Universal Principles of UX

81

Personalization is hit or miss.

If customization is about giving users control, then personalization is about giving that control to the system to make decisions about what it thinks the user wants based on previous behavior. There is a fine line between using data to get to know our user better and using data to stalk them. There’s an even finer line between being spot on with a recommendation and being totally off.

Personalization based on data that is explicitly and knowingly given by the user, like surveys or forms, is totally benign. But when we personalize content based on data that users probably didn’t even realize is being collected on their behalf, like location or device data, it’s getting a bit stalkerish. And when we start making ...