According to the UK Government website, a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) ‘is a legal contract. It sets out how you share information or ideas in confidence. Sometimes people call NDAs confidentiality agreements.’
NDAs are an important aspect in the working design world as many companies will require these to be signed to ensure that the creative workings of their designer remain in the ownership of the company and that the designers themselves can not share the concepts with anyone else. As the Interaction Design Foundation stated, ‘NDAs create a safe space for innovation. Clients and designers can freely share their ideas and information without fear of having them stolen or misused. This is necessary to foster a collaborative environment where creativity can flourish.’
When we all progress onto our placement years next year, many of us will work directly with and for a company, creating UX Designs for them. With this, we may also be required to sign NDAs to ensure we do not share our work, primarily because we are going to be new to the company and will be continuing on in our degree after the year is completed and without an NDA, companies can be worried about where their concepts and inner workings could be shared to.
Participating in your placement comes with showcasing what you completed that year to your university so they ensure you got the most out of your year in the industry.
Morgane Peng does a great job at describing how we can work with NDAs in our portfolios whilst also respecting the company's policies.
1. Do not take NDAs lightly- they are essential ‘legal contracts that keep sensitive information safe; therefore, ensuring you do not share this information is vital so that you do not undermine the sensitivity of the work you are carrying out.’
When showing your portfolio of work after your placement, it’s important to state that you have worked under an NDA and make sure you have not shared any information you exclusively said you wouldn’t. If you were told you could share some information, you need to make this clear in your portfolio and that you have explicit permission to do so. This is because hiring managers who look at your portfolio in the future ‘need to see that you respect NDAs to know that you are a trustworthy employee for other companies.’ Because if you don’t respect the NDAs of companies you have worked for in the past, how can they trust you won’t do the same for them?
2. Discuss with employers and clients- This means that when you are progressing with your project, you can explain to your client or employer your position with your portfolio, what you want to put into it and why. Many clients and employers understand your position and are open to negotiating.
3. Talk about what you learnt on the job- If your employer or client don’t agree with sharing any sort of information under the NDA (which can happen in many cases), you can still mention in your portfolio that you worked for that company and that the work you completed is under NDA.
The NDA doesn’t prevent you from talking about what you learnt on your projects, what new insights you have gained and what new systems you have learnt. These can be just as informational as the content of the projects themselves.
Intellectual Property, as the World Intellectual Property Organisation outlines ‘refers to the creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; symbols, names and images used in commerce.’