The Team Rocket Designathon Blog

The process:

In order to come up with a design solution according to our brief, we have followed the phases of a design sprint; rapidly solving problems through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas.

Through the process of brainstorming, discovered that the problem of fake news and fake information in the global digital space is a significant problem facing our changing society. 

Thus, we came up with a problem statement as follows: 

“In the age of digitalization, people are sharing personal information unknowingly over applications and websites. This Data is being collected and used to manipulate people based on their emotional and social needs.”

Once we settled on the problem statement, the course of action became clear. We quickly were able to do secondary research to gain a deeper understanding of the problem, then do primary research involving user interviews. From here we were able to construct our user journey before ux intervention, and this allowed us to discover the pain points facing the user.

We crafted a Design Statement as follows:

“To build a trustworthy, easy-to-use, system that will categorize web content according to the authenticity of the information shared.”

The Solution

A Plugin for web and mobile browser, that will let users know what is the amount of truth in each piece of news that is shared with them and that they share.  When news links are shared in social media communities, These posts will be automatically labeled with an indicator showing how authentic the information is, ie. whether or not the link has been verified by multiple trusted news sources.

Information Architecture was developed based on card sorting. We structured user needs according to priority and our design goals:

To verify the data they get before sharing

To flag suspicious content

 Design goals:

Build trust among the users

Ease of use

Simple

Intuitive

On this basis, we drew up rough paper prototypes of our two interfaces; in-app and out-of-app.

Two interfaces were developed, 

Outside the app; a plugin, where users can quickly select, and search for the verification of information that they are doubtful of. The interface is meant to seamlessly integrate with the existing infrastructure of other social media apps.

Floating Action Button is used to integrate the fact check app when the user is using an application or a browser in which they are getting information. The can quickly select the information they require and verify immediately.

Inside the app; where users can search for verification directly by keyword or by URL, flag down questionable content, submit queries or discover trustworthy content from our partners in the news media.

Two indicators are used along with indicators to signify the level of truth an article has:

Authenticity bar

Virality bar

They can also view statistics of previous searches, discover debunked news and know about the news partners of the application.

Our information architecture for our proposed solution: Chekkit

Live Updates need internet

Collaboration with national & international news channel

Machine learning integration

Apps own data collection centre bank

A Plugin for mobile and desktop applications that will let users know what is the amount of truth in each piece of news that is shared with them and that they share.  

When news links are shared in social media communities, These posts will be automatically labelled with an indicator showing how authentic the information is, ie. whether or not the link has been verified by multiple trusted news sources. Further, when people try to share these links, they will be prompted with a notice telling them that the link they're sharing is dubious.

False information is also passed along via user-generated text messages, photos, and videos. If selected by the user, the user has the option to check the information and see if it has been flagged as false or malicious information. 

To facilitate prioritizing the flow of information that has to be verified by news agencies,  when new content is generated, and it crosses x value of virality, it is intimated to news agencies for cross-checking and verification. This way, verification priority is given to the fastest- shared and most sensational fake news.

Users are also at liberty to flag down information that they know is fake, or that they think is doubtful. This flag is stored in the app’s info as one of the indicators that the story may be dubious.

These interactions take place outside the app, and are a plug in extension for all social media information sharing apps and websites.  

Users can go directly to the app to access the following features:

Inside the app, user can see and compare the reports of the same news story from different agencies, to see for themselves how true a piece of news is.  

They can directly post a link and see the veracity of the story instantly. 

They can also check the authenticity of previously seen news and articles, see their flagging history, etc, etc. Call to action buttons to flag or report certain news stories. 

MINI CHALLENGE 2

Use case scenarios for design concept -

1. News sharing from social media groups ( Facebook, XYZ news channels, News links) :

These links are shared to online communities and from social media communities.  These posts are labeled before and after sharing with an indicator of how authentic the information is.

2. Flagging and reporting of false information:

User-generated flagging and reporting of fake news. Reporting will lead to the post being flagged by the app admin, and the user can share their concerns of fake news with the original poster of the information.

