Overview
In the algorithmic world it is harder than ever for young people to make sense of the online information landscape.
For my masters thesis I took on a social and political issue that is close to my heart. I wanted to investigate and design a solution which would help young people make more sense of the current information world they live in.
Overview
In the algorithmic world it is harder than ever for young people to make sense of the online information landscape.
For my masters thesis I took on a social and political issue that is close to my heart. I wanted to investigate and design a solution which would help young people make more sense of the current information world they live in.
Overview
In the algorithmic world it is harder than ever for young people to make sense of the online information landscape.
For my masters thesis I took on a social and political issue that is close to my heart. I wanted to investigate and design a solution which would help young people make more sense of the current information world they live in.
Project details
Client
Masters Thesis
Project
YAPTRAP
Year
2024
Services
Branding Art & Design Direction Motion Web design
Credits
Discovery Research
The journey began by diving into the roots of misinformation, its sprea and its impact on individuals and communities:
The primary objectives of this research were:
To examine the impact of misinformation on different demographic groups and identify disparities in information literacy.
To evaluate the effectiveness of interactive tools designed to enhance information literacy, such as a game-based approach for evaluating and categorising information sources.
To explore the potential of employing interaction design strategies to engage users in the process of verifying and challenging misleading information.
This is a complex issue on the surface. I broke it down by doing some preliminary research:
Due to the complexity of this issue, the first port of call was to begin mapping the ecosystem to try to boil down the size of the issue into something actionable.
With the ecosystem mapped based on desk research. I create an impact effort matrix in order to define the project scope and pursue an issue with maximum impact.
I set my scope, on the impactful cause assisting young people and engaging them about misinformation & fake news. I began to explore the profile and characteristics of young people who are susceptible to propaganda and radicalisation.
“For the working class young men on the other side, the path to radicalisation is open. If you’re not afraid of being thrown in the back of a Garda [police] car or spending a night in a jail cell, society doesn’t want you, but the far right does. It’s taken years of socioeconomic discrimination to start this fire. It’ll take years of community work, investment and social mobility opportunities to put it out.” (Irish Social Artist "Spicebag.exe", 2024)
It’s clear to see from this map that this is a person surrounded by pressure on many sides. Depending on the community setting they are immersed in they can be hearing convincing strong man arguments, or boogeyman rhetoric - which involves placing the blame on an outsider group for problems within the community. Like the majority of adolescents they are spending time on a variety of social media networks in order to connect and communicate with peer groups. As discussed previously, the dynamics of social media algorithms can very quickly exaggerate or reinforce a curiosity or suspicion in an unnatural manner - in this context a young person browsing through TikTok at night could see an older member of their community expressing strong beliefs about a shared frustration, and within minutes the algorithm may send them down a “rabbithole” of hateful propaganda with no regard for their wellbeing. This person experiences pain as a result of social exclusion which occurs disproportionately to people in disadvantaged and working class communities, they find themselves disconnected from mainstream narratives and this further hardens their disillusion with institutions and media, feeling that they are “being lied to” or “not listened to”.
Discovery Research
The journey began by diving into the roots of misinformation, its sprea and its impact on individuals and communities:
The primary objectives of this research were:
To examine the impact of misinformation on different demographic groups and identify disparities in information literacy.
To evaluate the effectiveness of interactive tools designed to enhance information literacy, such as a game-based approach for evaluating and categorising information sources.
To explore the potential of employing interaction design strategies to engage users in the process of verifying and challenging misleading information.
This is a complex issue on the surface. I broke it down by doing some preliminary research:
Due to the complexity of this issue, the first port of call was to begin mapping the ecosystem to try to boil down the size of the issue into something actionable.
With the ecosystem mapped based on desk research. I create an impact effort matrix in order to define the project scope and pursue an issue with maximum impact.
I set my scope, on the impactful cause assisting young people and engaging them about misinformation & fake news. I began to explore the profile and characteristics of young people who are susceptible to propaganda and radicalisation.
“For the working class young men on the other side, the path to radicalisation is open. If you’re not afraid of being thrown in the back of a Garda [police] car or spending a night in a jail cell, society doesn’t want you, but the far right does. It’s taken years of socioeconomic discrimination to start this fire. It’ll take years of community work, investment and social mobility opportunities to put it out.” (Irish Social Artist "Spicebag.exe", 2024)
It’s clear to see from this map that this is a person surrounded by pressure on many sides. Depending on the community setting they are immersed in they can be hearing convincing strong man arguments, or boogeyman rhetoric - which involves placing the blame on an outsider group for problems within the community. Like the majority of adolescents they are spending time on a variety of social media networks in order to connect and communicate with peer groups. As discussed previously, the dynamics of social media algorithms can very quickly exaggerate or reinforce a curiosity or suspicion in an unnatural manner - in this context a young person browsing through TikTok at night could see an older member of their community expressing strong beliefs about a shared frustration, and within minutes the algorithm may send them down a “rabbithole” of hateful propaganda with no regard for their wellbeing. This person experiences pain as a result of social exclusion which occurs disproportionately to people in disadvantaged and working class communities, they find themselves disconnected from mainstream narratives and this further hardens their disillusion with institutions and media, feeling that they are “being lied to” or “not listened to”.
