Signs of Time: Designing Social Networking Site Profile Interfaces with Temporal Contextual Integrity

Social networking sites (SNS) retain status updates, pictures and links on profiles dating back years. Because recent and outdated information intermingle in peo-ple's SNS profiles over time, SNS interfaces risk portraying profile owners' bi-ography and true current identity in a false light. Visualizing the passage of time in SNS interfaces can preserve profile information's temporal contextual integrity and a truthful light on people's biographies. Focus groups with SNS users were conducted and digital media experts were consulted to develop temporal interface signs for presenting SNS profiles in a time-sensitive way. Some of the temporal signs were implemented in an SNS interface prototype that was evaluated with users. The usability challenges of implementing the temporal signs in SNS inter-faces are discussed. The paper concludes that SNS interfaces presenting people in a truthful temporal light sometimes need to transform the original appearance of profile information itself.