A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is often part of a contract of employment or services. Its objective is to keep sensitive information about an organization, the products or services it offers and its customers confidential, particularly from competitors. Morgane Peng, Design Director at Societe Generale CIB, introduces the topic in this video:
Show Hide video transcriptNDAs come in two main forms:
The latter are used in contracts of employment or services. Mutual NDAs would be used in business-to-business relationships.
Confidential information is usually defined in the NDA itself, but it is likely to include financial, contractual or technical details that could damage the organization if divulged. This will include information that could benefit the organization’s competitors. Common examples are:
A non-disclosure agreement may form part of a contract of employment or services. It can sometimes appear as a confidentiality clause, or it might be a separate contract altogether. NDAs may be created as a part of contract termination, but the validity period for this kind of agreement can vary according to the jurisdiction. For example, in the UK, NDAs outside of an ongoing contractual relationship are deemed valid for between three and five years. So that would be the case when an NDA is created under UK laws.
When two parties to an NDA are in different countries, there are two separate legal considerations:
When negotiating an NDA, it is common for the jurisdiction to be the agreement originator’s country and the governing country to be the residence of the second party.
The behaviors outlined in NDAs must be reasonable and lawful. There are several common stumbling points when drafting them:
As an employee or service provider, if an NDA or confidentiality clause was part of your original contract, you may find that you cannot detail certain aspects of your work when you update your CV or portfolio. See our article, How to Handle Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) When You Write Your UX Case Study on this topic.
If you are being asked to sign an NDA or confidentiality agreement at the end of your contract, you are generally under no obligation to do so. You might wish to take legal advice.
Design projects can make clients vulnerable since they need to share potentially sensitive information as part of their brief. They are likely to want to protect this information with a non-disclosure agreement. Here are some typical scenarios:
Some of the shortcomings in using NDAs are described in the Harvard Business Review: NDAs Are Out of Control. Here’s What Needs to Change.
Chetan Yadav describes some of his own experience as a UX designer working under an NDA in his informative article.
The abbreviation NDA has several uses, but in business, it usually stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement. This contract, typically between two parties, limits what defined, confidential information about one or both parties may be disclosed to others.
What is an NDA?An NDA, or non-disclosure agreement, is a contract, typically between two parties, that limits the disclosure of defined, confidential information about one or both parties to others.
What happens if you break an NDA?Breaking an NDA, or non-disclosure agreement, is not a crime. Still, the originator of the agreement may be able to ask a court to impose financial penalties and associated legal costs if you do.
How long does an NDA last?The validity of non-disclosure agreements or NDAs may vary by jurisdiction. An NDA that is part of a contract of employment or supply of services (sometimes also called a confidentiality clause) is likely to last for the lifetime of that contract. However, separate NDAs or those extending beyond the contract's termination may be valid for one to five years, depending on the governing laws. For example, in the UK, such an NDA is likely valid for three to five years.
How to write an NDA?There are a variety of NDA templates available for free use, but be sure to choose one that’s valid for the laws of your country (the “jurisdiction”). These are the general steps:
This is a complicated question and dependent on jurisdiction. For example, as of March 2024 in the UK, the law permits victims of crime from reporting them regardless of the presence of an NDA:
Changes to the law announced today (Thursday 28 March) will clarify that NDAs cannot be legally enforced if they prevent victims from reporting a crime and will ensure information related to criminal conduct can be discussed with the following groups without fear of legal action:
In the US, the general answer is “yes,” but many sources point out that it is not a straightforward situation. Seek legal advice if in doubt.
Here’s the entire UX literature on Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:
Most designers are familiar with non-disclosure agreements. Usually, your employer asks you to sign such an agreement to prevent you from revealing confidential information. But when you write your UX case studies, your NDAs suddenly seem like an obstacle. How should you write about your design projects if you’ve signed an NDA? Well, a simple solution is to ask for permission—but if that fails, there are other options you can explore. Let’s go through the basics of how to handle NDAs in your UX case studies.
Show Hide video transcriptLet’s begin with a quick explainer of what non-disclosure agreements are. Companies usually ask people who work with them to sign these agreements to prevent the loss of trade secrets. That’s because there might be huge financial losses if a competitor finds out about how a company operates.
Your NDA restricts your ability to share confidential information relating to your work. So, what counts as confidential information? Most companies define what they mean by “confidential” in their NDA; nonetheless, to err on the side of caution, you should assume any information that isn’t publicly available is confidential.
This means if you signed an NDA, you by default cannot write a UX case study based on your project. Obviously, many UX designers write case studies about their projects—and they do so ethically and without contravening their agreements. How can you do the same?
Well, no! If you could, we’d have renamed our headline “How to ignore your non-disclosure agreements”. Unfortunately, you’ll face some consequences if you willingly breach your NDA.
First, your company might act against you. They might file a lawsuit to demand compensation or provide a bad reference (or no reference, which can have the same effect) for your job applications. Even if it’s not likely that your employer will sue you—although you never know, depending on how serious the case is—there are other things you should consider, too.
Perhaps more importantly, you’ll likely look bad to a recruiter if you breach your NDA. If you freely, and without permission, reveal confidential information in your UX case studies and job interviews, then your recruiter will think you cannot be trusted with trade secrets. That’s disastrous for your job application, and it doesn’t make sense for you to take such a risk when the goal of your UX case study is to help you get a job.
So, to avoid any negative impacts on your job applications, you should never ignore your NDAs. Here’s what to do instead.
Websites and apps which are publicly available are always safe to use. That way, you’re free to include any public design results you’ve created in your case studies. This might not include content or designs which are behind a paywall—if your design is behind a paywall, read on to see what you could do. On top of that, you may also not be allowed to share the work process which led to the result. Here’s how you find out what you can and cannot do.
