Exploring fairness in visual employment contracts

Abstract

The current thesis explores the impact that the use of visual contracts has from the fairness perspective. The project developed in collaboration with the company Visual Contracts, a start-up specialized in Legal Design Thinking, aims to provide an added value and evidence that supports the relevance of their activity. A design process that combined research with a practical approach was the chosen approach for the development of the project. The project focused on the context of employment contracts due to its big social relevance and its potential for business opportunities. Several conflicts which seriously compromise the well-being of the parties, the employer and the employee, arise as a consequence of misunderstandings in the employment contracts. To prevent these conflicts and to offer and added value to the company Visual Contracts, the exploration of the impact of visual contracts is addressed from the fairness perspective. Three design cycles were pursued during this thesis. The first cycle, had as a goal to create an in-depth understanding of the project scope (contracts, understandability, and fairness) and to design the first visual contract. The second cycle was focused on improving the user experience and the implementability in the real context. Finally, the third cycle aimed to detail the visual contract and validate it in the real context. Along this process, a combination of desk and empirical research with the stakeholders of contracts, was conducted to gain more understanding of the scope of the project. It was also developed a framework which aimed to ease the creation of fair employment contracts and set the basis for a good relationship between the parties. Finally, one contract was designed on each cycle and afterwards tested to generate knowledge and insights for improvement. The final result iterated from an initial interactive document to a platform where the user can perform all the tasks related to their hiring and onboarding process, from reading the contract to uploading the necessary documents for the formalities. The results of the project provided the company Visual Contracts with a business opportunity in the context of employment contracts, along with evidence and tools for the further development of this project. As an overall conclusion, it was stated that the use of visual contracts contributes to fairness and generates a positive impact by improving understandability and fostering evaluation. The impact is demonstrated in the following way: visual contracts support and empower the stakeholders during the decision making process and negotiation of the agreement, they improve the relationship between the parties, by fostering trust and open communication, and finally, they prevent conflicts and set realistic expectations.