Dome.app
Intro
Dome is a concept I designed to explore what it would take for people to get their data back under control. Most of us have signed up for hundreds of services with the same email address, and very few of us could list them. Every one of them keeps something: a password, a card number, a location history.
Dome starts from the inbox. It finds the services, newsletters and breaches tied to an email address and turns them into a short list of things to do.
Dome starts from the inbox. It finds the services, newsletters and breaches tied to an email address and turns them into a short list of things to do.
Challenge
Privacy is hard to design for because the problem stays invisible until something goes wrong. Apps in this space tend to go one of two ways. They either frighten people with alerts or bury them in settings few people understand.
There is also a trust problem built into the idea. An app that asks for your email address in order to protect your privacy has to earn that request before it makes it.
The questions I kept coming back to were how to make the problem visible without scaring anyone, and how to get from hundreds of findings to one next step.
There is also a trust problem built into the idea. An app that asks for your email address in order to protect your privacy has to earn that request before it makes it.
The questions I kept coming back to were how to make the problem visible without scaring anyone, and how to get from hundreds of findings to one next step.
Onboarding
I mapped the whole flow before drawing a screen, with notes on what each step had to achieve and which apps had already solved something similar. Password managers and crypto wallets were the closest references, since they ask for the same kind of trust.
The onboarding asks for as little as it can. You give an email address, the scan runs on your device, and the first result is a single score, two numbers and the services carrying the most risk. One button leads on. For anyone still unsure, the flow includes a demo mode that scans a made-up address first.
Instead of a pricing page you are asked how you feel about your data being shared without your consent. Relaxed, Aware, Guarded and Vigilant are attitudes first and plans second, so the choice reads as something you say about yourself rather than something you are sold. Dome never asks for your name either. You pick a generated alias, and that is what the app calls you.
The onboarding asks for as little as it can. You give an email address, the scan runs on your device, and the first result is a single score, two numbers and the services carrying the most risk. One button leads on. For anyone still unsure, the flow includes a demo mode that scans a made-up address first.
Instead of a pricing page you are asked how you feel about your data being shared without your consent. Relaxed, Aware, Guarded and Vigilant are attitudes first and plans second, so the choice reads as something you say about yourself rather than something you are sold. Dome never asks for your name either. You pick a generated alias, and that is what the app calls you.
Design
Home answers one question: how exposed am I right now? A risk level, the number of services and subscriptions, and a short list of recommended actions. Every action you complete brings the risk level down, so progress is something you can see.
Services are sorted by what needs attention, with how often you actually use each one next to its risk. A service's own page asks the question the whole app is built around: is what you get from it worth the data it collects? From there you either mark it as needed or reclaim your data. The page also shows what the service collects and sums up its privacy policy in plain language.
Services are sorted by what needs attention, with how often you actually use each one next to its risk. A service's own page asks the question the whole app is built around: is what you get from it worth the data it collects? From there you either mark it as needed or reclaim your data. The page also shows what the service collects and sums up its privacy policy in plain language.
Subscriptions & breaches
Subscriptions and breaches work the same way. Newsletters are sorted by how long you have had them and how much you actually read. A breach says what leaked, from which service and when, and turns the advice into a checklist you can tick off.
The visual language is dark and calm, with one blue for everything you can act on and a violet gradient for the main call to action. Strong colour appears only where there is risk, so it stands out when it matters.
The visual language is dark and calm, with one blue for everything you can act on and a violet gradient for the main call to action. Strong colour appears only where there is risk, so it stands out when it matters.
Result
Dome is a concept and was never built. What I take from it is a way of designing for a subject people would rather avoid: show them where they stand and give them one thing to do next.
The next step would be putting the onboarding in front of people, to find out whether the trust it asks for is trust they are willing to give.
The screens on this page were brought up to date from the original v0.1 design file and rebuilt in code, which is also how the film at the top was made.
The next step would be putting the onboarding in front of people, to find out whether the trust it asks for is trust they are willing to give.
The screens on this page were brought up to date from the original v0.1 design file and rebuilt in code, which is also how the film at the top was made.