WhatsApp-A-Mole: Interactive Game for Generating Awareness on Privacy on WhatsApp

   

Introduction: 

WhatsApp is the most popular social media in India. Most users heavily rely on it for daily communication and feel safe using the platform, without a complete understanding of its privacy concerns. We want to bridge this gap between the users and their understanding of privacy on WhatsApp. 

The Idea:

WhatsApp-A-Mole is an interactive, fun game that aims to generate privacy awareness through questions based on the privacy policy and settings of WhatsApp.

Figure 1: WhatsApp-A-Mole

How does it work?

WhatsApp-A-Mole is inspired by the classic arcade game, Whack-A-Mole. The game interface is divided into 2 parts. The first presents multiple choice questions related to privacy on WhatsApp, where each option is colour-coded. The second simultaneously presents colourful moles, where each mole corresponds to an option for the current question. Your aim is to whack the mole corresponding to the correct answer. 

For every correct answer, you score points. For every incorrect answer, you lose a life. As the game progresses, there are 3 levels of questions (easy, medium, hard) with corresponding scores (+1, +2, +3). The game ends when you lose all 3 lives or the 3 minute timer runs out, and your score is added to the leaderboard. 

Why this idea?

• This game is curated for all age groups. Its custom made art style appeals to all age groups- the bright visual activity and the rush of the game appeal to a younger audience, while the throwback arcade style appeals to the older ones.

• The gamification of this learning experience makes it more fun and engaging than any normal quiz. There is motivation to play till you get all the answers right and shine on the leaderboard.

• At the end of the game, you receive the correct answers for the questions that you were not able to answer correctly. This ensures that you gain knowledge every time you play.

Prototype:

No better way to understand our game, than to play it yourself:

[Game Link] 

Journey: 

We have followed a user-centered approach, right from identifying the problem to implementing the solution. Here’s what our journey looked like:

User Study

We conducted an online survey with over 320 participants with the aim of gaining quantitative insights and informal interviews with 8 participants to gain qualitative insights. We asked questions about perceptions of safety on WhatsApp and understanding of the various privacy settings on WhatsApp. Key themes that emerged were:

*All names below are anonymised to protect the privacy of the participants

• WhatsApp- The most popular Social Media platform

“I use WhatsApp every 5 minutes.”

-Pushpa, 53 years

Figure 2: 96.6% survey participants use WhatsApp daily

• Lack of Clarity on How WhatsApp works

“Not sure what WhatsApp does with data, but it does collect data”
-Ishan, 19 years

Figure 3: Even in the best performing age group, less than 40% survey
participants understand the privacy policy of WhatsApp

• Blind Trust on WhatsApp

“I think that it’s become so normal that we accept terms and conditions without reading them, that I didn’t feel it was important to read the policy.”
-Anu, 15 years

• Incomprehensible Privacy Policy and Technical Jargon

“I have not read the policy, its difficult to read like mutual funds policies, too big to read and understand”
-Anshul, 53 years

Figure 4: Wide gap between % of survey participants who have heard about
WhatsApp’s privacy policy and those who have actually read it

• The Older We Get, The Less Settings We Change

“I don’t share much information, just the bare minimum, basic requirements to operate. I am not bothered much about the settings, I have not changed much.”
-Narendra, 53 years

Figure 5: % of survey participants that have ever changed their privacy settings decreases with age

Thus, through this initial study we realised that we need to create a solution which effectively presents the privacy concerns on WhatsApp and helps users learn how to create a secure WhatsApp experience using its various privacy settings. 

Brainstorming & Ideation

We followed a diverge-and-converge approach in ideating our solution. We explored all the possible solutions for addressing the identified problem area (diverge) and then narrowed down to the best solution (converge): WhatsApp-A-Mole!

Figure 6: Brainstorming
For a more detailed look, check  https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lLhYYnE=/

Prototype

• Visual Style

We created a bright and fun visual identity using pop colours. We created the cutest moles that will appeal to any age group. All assets used in the frontend are customly made and our original work. 

   
Figure 7: Original assets for the game

• Implementation [GitHub]

We programmed the game using Vanilla JavaScript and used HTML CSS for the style elements of the game. The game is divided into different menus: Main Menu, Game, Leaderboard, Instructions, and Privacy Policy. For the main game, we used transitions to move the timer and to sprout the moles. For the leaderboard, a firebase realtime database was used to store the usernames and corresponding scores of everyone who played the game in real time.  

Figure 8: Main Menu of the game

Figure 9: Firebase Database with usernames and their corresponding scores

Figure 10: HTML CSS Codebase

User Evaluation & Improvements

We conducted usability testing on the prototype with 14 participants across different age groups, using a mix of think aloud sessions with the prototype and informal interviews. Key insights that we received from this round, and incorporated into the prototype were:

User Feedback	How we Incorporated this Feedback
“The game elements seem to be too small.”	Increased sizes of elements and improved visual layout
“The time limit was too less.”	Increased the time limit to 3 minutes
“No penalty for wrong answers.”	Introduced the concept of Lives
“I did not understand how the game is supposed to be played.”	Added an Instructions Page
“I wish I could compete with my friends.”	Created a Public Leaderboard
“The game did not seem engaging enough.” “The game seems too easy and too slow.” “Movements of moles don’t seem random enough.”	Added animations, sound effects and bg music Altered the speed of the moles Made the spawn positions more distributed and random
“I wish that there was variety in question difficulty.” “The questions are too less in number.”	Increased question database and introduced different levels of questions
“I don’t get to know when I have answered correctly or incorrectly.”	Improved visual response for correct/incorrect answers and added sound effects for each
“I want to know the correct answer to the question I answered incorrectly.”	Added information on correct answers at the end of the game

Table 1: User feedback and how it was incorporated

Another Round of User Feedback

We rolled out our revised prototype and conducted a guerrilla testing using an online survey with over 40 participants and informal discussions with 12 participants. We received a positive response, as well as, constructive feedback which we will incorporate in future iterations of the game. Here’s a few responses we received:

“Very enjoyable, very creative. It's fascinating how a game about WhatsApp privacy policy can be so engaging and competitive with my friends. Kudos!”

“The game was very informative, beautifully organised and smooth. I love it myself as I have learnt a lot from it even being a 49 year old, and I showed this to my kids who enjoy it too. Great job!”

“I think this is a great initiative, but I wish it could be extended to more social media platforms.”

“It's a great time pass, especially in this Covid time… and at the same time I got to know more about the app.”

Future Direction

After the successful implementation and positive user response for the game, here’s where this project can be taken in the future:

• Extend the game to more social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.

• Expand the question database to cover many more questions.

• Conduct more usability evaluations and improve the UI/UX of the game. 

• Make the game popular! :D

Video

The Team

Acknowledgement

This project was carried out as part of the course Privacy and Security on Online Social Media, under the guidance of Professor Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi in March-April 2021.