An Exploration of Design Cues for Heuristic-Based Decision-Making About Information Sharing.

We report an exploratory study of web application interface cues that were designed to trigger cognitive heuristics thought to influence personal information disclosure. Building from prior work focused on identifying the presence and nature of such heuristics, we designed prototypes of simple web information applications that request personal information and inserted specific visual elements intended to evoke a heuristic. Using a combination of application walkthroughs (with think aloud comments) and retrospective interviews about what users' experiences and reactions were, we investigated the possible impact of the interface cues and corresponding heuristics. Although we found little direct impact of the interface cues, users did share a variety of concerns and strategies related to their decision making. We discuss implications for the heuristics used in this study, as well as for the design of privacy-preserving interfaces.