After the last brainstorming session of refining our design proposition, though I found several useful feedback, I realised my idea was not engaging and a bit confusing. My design intention was focused too much on functionality of the software but not so meaningful in terms of design perspective. In addition, there are already existing software that does a similar job. Even though the design intention was different, the process and the expected result are similar. So I decided to scrape my old idea and move on a new one.
Talking with other peers about their work inspired me of their design approach to the problem. At the same time, I am able to spot the point where they might have missed.
New Brief
People who first started to use internet and social media are likely to post something immature online as they are unaware that the content online stays almost permanently. Sometimes people wouldn’t remember what they did in the past and turns out to be embarrassment. Online user especially the ones who likes to post content online should take cautious of the content in respect of the future in order to keep everything private stays private.
Project Title: The internet wall of regret
Practice Type: Data-Driven
Using twitter search to collate a collection of twitter messages about their regret of posting something online in the past. Messages collected with be displayed on a website that updates in a regular basis. Those messages are analyse into statistic such as how often a regret is post throughout days and weeks.The idea behind this website is to raise people’s attention about their digital footprint and present it in a more coherent way to the young people.
To bring people to interactive to the website, a twitter bot is programmed to reply to those regret messages suggesting that there is another person have the same experience (with a retweet) along with a hyperlink to the “The Internet Wall of Regret” website and a hashtag.
Twitter search currently used for data:
“why did i post”
regret i post
“i regret posting”
The Issue
Some of the tweets like “why did i post” comes with an image from the past which does not really a regret but more like promoting or reminding people of their own reckless actions. A lot of the tweets usually doesn’t come with a context but just stating that they are regret of what they did which may results in repetitive response shown on the website.
Further data scraping from Twitter and analysing them will help identifying useful information or interesting fact to add on the website.
The possible Change
Additional function on the website which maps out the amount of regret messages in every intervals (days, weeks, months) and visualise the data in a more aesthetic manner.
My previous design problem statement was “Online security needs to be less obtrusive in order to work efficiently”. Initially my thoughts were that at the moment, security measures hinder a user’s experience online. Looking at this problem I saw that security measures such as passwords could either become more obstructive; like the way a home has two doors to open as opposed to one. Or it could become integrated in a more seamless manner; like the way new cars automatically open electronically when the key is in close proximity as opposed to physically opening the door with the key.
The last two weeks have been very helpful as it has given me perfect insight into an audiences understanding of my work without the context that I’ve developed over the past three months. For example, my data visualization posters make perfect sense to me but, without a key or explanation, just simply look like lots of dots on a piece of paper.
Even before this stage, having various peers that I have been able to balance my ideas of has been increasingly valuable as the service design that I have intended to create for my final proposal inherently will be used by a greater public and audience that neither have the design or technological expertise or knowledge that I do
What is the problem?
The Internet is broken. It was originally designed for private communications within the US army and since its introduction to the general population; it has gone unregulated and has therefore morphed into an uncontrollable force of contemporary media and entertainment. Whilst this has created a unbelievable platform for sharing and freedom of speech, it has created a platform for misinformation, crime and hate speech. Whilst freedom of speech needs to be retained, as the Internet is a free agent, people need to be held accountable for their actions.
What is my proposal?
My proposal is to create a global verification system that creates a platform for people to speak their mind but also force accountability to individuals who abuse their ‘freedom of speech’. The system would take advantage of the fingerprint sensor that is built into more and more devices. When you want to verify your upload, comment or communication just simply scan your finger, which you have already registered with your local government. Similar to the twitter verification system your text will either be highlighted or a logo will appear next to it to prove that you are who you say you are and that you accept accountability for your actions whilst using the Internet and communicating with others.
What change will this create?
This will allow for complete transparency when people would like to be known for who they are and what they say. This also allows for certain sections of the Internet to remain anonymous, which will serve as a catalyst for free speech and other needed forms of anonymous communication such as online journalism and activism. It will also create “safe places” within the Internet where younger audiences such as young teenagers or children will be held to only communicate with those that have verified themselves and view content in which the government is verified is okay.
How I convey this proposal?
This proposal will be presented in a dramatized series of short videos representing the dangers of anonymous communication on the Internet and how that could shift by the use of a global verification system. For example, a man is communicating via text on a phone on a dimly lit street corner. Details about price are exchanged which will lead the audience to believe that something illegal is going on. Then it will cut two facts and information about the proposed a verification system and when it cuts back, it will reveal that the individual is actually just trying to sell a second hand item on Gumtree. They will be created with a short form style perfectly suited for social media use where videos under 60 seconds are engaged with more due to the lack of concentration that users often have whilst browsing their newsfeed. I hope to create one of these videos, which can then be used as a style guide for the look and feel of other videos created within the series with other scenarios.
