It used to be called the ‘Welcome Kit‘. When you applied for a credit card, especially a premium one, and you were fortunate enough to be validated and considered eligible. The courier would come with a fancy pack and a collateral running into over 150 pages. While the onus should ideally be on us to read all the pages, the clauses(clawses?), the ‘fine print‘, rarely do people go through it in entirety.
Deep into the booklet, somewhere on page 74, will be those easy to miss fine print in font 6.5 size which houses the shock & awe. Just when you are settling into your newly acquired status of hypermetropia. Those clever clauses which reaffirm that it is top down and you can only be a mute spectator. Where even caveats have back up caveats. Disclaimers and thatclaimers where you end up having nothing to claim. Do they still call it ‘Welcome Kit‘?
Organisations and individuals do it all the time. Your data is trespassed on unabashedly – apparently the fine print that you ignored coming to terms with offers carte blanche entitlement to the organisation to spam you. To lend it to other vendors. Use it behind your back. Imagine if they are doing all these, you are left wondering what else are they doing?
Nothing in fine print is ever good news. As they say “Read the fine print or be imprisoned by it “. No, I am not going there- Instruction Manuals. Every time someone looks to the manual for instructions, they’re acknowledging that you know something they don’t know. The worst instructions fail to have empathy for that gap.
In an era which is increasingly considering ‘designing for trust‘, isn’t it time to say Not Fine?
ENDS