?

If you don't read the Terms of Service or the End User License Agreement when you install software on your computer you're not alone, but you may also be at a disadvantage for doing so. In recent studies, users have been shown not to read user agreements. In one particular study, a researcher included a cash incentive for calling in at the end of a license document and no one called in until after over 3000 copies had been downloaded. Such a low proportion of users reading license agreements is worrying because it enables corporations to include surprising terms and bind the user legally to them.

Since attention was drawn to unfair license agreements earlier in the 2000's, Terms of Service agreements have made only limited improvements. Many companies still sport problematic, unfair, illegible or unclear terms, however, and with little to no form of recourse for users, corporations do not have much incentive to change their policies.  Outrageous stories about user agreements still continue in hopes of better protection for users.


Do I Really Have to Read That Thing?


Many people do not read end user license agreements.  They're long and dry and many users do not understand the terms and phrasing used.  Often they are presented in an unfriendly or intimidating way to discourage users from reading through them.  There are many reasons why someone would choose not to read the terms of service before installing a product.


Terms of use are often attached to software products that the user feels he or she needs, but terms are presented on a "take it or leave it" basis.  If software is needed, then there is no real power for the user to disagree, because you can't use the software unless you agree to the terms.  Companies with few or no competitors can write anything into their terms of service because no company will offer better terms.  Because of the perception of reading the agreement to be useless, many users do not read them.

Moreover, many users are under the impression that with so many end users corporations will either not notice if they deviate from the terms of service or that the company will not pursue them if they do notice.  With so many people using computers nowadays it is impossible to catch every single breach of user contracts, and it would be infeasible to spend the resources doing so.

Finally, most users are under the impression that there is no legal action they can take against companies because of the liability clauses that are in so many license agreements in software.  It is a misconception that all terms of service contain roughly the same content, but many people still believe it is true.


What is Wrong with Our License Agreements Right Now?


In a recent reading of some terms of service agreements from popular products accessible on the Internet, I came across some examples of the troublesome aspects of end user license agreements.  The largest problem is that corporations attempt to transfer all responsibility to the user for using their product.  If that sounds too theoretical for you, think of it this way: you go to buy a microwave oven for your family.  Once you've paid for it, brought it home, unwrapped it and set it up, you try to use it.  Instead of being able to use it, a box pops up where the numbers are with a service agreement saying that the company will not be responsible for anything that happens because of the microwave you just bought.  If it has a bug in it and fills your kitchen with radiation it is your problem for deciding to use it.  And the best part is that you can't return it because you opened the shrink wrap already which voids your ability to return the product to the store even if you don't accept the terms under which you could use the microwave.

Does that sound good?  I didn't think so.  Let me translate for you now some of the other examples of unfair content in terms of service contracts:

Microsoft Says:

"If you live in or your business is headquartered in North or South America, you're contracting with Microsoft Corp., One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052, USA, and Washington State law governs the interpretation of this contract and applies to claims for breach of it, regardless of conflict of laws principles. All other claims, including claims regarding consumer protection laws, unfair competition laws, and in tort, will be subject to the laws of your state of residence in the United States, or, if you live outside the United States, the laws of the country to which we direct your service. You and we irrevocably consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state or federal courts in King County, Washington, USA, for all disputes arising out of or relating to this contract."


This basically states that you are not entitled to take legal action in your home country, state or city.  If you have a problem with them, you have to go to them.  They will not settle disputes anywhere but King County, Washington, USA or under any other law.  I hope you can afford plane tickets and hotel reservations...

Google Says:

"2.2 You can accept the Terms by:
(A) clicking to accept or agree to the Terms, where this option is made available to you by Google in the user interface for any Service; or
(B) by actually using the Services. In this case, you understand and agree that Google will treat your use of the Services as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.
2.3 You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google, or (b) you are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the United States or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services."
 
If you use Google for anything you agree to a whole bunch of stuff that you are not informed of when you first see Google's homepage.  Section 2.3 states that if you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google than you are not allowed to use it.  Well here in Canada the legal age for creating a binding contract is 18...but I know a lot of people younger than that who use Google regularly.  Furthermore, the only people who actually read this are the people who are of legal age.  Many contracts share the problem of what constitutes as accepting an agreement. 