In class, Gemma provided some insightful feedback on how I could enhance my design proposal. My Intended approach was to use an existing map and draw out the journey of the individuals then to collate that data to create an ‘overlay’ of data trails. Instead, Gemma suggested that I should use that data set and establish the streets of the map as well as creating another map solely ‘statistical’ (map key) of the different surveillance cameras encountered in a certain demographical location. The concept of executing this proposition as a street directory was also Interesting in terms of style and structure. Using GPS coordinates to pinpoint one’s location and recording the street name and transcribing that information into a set of data visualisation. Generally, an interesting session where I’ve gathered some useful knowledge and experience on other peer’s approaches towards their design propositions across a vast spectrum of Issues. Christine had a visually & scientifically driven design concept of showing the cons and statistics of ‘farming’ in relations to climate change.
Project Title:
Surveillance/ CCTV Interactions (context of public & private space)
Surveillance Mapping – ‘The Data Trail’ (Blog Post 5) Design proposition is Inspired from the research and content from blog post 5.
The Issue:
The issue is around what can’t be seen by the naked eye, and that is data. Very intricate layers of data beyond the physical and social space. This issue is brought forward and inspired by Dan Hill’s ‘The street as platform’. And in a quote he said:
“We can’t see how the street is immersed in a twitching, pulsing cloud of data. This is over and above the well-established electromagnetic radiation, crackles of static… This is a new kind of data, collective and individual, aggregated and discrete, open and closed, constantly logging impossibly detailed patterns of behaviour. The behaviour of the street.”
What I wanted to understand and analyse was the purpose and existence of a surveillance camera. Such a modern ubiquitous, iconically recognised icon but yet often ignored and not actively engaged with society. Tucked away in the corners of our eyesight. How do we engage the general public to interact more with this technology? To create more awareness in our communities.
Design Practice Type (approach) + The Possible Change:
Datavisualisation (data set)
“Demographical” location based statistic report or mapping the journey of individuals. Seeing how many CCTV cameras are active in a certain location in comparison to other regions.
“Ownership” – How many stores, buildings etc. own and use surveillance cameras or advocate that technology. (I.e some stores print out visuals of shoplifters and emphasise prosecution).
Interactive Service – Creating a social experiment and RECORD the behaviours and attitudes of individuals in a designed space. Meaning a space which is configured with cameras and a space without but observed. (unknown & known space) changes the attitudes and the way we react.
Alternatively (reference Brian) suggested another interactive approach was to personify the cameras. What if surveillance cameras were different? Would this change our attitudes & approach? appropriating the physical object of what the community sees as a ‘camera’ – will this also change the way we interact in a space?
The Design Action to support change:
Creating a data set of visuals is the predominant focus to support change. Being able to execute and portray the results in various methods and approaches shows a greater scope and understanding of this concept.
Such alternatives were mapping (location coordinates & surveillance), List (names of places and description), Illustrative & collage (quick sketches of all the cameras and buildings of the location). Questionnaires (questions for participants in relations to their daily routine and encounters with surveillance/ CCTV cameras.
Before the discussion on my proposal that I had with my peer Liz, I was already a little unsure of what I was creating, or what my actual outcome was to be. Through further research before the session, I had discovered or rather specified exactly what was my specific issue dealing with 18-25 year olds, and what I wasn’t the outcome to do.
It was clear through research that the monitoring and data collection wasn’t going to end or let up any time soon, especially not with the inclusion of the Internet of Things. And so rather than designing a possibility to end the monitoring on wither end, it was decided that my proposal was aiming at creating awareness of the increased privacy issues, and get round adults to spread the word or understand the Internet of Things. Thus, my proposal was to create awareness, to educate, or to inform.
I didn’t exactly have an actual proposal idea to run through with my peer in the class session. I had a few ideas floating around that I had picked out from the brainstorming session around the 5 possibilities to create change, however I wasn’t sold on a particular one. And so, in the session with Liz, I decided to quickly run through my 5 ideas–quite briefly–and figure out if a particular one caught her eye.
None really did, or they weren’t at a point to yet.
However she was quite startled and intrigued by a story I told her that I founding a news article. Basically, the gist of the story was that a young woman had extremely private and intimate personal data collected from a product of hers, when she had no idea she was being monitored. This snippet sparked both our interests, as it really portrayed the idea that public entities such as business and companies can collected very private data from us without our knowledge, in very private settings and environments. Who knew that you could be monitored through products in your house or bedroom.
