February 14 to February 25, 2022
Partners: Effy, Faiza, Jacob, Mita, Applied Works
Brief: Design an experience that communicates the importance of fighting misinformation.
Creation
For our design output, we needed to start visualizing how misinformation travels within a network and how we could create something physical from our conceptual foundation.
Staging an Intervention in Habits of Media Consumption
We decided that for our design, we wanted to create a sort of resource for young people to engage with misinformation. We thought it was important to try to change the mode of nonstop news consumption and clickbait, in which people can become susceptible to information fatigue.
Leverage Points
After reading "Leverage Points in a System," by Donella Meadows, we wanted to pinpoint the key place to intervene in the misinformation network. How could we reach people stuck in echo chambers? Is there another way to intervene, other than gamification and the methods favored by the big players of the attention economy?
One such example is Tortoise News, which advocates a slowing down of media consumption.
Another question to ask was what access do 15 to 25 year olds have to this information?
Some factors that might impact their access to legitimate news sources are:
- the environment they live in in
- the people around them/their peers
- their level of media literacy
- not feeling like they have a voice
Move Away from Speculative to Applied Idea
We decided that we actually wanted to talk to some 15 to 25 year olds to learn about their habits of news consumption. Faiza gathered together a group of people she knew in that age range, and we interviewed them about how they interact with the news they read. We asked them about the hierarchy of verification and whether they fact check, where they get their information about vaccines and why, and the factors that make one source more credible than another.
Although we wanted to co-design with this group of 15 to 25 year olds, it was quite difficult to schedule regular meetings with them. We also did not have a budget to offer them some sort of compensation for their time. We learned a lot from them in the initial interview, and I believe it would have been helpful to continue designing with them.
Dylan Interview
We also interviewed one of Mita's flatmates, Dylan, who told us about a YouTube program called Street Epistemology, in which some interviewers go around asking strangers about certain topics. The interviewers ask them about their levels of confidence in their answers, and a scale changes according to this level of confidence. This is an important point as it shows that knowledge runs along a spectrum, rather than 100% one thing or another.
We then thought about perhaps showing a scale in terms of the audience's understanding of the Covid-19 vaccine. However, we wanted to make sure that we showed this in a non-judgmental way. And at the end, revealing the percentage of information that they have understood did seem a little too didactic, so we went back to the drawing board.
We agreed that the key point was to create a sort of pause button and to allow time for reflection and critical thought. How could we find a new way to combat misinformation?
Realization
Finally, we had to decide what kind of form this design would take. Would it be an exhibition, digital app, a game, etc.?
Bandersnatch
Our ideas started drifting toward a road map/maze-like structure and we thought of the Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch, in which the viewer is given a series of choices and develops their own plotline. We liked the self-actualization aspect of it, but were somewhat hesitant about the linear structure.
Rylee also sent us an image from the Wellcome Collection that depicted a series of decision-making routes that one could take with regard to permitting one's daughter to get the HPV vaccine when it was first approved. This served as another visual inspiration for our design.
We constructed a decision tree with a series of statements about the Covid vaccine. With each prompt, the participant chooses whether they agree, disagree, or want to find out more about the statement.
This way, the individual is more active in the way they consume the news. They have the option to ask questions to four resources: the news, Chatham House, a family member, or the WHO, similar to Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Parth testing out our maze
Initial Presentation
Rylee Navigating our Misinformation Decision Tree
Feedback
After our presentation, we received feedback that it would have been more realistic to offer more options after the participant makes their choices rather than a binary yes or a no. Importantly, the design should not be a social experiment.
Marco said that he liked how we presented the participant with the option to seek outside sources to get out of the echo chamber. He also liked the self-actualization aspect, as if we were guiding the participant through a discovery.
Al and Tonicha wondered if our decision tree accurately represented how people make decisions when presented with misinformation. Is there a lot of backtracking and crossover, rather than being firmly set in one's beliefs?
There was also too much telling during the experience; we probably could have allowed the participant to walk through the decision maze themselves. The truth is multifaceted, messy, and complex, rather than linear.
Next Steps
We now needed to decide whether it would be a physical installation or digital device, or perhaps a hybrid. We would try to avoid bifurcation going forward. It was time to refine the main point of what we want to say. What is the most important thing to leverage in the final output?
Key Takeaways
Working off of the decision tree as a base, we could build upon it. We could still learn valuable things from the exercise to reach a deeper level of understanding. The linear layout would help us get to the fuzzy gray area.
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