Foxit Reader says:

"LIMIT OF LIABILITY AND EXCLUSION OF INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND CERTAIN OTHER DAMAGES.  TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL FOXIT CORPORATION, ITS AUTHORIZED RESELLERS OR THEIR SUBSIDIARIES BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS OR CONFIDENTIAL OR OTHER INFORMATION, FOR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, FOR PERSONAL INJURY, FOR LOSS OF PRIVACY, FOR FAILURE TO MEET ANY DUTY INCLUDING OF GOOD FAITH OR OF REASONABLE CARE, FOR NEGLIGENCE, AND FOR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY OR OTHER LOSS WHATSOEVER) ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE PRODUCT, THE PROVISION OF OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SUPPORT SERVICES, OR OTHERWISE UNDER OR IN CONNECTION WITH ANY PROVISION OF THIS LICENSE, EVEN IN THE EVENT OF THE FAULT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF CONTRACT OR BREACH OF WARRANTY OF FOXIT CORPORATION, EVEN IF FOXIT CORPORATION HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES."

Basically, no matter how they screw up, they may not be held responsible.  If using your software kills you, it's your fault.  If they lose your personal information, shame on you for trusting them.  If their software causes you to lose profits, I guess you're out of luck.  Sadly, this clause is in just about every contract I've read.  No one is willing to take responsibility for their own work any more.  Personally, that gives me no confidence in the company - the fact that they are so unsure of the product's ability to meet consumer needs that they feel the need to explicitly waive themselves of the burden of reliability and dependability.

Skype says:

"7.1 In addition to this Agreement, You have to comply with the following Additional Terms when using the Skype Software, the Products and the Skype Website. We expect You to read these Additional Terms carefully, all of which are made part of this Agreement:
You are expected to read all of these documents as well.  In some cases additional documents may be referenced within referenced documents making a long chain of contracts that you are binding yourself to when you use a software product. Most people do not have the time or patience to hunt down every subsequent document that outlines how they are allowed to use their product.

Many problems exist beyond these examples.  Terms almost always give the provider an unfair advantage.  Terms of service may include the ability to modify terms at any time and without notification.  They may include mandatory access to your computer, or that you will install mandatory updates to the software subject to new terms and conditions you would be obligated to agree to but that do not exist at the moment.  Some contracts contain clauses stating that the provider may terminate the contract with you at any moment but that you may not do the same.  Some agreements may require you to submit communications in writing and confirmed as arrived, while their communications may be electronic and on the best effort system.  Clearly license agreements are written in the interest of the provider and does not provide protection for the consumer in any way.

What Can Be Done?


The problem lies in the incentive corporations have to conform to licensing regulations.  Currently there is very little in the way of laws governing what can and cannot be in an end user license agreement.  However, common sense would dictate some pretty straight forward rules.

Firstly, the license agreement must be presented to the user before any other interaction with the product occurs.  That includes websites that claim to bind users to a terms of service agreement.  License agreements should be presented in plain, easily understandable terms.

"The original English version of the Terms may have been translated into other languages. In the event of inconsistency or discrepancy between the English version and any other language version, the English language version shall prevail." should really say "The English version of this contract is the only version that is honoured."  When you cut out all that extra garbage, user agreements aren't so bad to read.

Furthermore, companies providing a service must not be able to transfer the burden of responsibility to the user.  Creators should be liable for the products they produce, because if they are not they are not pressured to build good products.  Providers must never be allowed to transfer costs to the user, in particular many contracts contain clauses covering "legal fees and unspecified expenses".  That basically says that the company can charge you for anything because you gave them a hard time.  Nice.

Finally, contracts should be evaluated on an individual basis for fairness and protection of both parties.  Communication should be the same going each way and termination of contract agreements should also be the same.  Providers and consumers should have equal rights and responsibilities.  It is the user's responsibility to use the product as it is intended, and it is the provider's responsibility to ensure that the product functions and they deliver their services as advertised.  Under no circumstances should a contract void a provider of being held responsible for their mistakes.

As a consumer it is important to read through the terms and services and make informed decisions about what you are and are not willing to accept.  A good alternative may be using open source software.  It doesn't come with any guarantees of functionality, but as is clearly shown above, neither does proprietary software.
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