The Power of Framing in UX: How to Use Data Without Being Creepy

Let’s be real—technology is getting scary good at knowing things about us. Between location tracking, spot-on music/movie/book recommendations, and suspiciously specific ads, we all know that every tap, click, swipe, and keystroke is relaying bits about ourselves to the professionals behind the digital platforms we love.

That gives designers, developers, and product creators an incredible edge—but also a new challenge: How do we use what we know without making people feel like they're being watched?

Because let’s face it: the line between “wow, that’s so convenient” and “how do they know that?!” is thinner than ever.

Photo by Wilman Aro on Unsplash

Disney: The Magic of Not Being Creepy

Let’s take a quick detour to the most magical place on earth: Disneyland. 🏰✨

Your trip is on the horizon, and you’re giddily counting down the days until you hop on that plane, leave reality behind, and celebrate your birthday in style. And then—just when the anticipation is peaking—it arrives: a box from Disney.

There it is on your doorstep, sleek, perfectly branded, and practically humming with magic. Inside? The MagicBands. One for each member of your party. Your keys to the kingdom. Your wearable passport to churros, castles, and character hugs.

Too excited to do anything else, you launch the Disney app and get to work:

✅ Link each band to its person

✅ Connect your hotel reservation

✅ Set up a PIN for in-park purchases

✅ Double-check your Lightning Lane plans

It’s a breeze. Everything is intuitive, smooth, and sprinkled with Disney charm. Fast forward to park day, and it all just… works. Hotel doors open with a tap. Snacks appear like magic. Ride queues are a wrist flick away.

Then a cast member approaches and asks with a warm smile, “Are you celebrating anything special today?”

You beam. “It’s my birthday!” They light up. Maybe they hand you a pin. Maybe Mickey waves a little harder that day. It’s simply magical.

But here’s the twist: they already knew. The system knows exactly whose birthday it is. It knows which birthday it is. You told it weeks ago. Now imagine this:

Instead of asking, the cast member walks up and says, “Happy 25th birthday, [Your Name]!”

Still magical? Or just a little… weird?

It’s a subtle shift—but one that changes everything. Because when technology reveals what it knows too soon, or too directly, the experience starts to feel less like magic and more like surveillance.

And that, right there, is the power of framing.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

The Role of Framing in Good UX

Framing is the art of presenting information in a way that feels natural, respectful, and human. It's not just about what we say or do in our products—it's about how we say or do it.

All top-notch products frame how they communicate with their users.

Take Spotify, for example. It doesn’t say, “Hey, we noticed you listened to three hours of sad indie rock last night. You okay?”

Instead, it wraps that data in a bow and delivers it as your Discover Weekly playlist. Or better yet, as your annual Spotify Wrapped. The platform knows everything about your listening habits, but it doesn’t make it obvious. Instead, it presents its findings as thoughtful, personalized, algorithmically curated gifts. Gifts that you and millions of other people, including myself, are more than happy to receive.

Not a Spotify user? Ok, let’s look at Netflix.

Netflix absolutely knows that you stayed up until 3 AM to binge-watch yet another true crime docuseries, but it would never tell you that. Instead, it recommends your next watch, framing what it knows as “Because you watched Making a Murderer, you might like The Keepers.”

It’s not judging—it’s curating. Netflix takes what it knows and makes it feel like a thoughtful tip. That’s smart UX framing: using data to build trust and connection.

Photo by Zan Lazarevic on Unsplash

The Dark Side of Saying the Wrong Thing

Framing is where trust is built—or broken. It’s what separates the apps we welcome into our lives from the ones that give us the ick.

Let’s say you’ve been using a fitness app regularly for the last few weeks and then life happens. You’re busy at work, attended a family event, and your kid got sick. Then, out of nowhere, a push notification pops up:

“You haven’t worked out in 5 days. Aren’t you getting a little lazy?”

Oof. That's exactly what I do not need!

Even if this was meant as a joke, the damage is done. Your once trusted fitness companion suddenly feels like a nosy neighbor who is letting you know they are always watching you—and now judging you, too.

It’s All About the Moment

Now, to be fair, some apps do thrive on delivering tough love to its users.

Garmin, for example, often speaks in blunt data and subtle sass, telling you “You’ve lost fitness” when you fail to meet your goals. And for its high-performance, stats-driven audience, that’s part of the appeal. If you’re training for a marathon, a little tough love is motivating—not offensive.

The key is knowing your users and framing accordingly. What builds trust in one context might break it in another. Because good framing doesn’t mean being nice—it means understanding what’s right for the moment.

Photo by Amélie Mourichon on Unsplash

Good Framing Is the Future of Good UX

Tech is getting smarter. Our products are more context-aware. And users? They’re more sensitive than ever about how their data is being used (and rightly so).

That puts us—designers, developers, product thinkers—not just on the cutting edge, but balancing on it. Because it’s no longer just about what we can do with data, but what we should do to create experiences that feel helpful, not creepy.

We have to strike that sweet spot between gathering data and using it in ways that are genuinely useful for our users.

The future of UX isn’t just functional. It’s emotional. And framing is how we bridge the gap between powerful technology and meaningful human experience.

What’s a time you saw great (or terrible) framing in action? How did it shape your experience? Let me know in the comments!