3. Users go directly to the app to access the features:

Inside the app, the user can see and compare the reports of the same news story from different agencies. They can directly post a link and see the veracity of the story instantly. They can also check the authenticity of previously seen news and articles, understand their flagging history, etc., etc. Call to action buttons to flag or report specific news stories. 

They will be able to see the updated top news section from multiple sources.

4. The virality of new posts: 

When new content is generated, and it crosses x value of virality, it is intimated to news agencies for cross-checking and verification.

To build a trustworthy, easy-to-use system that will categorize web content according to the authenticity of the information shared.

Users of the system

Daily users of the news apps

User Journey

The user journey of our average users through a generic social media application before design intervention. It consists of two cycles of information sharing, both overlapping. 

One: Between the users and the application itself

Two: Circulation among the users, and circulation with third-party apps

We conducted user interviews (Guerrilla method) to explore emotions, understand our user goals, and assess their needs. The goal of the interview is to gain empathy for the user’s experience.

For quick primary research for our design sprint, we conducted three interviews from the people around the campus of IITH, A professor (practising in the medical field), a research scholar and a mess employee.

We received some key insights from these interviews:

“The spread of fake news is not a political problem: It’s a tech problem for the new age.” Fake news is not a new problem, Propaganda has been used historically to manipulate people. The challenge is how fast technology is spreading it. 

The purpose of fake news is to manufacture tension and spectacle. That is how it spreads from person to person.

The information is PACKAGED (with a narrative) by a particular entity to make a specific impact on the target audience.

Many are not aware that they are being influenced by social media news, even though they know that fake news can be harmful.

Fake news is only reported when it has already reached many people. Till then it has been reposted and shared many times.

People are concerned about their safety on the internet, especially with fraud and with the spread of fake news among their peers

People generally don’t read user agreements before installing apps, but some are aware that companies are collecting their data. Some are not aware of this, but most people do not think their own data is important.

Many feel that the flow of information is impossible to stop. Even if they change their own behavior, they cannot change the big picture.

When family members post false news or false information, they feel they cannot correct them because of power structures inside the family. (You cannot correct your elders, it is considered disrespectful.)

Hour 6: We’re on our way out to conduct some user interviews! #Chaipecharcha

Our faces when our interview session was interrupted by a fellow IITian!  🐶

MINI CHALLENGE 1

Defining our Problem Statements and Pain Points: Our Journey

When we received the design brief, we first noted some key points; the intersections between humans and technology (that’s where good design lives!), the socio-cultural challenges that arise with changing technologies, the adaptability of technology, and privacy concerns of the people that use tech.

We quickly brainstormed with our group some issues, we felt, needed help in our world today. These were all over the place! They ranged from climate change, the environment to language barriers, food practices, to social unrest and political issues. They seemed at first to be too huge and disparate problems with a HUGE scale. We discovered from the discussion that there was a common dark thread connecting some of these global issues.

This common thread is the way fake news and information in the digital space is used to affect real political, environmental and social change.

 We have therefore come up with the following problem statement:

“In the age of digitalization, people are sharing personal information unknowingly over applications and websites. This data is being collected and used to manipulate people based on their emotional and social needs.”

PAIN POINTS

You cannot track what information is shared, Who is sharing, or Who is the target

People feel scared and insecure about what information is floating around about them. This is true especially for minorities and those without power.

You cannot know what is shared inside the bubbles of social media without being inside them,

To be inside the bubble, you have to be targeted based on your biases

Impact:  This manipulation by outside parties impacts people and the environment on both local and global scales. From political polarization, communal unrest, mob lynchings to climate change denial, vaccination disbelief and other pressing concerns. 

Secondary research references:

The Year dark patterns won - https://www.fastcompany.com/3066586/the-year-dark-patterns-won

Dark Patterns in UX - https://uxdesign.cc/dark-patterns-in-ux-design-7009a83b233c

Aljazeera video - https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2019/04/india-fake-news-agitprop-190416054316199.html 

Facebook and Brexit - https://www.ted.com/talks/carole_cadwalladr_facebook_s_role_in_brexit_and_the_threat_to_democracy?language=en

Step 1 in our design sprint: 

We’ve begun our brainstorming session for problem identification. This is where we try to answer questions like:

What problems exist? Who is being affected? What contributes to the problem?