Discovery Research
The journey began by diving into the roots of misinformation, its sprea and its impact on individuals and communities:
The primary objectives of this research were:
To examine the impact of misinformation on different demographic groups and identify disparities in information literacy.
To evaluate the effectiveness of interactive tools designed to enhance information literacy, such as a game-based approach for evaluating and categorising information sources.
To explore the potential of employing interaction design strategies to engage users in the process of verifying and challenging misleading information.
This is a complex issue on the surface. I broke it down by doing some preliminary research:
Due to the complexity of this issue, the first port of call was to begin mapping the ecosystem to try to boil down the size of the issue into something actionable.
With the ecosystem mapped based on desk research. I create an impact effort matrix in order to define the project scope and pursue an issue with maximum impact.
I set my scope, on the impactful cause assisting young people and engaging them about misinformation & fake news. I began to explore the profile and characteristics of young people who are susceptible to propaganda and radicalisation.
“For the working class young men on the other side, the path to radicalisation is open. If you’re not afraid of being thrown in the back of a Garda [police] car or spending a night in a jail cell, society doesn’t want you, but the far right does. It’s taken years of socioeconomic discrimination to start this fire. It’ll take years of community work, investment and social mobility opportunities to put it out.” (Irish Social Artist "Spicebag.exe", 2024)
It’s clear to see from this map that this is a person surrounded by pressure on many sides. Depending on the community setting they are immersed in they can be hearing convincing strong man arguments, or boogeyman rhetoric - which involves placing the blame on an outsider group for problems within the community. Like the majority of adolescents they are spending time on a variety of social media networks in order to connect and communicate with peer groups. As discussed previously, the dynamics of social media algorithms can very quickly exaggerate or reinforce a curiosity or suspicion in an unnatural manner - in this context a young person browsing through TikTok at night could see an older member of their community expressing strong beliefs about a shared frustration, and within minutes the algorithm may send them down a “rabbithole” of hateful propaganda with no regard for their wellbeing. This person experiences pain as a result of social exclusion which occurs disproportionately to people in disadvantaged and working class communities, they find themselves disconnected from mainstream narratives and this further hardens their disillusion with institutions and media, feeling that they are “being lied to” or “not listened to”.
Problem Definition
The field of current solutions to misinformation is is expanding quickly in response to AI - But accessible solutions are very few.
Most of the active solutions regarding the state of the online news media are focused on technological solutions to increasingly technological problems. In this way these solutions aim to combat the problem at the source. However it is apparent from my research that there is a lack of solutions for those affected or at risk due to the current OIE.
How Might We?
Combat the increasing separation caused by the online news environment?
Increase co-operation within communities to understand the current news environment?
Disrupt the current patterns of disinformation travel?
Bring people together who are experiencing two versions of the truth
Concept Ideation:
It was time for me to do some primary research to validate and guide my concept development.
Mixed methods, including literature review, market analysis, trend research, user interviews, a co-creation workshop, and UX analysis, along with agile product development methodology.
Key Insights Emerged:
I came across the fascinating work of a world war 2 counter propagandist who succeeded in spreading counter-propaganda through radio to Nazi forces on behalf of BBC, without being detected.
His three principles paved the way for understanding how to counter mis-information. I thought these would be interesting guiding principles to combine with modern technology.
I concluded my research with a clear mapping of insights gathered from user interviews, consultations with experts and historical solutions.
With these insights in mind I began to craft a concept which allowed young people rapid, easy to access information which followed Delmer's Principles of counter-propaganda.
I initially developed two concept boards, and through user interviews with participants who had been impacted by misinformation I was able to validate and begin development on a concept which was akin to Shazam, in that it was based around audio detection, making detection of fake news and misinformation rapid and accessible.
Language is a crucial point in breaking through. If you cannot speak the same language or lingo as somebody, then there is no way you will be able to convey your point. This is particularly true with young teenagers.
Natural Language Processing AI provides an exciting opportunity to make data and otherwise sterile information speak human. For this reason the first point of prototyping was with engineering a prompt which aims to elicit a strong emotion from my users.
I held a co-creation session with some young teens, we collaboratively iterated the AI prompt until they were laughing at the outputs.
I designed and developed an MVP system architecture which is a human-verified AI loop.
I produced an MVP in React to begin testing with others and gauging effectiveness.
The harsh language and aesthetic of protest posters inspired my creative direction for the concept. Sprinkled with a healthy dose of "Brain Rot".
With my concept direction clear, I began to wireframe the flows based on my affinity diagram.
