Transparency as an impact criterion: what we aim to achieve in 2025

A collage of graphic facilitation works by Yobi Scribes, created during various Inspiration sessions.

Among the many definitions of "transparency," this one best aligns with the path we’re taking at Tangible, as we apply the concept to the design of complex digital products and services:

With reference to actions, behaviors, situations, or procedures, especially in public life and in interactions with the community, it means clarity, openness, and the absence of any intent to conceal or maintain secrecy.

Source: Treccani

Transparency is a cornerstone of trust and features prominently in other cardinal points of our Ethical Compass — a speculative design model we use during discovery phases. It helps us reflect on the impacts, both desirable and undesirable, that emerging technologies can have on people, relationships, communities, and the environment.

Designing with transparency involves addressing critical challenges such as:

• clarity of information,
• users’ sense of control and perceived reliability,
• the use of dark patterns, persuasive or manipulative techniques,
• lack of feedback during interactions.

These are just some of the aspects we focus on when working with our clients. Feedback we’ve gathered suggests that transparency can also:

enhance communication with end users, clarify decisions made by systems, which also benefits internal staff.

We highlight these because our clients have identified transparency as the most relevant aspect among those we propose for improving user experience design. All proposed areas of focus are detailed in the Material Topics chapter of our Impact Report.

Trust ≠ Transparency ≠ Privacy

Transparency is often confused with trust and privacy, but these concepts have distinct meanings and implications, especially in the design of digital services.

Transparency is measurable. We can define specific indicators to verify whether a digital interface clearly communicates service rules, data handling methods, and available user choices. In essence, transparency is about what a service declares and, more importantly, how it declares it.

Trust is a perception. It’s not directly measurable because it depends on the overall experience users have over time. Trust builds gradually through consistent actions. While a transparent interface can help foster trust, it does not guarantee it. Trust requires users to believe the company will keep its promises—a process that extends beyond interface design.

Privacy is a right. It concerns the management of personal data and the safeguards every service must provide. Privacy is governed by regulations that impose specific obligations, such as obtaining consent and providing tools to control collected data. Transparency supports privacy by clarifying how data is collected and managed, but it does not encompass privacy entirely. Respecting privacy also means ensuring data is protected and used lawfully.

Inspiration 2024: 7 sessions to define transparency

Throughout the seven Inspiration 2024 sessions — broadcast live on LinkedIn and now available on our YouTube channel — we explored these themes with experts from diverse fields. Our goal was to pragmatically define "digital transparency according to Tangible", avoiding confusion with trust or privacy.

With Ernesto Belisario and Giorgio Trono, we explored digital rights and the legal frameworks regulating online services. Donata Columbro and Stefano Vincenzi helped us better understand the role of data: how it’s collected, how it influences systems, and how systems can explain their decisions. We also analyzed the relationship between trust and transparency with Valeria Adani, highlighting how a clear and honest use of data can strengthen — or damage — the relationship between companies and users.

We broadened our perspective by focusing on user groups we may have overlooked during our discovery journey. This included hearing stories from prison (with Valentina Calderone), migrants (with Rita Vitale), and women’s anti-violence center operators (with Margherita Carlini).

Finally, Diego Di Malta and Andrea Baldrati from Privacy Network helped us connect dots and look ahead, considering both privacy and digital rights from the perspectives of citizens, users, and consumers.

Looking back at the key moments of Inspiration 2024, we want to thank the speakers for making this journey possible. They shared their insights with sensitivity and tailored their language to be accessible to those outside their professional fields.

Many chose to donate their fees to the WeWorld project supporting the Gaza emergency. A special thanks also goes to Yobi Scribes for the visual summaries created for each session, and to Connie Ciocia and Carmen Imparato for their Italian Sign Language (LIS) translations.

With the same spirit, we invite you to support WeWorld initiatives. You can contribute via our dedicated landing page or explore the "Home Sweet Home" photography project, which tells stories of resilience from Palestine.
Every act of support makes a difference.

Transparency for people and business

When we design interactions with complex physical and digital systems, factoring in transparency enables people to exercise their rights.

