But some version of these specifications could be a fair regulatory goal. These legal documents always have horrible usability and are close to impossible for customers to understand. From usability studies, we know that users almost never bother to read legal documents when they come across them on a website. People just click the I Accept button without even glancing at the text. Since everybody knows that users don't read these agreements, it is interesting whether they will even hold up in court.
Websites lose a good deal of trust by posting such documents.
Legal documents are often necessary on websites, but they should be treated as part of the site's content and not left up to the lawyers. The text should be usability-tested for comprehension and revised until it is understandable by the target users, following the guidelines for writing for the Web . Obviously, the legal department should review the rewrites to ensure that they are valid, but most legal documents need usability improvements if they are going to be part of your user experience. In fact, if there was one type of regulation that would be a benefit to the Internet economy, it would be a requirement that legal documents would not be binding unless they had passed a usability test with the target audience. Print this page.