Find out the terms of your NDA. Your contract usually spells out what it considers “confidential”. Use it to determine if it’s okay to write about a project without getting permission from your employer. If in doubt, contact them about it, anyway.
Next, ask your employer for permission to write a UX case study based on your project. You’ll most likely get the green light to go ahead as long as you clearly explain what you’ll include in your case study.
When you ask for permission, it’s best to make the following clear:
Even if you’ve not signed an NDA, you should still ask for permission! It’s a nice gesture, and you’ll demonstrate a great deal of professionalism.
Furthermore, you should always send your employer a copy of your final UX case study before you publish it, just in case you accidentally included sensitive information in it. Always ask for a green light.
Remember to sanitize the information you include in your case studies:
Remove unnecessary information that might reveal confidential details, especially if they don’t help explain your design skills and process.
Show percentages rather than the actual figures. For instance, instead of saying “we saw an increase in the monthly signups from 12,512 to 14,013”, write “we saw a 12% increase in monthly signups”. This way, you clearly communicate your impact without revealing too much.
Generalize the work you’ve done. Share your overall design process, rather than minute details of your project. Don’t share screenshots of detailed behind-the-scenes sketches if they are confidential. Instead, share sketches without confidential information and zoomed-out pictures of Post-its in an ideation session. You’ll cut down on the length of your UX case studies, too.
Sanitize your information before you ask your employer for permission to write your case study. That way, you’ll increase your chances of getting approved.
If your employer doesn’t want you to publish a UX case study on your project, your next-best solution is to ask for permission to talk about your project to recruiters in private. This could be done either face-to-face, such as in a job interview, or by setting a password to your case study. This way, you can still demonstrate your skills to the people who matter the most in your job applications.
Again, clarity is key when you ask for permission to talk about your project in private. And you can take that from at least one good authority:
“Be specific. Ask your previous employer if you can show X + Y pieces. Let them know how you plan to explain X + Y pieces. Let them know specifically who you’ll be sharing it with, and why. This will give you a much better chance of being given permission to show your work.”
—Brittany Mederos, Senior Designer at Microsoft
If you can only talk about your project in private, then the UX case studies you show in your UX design portfolio should be brief summaries. In a paragraph, explain your job scope and role and end with a sentence that says you’ll be willing to talk more in an interview.
The same rule about sanitizing your information applies when you speak to recruiters about your projects! Don’t gush about minute details of your work. Instead, focus on general design processes. Use percentages if you must talk about numerical metrics. It can be hard to refrain from letting secret details slip in the heat of the moment in an interview. Remember, though—it pays to come across as trustworthy and honorable. Any good recruiter will prefer that over discovering someone who they think may give away secrets sometime in the future.
If you really want to showcase your work for a client but cannot do so due to your NDA, you might have considered removing sensitive parts of your case study. This means removing or replacing all confidential information, such as client logos, financial data, user names and habits, etc.
However, we don’t recommend that you black out parts of your UX case study. This is because:
As we mentioned above, you’ll be far better off doing your own personal project that demonstrates the same skills.
When you write your UX case studies, NDAs can feel like huge obstacles. Thankfully, they’re usually not. Companies just want to protect their trade secrets. So, as long as you sanitize your information and ask for permission to write your case study, you are likely to get the go-ahead.
We suggest you do the following to handle your NDA:
Read more tips on NDAs by Brittany Mederos: NDAs and confidentiality
Hero image: Author / Copyright holder: Jelleke Vanooteghem. Copyright terms and license: Unsplash License.
Show full article Hide full articleTake a deep dive into Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with our course Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job .
“Your portfolio is your best advocate in showing your work, your skills and your personality. It also shows not only the final outcomes but the process you took to get there and how you aligned your design decisions with the business and user needs.”
— Morgane Peng, Design Director, Societe Generale CIB
In many industries, your education, certifications and previous job roles help you get a foot in the door in the hiring process. However, in the design world, this is often not the case. Potential employers and clients want to see evidence of your skills and work and assess if they fit the job or design project in question. This is where portfolios come in.
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Build Your Portfolio is taught by Morgane Peng, a designer, speaker, mentor and writer who serves as Director of Experience Design at Societe Generale CIB. With over 12 years of experience in management roles, she has reviewed thousands of design portfolios and conducted hundreds of interviews with designers. She has collated her extensive real-world knowledge into this course to teach you how to build a compelling portfolio that hiring managers will want to explore.
In lesson 1, you’ll learn the importance of portfolios and which type of portfolio you should create based on your career stage and background. You’ll discover the most significant mistakes designers make in their portfolios, the importance of content over aesthetics and why today is the best day to start documenting your design processes. This knowledge will serve as your foundation as you build your portfolio.
In lesson 2, you’ll grasp the importance of hooks in your portfolio, how to write them, and the best practices based on your career stage and target audience. You’ll learn how and why to balance your professional and personal biographies in your about me section, how to talk about your life before design and how to use tools and resources in conjunction with your creativity to create a unique and distinctive portfolio.
In lesson 3, you’ll dive into case studies—the backbone of your portfolio. You’ll learn how to plan your case studies for success and hook your reader in to learn more about your design research, sketches, prototypes and outcomes. An attractive and attention-grabbing portfolio is nothing without solid and engaging case studies that effectively communicate who you are as a designer and why employers and clients should hire you.
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Throughout the course, you'll get practical tips to apply to your portfolio. In the "Build Your Portfolio" project, you'll create your portfolio strategy, write and test your hook, build a case study and prepare your portfolio presentation. You’ll be able to share your progress, tips and reflections with your coursemates, gain insights from the community and elevate each other’s portfolios.