For businesses, transparency often appears as a set of regulations and guidelines assigned to legal, compliance, and IT departments. While reputational risks may be difficult to predict, economic risks are well-known:

• GDPR: Sanctions up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover. Oversight in Italy: Garante Privacy.
• DSA: Sanctions up to 6% of annual global turnover for violations related to minors’ protection and transparency obligations for online platforms, advertising, and recommendation systems. Oversight in Italy: AGCOM.
• Consumer Rights Directive: Variable sanctions depend on national oversight bodies—in Italy, it’s AGCM.

However, our clients also see transparency as a competitive advantage.

Transparency Criteria in UX Design

At Tangible, UX designers don’t need to be legal tech experts but should have a solid understanding of key regulations related to digital rights, data protection, and service transparency.

Essential regulations (must-know):

Normative references (nice to know):

As is the case with many aspects of design, we believe it’s useful for designers to have a solid understanding of these regulations in order to:

• Identify the essential information to collect for a project (e.g., at least the Terms and Conditions of the service being signed up for and the Privacy Policy of a service—whether free or paid—even if no formal agreement has been signed).
• Determine when to request clarifications from the client’s legal consultants.

We acknowledge that responses like “We’ll tell you what to do” are often legitimate and appropriate. As designers, our approach to transparency for our clients focuses on highlighting competitive advantages, mitigating risks, and respecting user rights.

Within this regulatory framework, we’ve established our first definition of transparency as an impact criterion applied to digital products and services.

Transparency: our definition as an impact criterion

Transparency is the principle whereby a digital service enables users to clearly understand:
• Who collects and manages their data, 
• How the service’s rules function,
• What choices they have to control their information and interactions.

It involves designing interfaces that make service conditions, data handling methods, and the consequences of user actions explicit and comprehensible, reducing ambiguity, confusion, and any sense of manipulation.

Types of users we consider

When we design, we take into account the diverse range of people who interact with digital services. Among the main groups are citizens accessing public or administrative platforms and end consumers who use digital services provided by private companies to meet personal needs or gather information.

We also consider business clients — professionals or companies — who leverage digital solutions to support their activities, as well as employees or collaborators within organizations who need simple, intuitive tools to perform their work efficiently.

Particular attention is dedicated to vulnerable users, a group that includes people with disabilities, older adults, or anyone with specific needs influenced by cultural or social contexts. Ensuring accessibility for these users means making digital experiences inclusive for everyone.

Practical objectives for UX Designers at Tangible

• Make service rules clear: UX designers ensure terms of use, data collected, and user options are presented in clear messages at the most relevant moments.
• Avoid dark patterns and manipulative practices: UX designers commit to creating user flows and pathways that exclude hidden choices, deceptive practices, or actions users might not intend to take.
• Facilitate user control: Services provide clear, simple control panels enabling users to:
  • Access their data,
  • Modify their preferences,
  • Understand the consequences of their actions.
• Design services with clear terms and conditions for internal staff: During the design process, we ensure that employees (e.g., customer care, sales teams) also benefit from interfaces where the service’s functionality is clear, avoiding confusion or ambiguity.

How to ensure transparency criteria are met in a project

To confirm we’ve successfully applied transparency criteria, we ensure the following:

• Read and understood the service conditions provided by the client.
• Identified any ambiguous points or lack of clarity.
• Designed interfaces that make critical information explicit and comprehensible for users.
• Collaborated with the client’s legal consultants to clarify doubts or specific requests.
• Verified that the service allows users to easily access and manage their data without difficulty.

Transparency as an Impact Criterion: now let’s apply and measure It

Transparency isn’t a static goal but a criterion that evolves with digital design. In 2025, we aim to make progress toward our stated objectives, determining which are truly applicable and which may need to be redefined. Starting this year, we will progressively integrate this principle into our processes through ongoing training and dialogue.

We expect this definition to grow over time, enriched by operational experience and collaboration with clients and partners. Each project is an opportunity to learn something new and refine what it truly means to design with transparency.

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Further Reading

• Relive the sessions of Inspiration 2024.
• Privacy by Design: a blog post by Giorgio Trono exploring the role of design in creating privacy policies.
• Catalogue of Design Principles by IF: a collection of principles for designing ethical and transparent services.
• AGID’s Guide to Digital Citizenship Rights: a summary of digital rights recognized for citizens and businesses in Italy.