Léthé is my final graduation project, probably the one that is closest to my heart. Even if it’s not a project applied in a professional setting, it is the most aligned with my values. Let me tell you why…
Where Léthé come from?
It is mostly a question of timing!
In early 2018, Cambridge Analytica is the trigger. The British company is causing a scandal by acquiring and using personal data about Facebook users.
This scandal really allowed me to discover more deeply the digital identity and what it implies.
A few weeks later, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) law is implemented in Europe, to protect privacy and personal rights.
All this movement open my eyes on a completely new subject!
Identity the problem
I have finally found a subject that touches me : the protection of our digital identity. But let’s see what the rest of the world thinks about this issue!
The first step was to make a PESTEL analysis (Politics, Economy, Social, Technology, Environment, Legal) to learn more how the problem is seen in every points in our Society. The quick conclusion was: it is not an issue seen by everyone but the politics and the law begin to be interested by this.
I pursued this substantial work analysis with user research. The goal was to complete my first sight on the PESTEL with true people. I used Quanti and Quali user interviews:
- Quantitative: Survey with over 1000 responses to confirm general ideas and facts on personal datas.
- Qualitative : Street interviews to gather in-depth insights on personal datas with open questions.
With that study, I discover that people who learn more about the subject, begins to be upset and worried about their data and how it’s used. The conclusion is: there is a problem here but people are not yet aware of it.
Based on this interviews, I have built 4 personae and a customer journey to identify the different touch-points.
Find the solution
Now that the issue is well identify, how can it be solved?
My first ideas was:
▶︎ A Web Browser: After a benchmark of the main web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera), I thought it was a good idea to make one blocking ads and identify data leakage.
▶︎ A Search Engine: Everybody search on Internet, so it coud be great to block tracking and hide our data, but it is DuckDuckGo
▶︎ An Extension for web browsers: measures outgoing data on your current browser and current search engine.
▶︎ An App
After a long time of reflection, and different back and forth, I refocused and thought about MVP (Minimal Viable Product). I rethought of the user interviews and that people were not necessarily aware of the problem, but nevertheless felt affected by what digital data implies. I came to the conclusion that digital identity scares us because it is not well-known and therefore we feel powerless. There is a feeling of not being in control, of being overwhelmed. Moreover, many feel that no matter how careful we are, our data will be collected anyway and they lose interest in protecting their data and learning more about the subject.
Thus, the idea is to make a prevention app with a playful and educational approach.
Build the solution
I decided to create an app that I called Léthé. Let's see what it consists of and where it gets its history.
The Name
In Classical Greek, the word lethe literally means "oblivion", "forgetfulness".
In Greek Mythology, Lethe was one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness and can restart a new life. Lethe is also personified as a goddess, daughter of the God Oceanus.
The initial concept was to make a service that would allow us to delete any content related to users. But as we all know, once it's on the internet, it stays on the internet. And it also brought a lot of ethical questions.
When the concept was changed I asked myself several times if I want to change the name.
At the end, I stayed with Lethe because I like the idea that once you use the application you are ready to live a new life on the web, allowing the analogy with the goddess to remain.
The Branding
Originally Lethe was much more of a minimalist approach. I wanted to make the experience so simple that I simplified the branding and overall design as much as possible. But I lost the humanity of the project.
After refocusing, I wanted to be more human, playful and fun. So a long period of graphic research began.
The Mascot
Léthé’s mascot, which I have named Hyde, was created to guide you throughout the use of the application. It is also a way to bring to this project my personal touch as a graphic designer, as well as a sense of humour.
The Application : What you can find there
My main inspiration for this app is Apple’s ‘Screen Time’ app, which measures the time spent on our screen and on which apps.
My concept for this app is built around some features.
Data manager
Measures the number of interactions we make in apps and websites, the suppose weight of the data leaked (in octet) and the supposed money made by the brands from this datas.
As in my inspiration, we can see the details of the datas leaked by App/Website
Léthé creates with time an activity curves to see the evolution of data leakage.
Search Bot
In the same way as the Google’s bot to index and aggregate website on his result page. Léthé searches informations about you and aggregates them on you page to show you how easy it is to define who you are.
Play & Learn
At léthé, we are convince that a touch of challenge can boost the user engagement, and an user engaged is an user who learn to be more efficient with his datas. With a little bit of gamification, you can link learning, good mood and the desire to move forward.
Post-Mortem
This project was well received by the professionals who visited my graduation stand when I presented this final project and more importantly open some eyes about this problem.
Even now, I am still very attached to this project, which deals with a subject that moves me, and motivates me. It is also very funny and encouraging to see that since then, solutions are being created that have the same approach as the one I had.
Brave is for example a web browser that takes the basic principles of my browser idea.
Since a few years, Apple is taking more and more position on this subject and has also implemented several solutions as ‘Ask not to track’, ‘Hide my email’, or ‘Passkeys’.
This year (2022) Google announced during the Google I/O a similar application to Léthé, in order to better control the data we share.
I am glad to see this general awareness, and I sincerely hope that companies, authorities and graphic designers as I am, will continue to accompany and support the user on digital identity’s rights!