From my experience whenever I have to install a piece of software I'm presented an end-user license agreement (EULA) in the following way:
Specifically the EULA is a long text in legalese and I actually need to read that text - it governs under which conditions I can use the software. That long text is squeezed into a tiny textbox that is located on a windows with a non-adjustable border so I can't make the window larger and have a larger textbox - I have to either copy-paste the EULA into another program and read it there or read all the text through this tiny gun port.
Is there any reason behind this widely adopted and often replicated design?
Answer
Two words: Functional Obsolescence
That's usually a term used in Real Estate, but the general idea is that the Home (or in this case, the EULA box) is obsolete, but still functional.
For example, there are many better ways to provide an EULA interface, but over the years nobody wanted to take the time to enhance the EULA part of software registration or installation, especially since they know most people aren't going to take the time to read the entire thing. I mean, how many times do you read the iTunes EULA when you are updating to a new version?
Basically, it's become the defacto standard and nobody wants to put any effort into changing something people will only deal with one time.
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