The initial reaction was positive from my first iteration testing. It holds a lot of promise for this solution.
Problem Definition
The field of current solutions to misinformation is is expanding quickly in response to AI - But accessible solutions are very few.
Most of the active solutions regarding the state of the online news media are focused on technological solutions to increasingly technological problems. In this way these solutions aim to combat the problem at the source. However it is apparent from my research that there is a lack of solutions for those affected or at risk due to the current OIE.
How Might We?
Combat the increasing separation caused by the online news environment?
Increase co-operation within communities to understand the current news environment?
Disrupt the current patterns of disinformation travel?
Bring people together who are experiencing two versions of the truth
Concept Ideation:
It was time for me to do some primary research to validate and guide my concept development.
Mixed methods, including literature review, market analysis, trend research, user interviews, a co-creation workshop, and UX analysis, along with agile product development methodology.
Key Insights Emerged:
I came across the fascinating work of a world war 2 counter propagandist who succeeded in spreading counter-propaganda through radio to Nazi forces on behalf of BBC, without being detected.
His three principles paved the way for understanding how to counter mis-information. I thought these would be interesting guiding principles to combine with modern technology.
I concluded my research with a clear mapping of insights gathered from user interviews, consultations with experts and historical solutions.
With these insights in mind I began to craft a concept which allowed young people rapid, easy to access information which followed Delmer's Principles of counter-propaganda.
I initially developed two concept boards, and through user interviews with participants who had been impacted by misinformation I was able to validate and begin development on a concept which was akin to Shazam, in that it was based around audio detection, making detection of fake news and misinformation rapid and accessible.
Language is a crucial point in breaking through. If you cannot speak the same language or lingo as somebody, then there is no way you will be able to convey your point. This is particularly true with young teenagers.
Natural Language Processing AI provides an exciting opportunity to make data and otherwise sterile information speak human. For this reason the first point of prototyping was with engineering a prompt which aims to elicit a strong emotion from my users.
I held a co-creation session with some young teens, we collaboratively iterated the AI prompt until they were laughing at the outputs.
I designed and developed an MVP system architecture which is a human-verified AI loop.
I produced an MVP in React to begin testing with others and gauging effectiveness.
The harsh language and aesthetic of protest posters inspired my creative direction for the concept. Sprinkled with a healthy dose of "Brain Rot".
With my concept direction clear, I began to wireframe the flows based on my affinity diagram.
The initial reaction was positive from my first iteration testing. It holds a lot of promise for this solution.
Problem Definition
The field of current solutions to misinformation is is expanding quickly in response to AI - But accessible solutions are very few.
Most of the active solutions regarding the state of the online news media are focused on technological solutions to increasingly technological problems. In this way these solutions aim to combat the problem at the source. However it is apparent from my research that there is a lack of solutions for those affected or at risk due to the current OIE.
How Might We?
Combat the increasing separation caused by the online news environment?
Increase co-operation within communities to understand the current news environment?
Disrupt the current patterns of disinformation travel?
Bring people together who are experiencing two versions of the truth
Concept Ideation:
It was time for me to do some primary research to validate and guide my concept development.
Mixed methods, including literature review, market analysis, trend research, user interviews, a co-creation workshop, and UX analysis, along with agile product development methodology.
Key Insights Emerged:
I came across the fascinating work of a world war 2 counter propagandist who succeeded in spreading counter-propaganda through radio to Nazi forces on behalf of BBC, without being detected.
His three principles paved the way for understanding how to counter mis-information. I thought these would be interesting guiding principles to combine with modern technology.
I concluded my research with a clear mapping of insights gathered from user interviews, consultations with experts and historical solutions.
With these insights in mind I began to craft a concept which allowed young people rapid, easy to access information which followed Delmer's Principles of counter-propaganda.
I initially developed two concept boards, and through user interviews with participants who had been impacted by misinformation I was able to validate and begin development on a concept which was akin to Shazam, in that it was based around audio detection, making detection of fake news and misinformation rapid and accessible.
Language is a crucial point in breaking through. If you cannot speak the same language or lingo as somebody, then there is no way you will be able to convey your point. This is particularly true with young teenagers.
Natural Language Processing AI provides an exciting opportunity to make data and otherwise sterile information speak human. For this reason the first point of prototyping was with engineering a prompt which aims to elicit a strong emotion from my users.
I held a co-creation session with some young teens, we collaboratively iterated the AI prompt until they were laughing at the outputs.
I designed and developed an MVP system architecture which is a human-verified AI loop.
I produced an MVP in React to begin testing with others and gauging effectiveness.
The harsh language and aesthetic of protest posters inspired my creative direction for the concept. Sprinkled with a healthy dose of "Brain Rot".
With my concept direction clear, I began to wireframe the flows based on my affinity diagram.
The initial reaction was positive from my first iteration testing. It holds a lot of promise for this solution.
