Hi, I’m Zane! A Web Developer.

Research was conducted by collecting as many interface design guidelines for the purpose of reducing anxiety as possible. This data was gathered across the web from the studies and articles of design professionals who specialize in inclusive design.

Categorizing the Data

Once all data was collected, each guideline was tagged with a broad category. The frequency of each category was used to divide all guidelines into the following four categories:

1. Flow

2. Forms

3. Account Creation

4. Support

Visual Design

Google is a powerful organization:

• the Google account has become a universal login for the internet

• the ‘Big Four’ company boasts ownership to the bestselling brand of mobile phone (Schmidt, 2018)

Google’s business model relies on collecting user data in order to ‘personalize’ ads. However, several issues arise from Google’s methods of data collection, including:

• Excessive colletion of personal data

• Deceptive management options of what gets collected

The Google Activity Manager app is a renovated platform to manage the personal data collected by Google. It allows users to selectively share, delete, or anonymize data.

Excessive Data Collection

The sheer amount of personal data that Google collects is overwhelming.

• Researchers found that an Android phone which was inactive for 24 hours sent 900 data samples to Google. Over ⅓ of the samples contained location data (Sutton, 2018)

• An Android phone in airplane mode was found to have collected over 100 location markers in the course of the user’s day, each of these markers containing an accurate description of the user’s actions at the time (Getting out of a car, running, etcetera) (Novikos, 2018)

Deceptive Data Management

The current version of Google’s “My Activity” creates a disconnect between what users expect buttons to do and what the buttons actually do. Ultimately, this forfeits the user’s feeling of being in-control.

• Location data is hidden behind the “Other Google Activity” menu. Upon searching for his location data, Ryan Nakashima of Associated Press could not find the ‘View Timeline” feature— Google’s intended way for users to view their location data in one, convenient map (2018) .

• Although it is possible to prevent the tech-giant from recording any and all location markers, this setting is locked behind a less obvious option called “Web & App Activity”. A “Location History” setting does exist, but alas, turning Location History off doesn’t actually stop Google from recording location history (Dreyfuss, 2018) .

• Deleting activity from the site does not guarantee that the information is gone from Google’s servers. Instead, in an action called ‘anonymization’, Google strips deleted data of all identifying information and keeps it in their records.

Viewing Activity

• Our Location Map (Figure B) is redesigned to be clearly linked at the top of the page.

• RATIONALE: We among others at the Associated Press could not easily find our location data while using ‘My Activity’-- it was unintuitively hidden behind side tab ”Other Activity” (Nakashima, 2018) .

Deleting Data

• With the new ‘draw tool’ (Figure B), mass deleting location data has never been easier. Users can simply lasso the location markers they wish to delete.

• RATIONALE: During user testing, users thought they should be able to mass delete data by location.

Data Quantity Slider

• The user can control the exact quantity of data that gets collected on them per 24-hour period. Activity Manager will prioritize certain types of data over others to ensure that the defined limit is never exceeded.

• RATIONALE: This feature is a direct response to an experiment where an inactive Android was carried around for an entire day. It was later revealed to have sent over 900 data samples in that period, and over a third contained location data (Sutton, 2018) .

Pokemon Deck Builder

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The unofficial Pokémon Deck Builder lets you search a complete API database of Pokémon Trading Cards to discover the perfect 'Mon for your dream deck. You can move cards to and from your virtual deck simply by clicking upon them.

Project Block

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Block is a choose-your-own adventure game with the goal of helping artists work through their artist's block. Using the account creation services provided by Firebase, users can register with the site and publish their own stories for others to play. Completion of a story awards players with prompts to assist them in creating art.