Even thought I didn’t have an exact proposal, she did give me some advice and feedback on the ones that I did have, and brainstormed other ideas with me.
The first piece of information the she gave me was that she like the idea of creating awareness or informing the generation of the lack of privacy. We both felt that the monitoring wasn’t going to stop, and luckily she agreed with me. And so this now became the focus of what I wanted my system or design to do ultimately.
Due to the short story that I had told her, and the fact that she was quite shocked by the invasive nature, she felt that it could be a good idea to focus on a specific set of data to help ground the proposal or make it more emotional. While being specific like personal details could have worked, she suggested that I look into creating a proposal around the really private data that we have, such as in the story told. This notion also helped to develop my proposal as there are lots of ways that we give out private data, however most of the time we know we are giving it out. So I thought it could b interesting to focus on the times that we are unaware that we are providing private and personal data, such as in the Internet of Things.
Another piece of information or critique that Liz provided to me was to place whatever my issue or proposal was, into a real world content. Place it in an area, a time, a place, a social setting. And that way, whatever my proposal ends up to be, it will be relatable to the generation or audience the tis it being designed for. Immediately, this made me think of social media and anything online, and also of the bedroom. People always say, or at least imply, that our bedrooms are a visual expression of who we are; our interests, loves, personalities etc. So why not place my proposal in the context of the bedroom and online. There isn’t one person that I don’t know that doesn’t use their phone at least once a day in their bedroom, or doesn’t use a single piece of technology or a product daily. If I had to look around my room, I would at least see a computer, a laptop, an iPad, iPod, phone, Nintendo 3DS, Wacom tablet etc. So it’s fair to say that this setting could work effectively for my target audience.
The final piece of information that we discussed was another port of WHY? Why was I wanting to create something like this? Why were they to interact with it? Why was I thinking of a service design over any of the other emergent practices? The gist of our conversation was that I want people to care. Care about their privacy, care about what information they are putting out there, and care about who is viewing it. So along with the basis of informing the audience or making them aware of the Internet of Things, I really wanted to find a way to make them care.
This session was very helpful as I was able to get another brain on my issue. I could work out if things were working and whether I was in a correct direction, or if I had completely lost the plot. It also taught me (again!) that everybody thinks differently. What I figure could be an excellent idea, could be terrible for someone else or vice versa. I understand exactly now why there is usually user testing and prototyping along the way for all projects.
So now for my revised proposal—
Growing up in the age of Technology, 18-25 year olds have witnessed the rise of the Internet and its wide spread use. And in todays society we are being introduced to the Internet of Things, a system where all devices and products will have the ability to connect to the Internet and feed information to their suppliers and companies. However, users this age aren’t aware of the Internet of Things or its increased invasion of privacy. While they don’t necessarily care about their online privacy, they know what personal information should or shouldn’t be posted. The problem becomes the increased invasion of data monitoring with which we are unaware of in public and private spaces.
Since the internet is so ingrained in our daily lives, ending the data collection and monitoring isn’t a possibility. Instead, the change would be to create awareness and inform this generation of the increased potential for data monitoring with the inclusion of the Internet of Things. The change should get them to think differently about the Internet of Things and what products could be linked and connected, as well as how they interact with their private and personal environments. The change should start a conversation between this generation, for them to continue to spread the word.
Which brings me to my possible design action. The Unseen, or Unseen Connections (the name is pending), is a service design that aims to create change. The proposal is an augmented reality app that shows or reveals the unseen connections that products and devices have to the Internet of Things. The user could be introduced to the app through a social media hashtag that sets up the campaign and encourages them to see their ‘home’s Internet of Things’. After answering a few questions, and inputing parameters for daily use, the app then accesses the phones camera and superimposes graphics and lines over the real life image. The app reveals what devices are or could be connected, revealing to the user the possibility for data monitoring and collection. After this, the app also provides tips of ensuring your privacy in the Internet of Things, especially your bedroom, based on the results seen in the camera. From here, the user is then encouraged to continue the conversation, and spread a link or the hashtag to their friends and peers on social media. Reveal the connections, be informed or shocked, and spread the word.
The feedback I received from my colleague was helpful; as it allowed me to gain a better understanding of how potential users would perceive and use the proposed app. Firstly, there were concerns about how many services the app would provide. In my peer’s opinion, I should avoid making a very complicated app that attempts to solve every single problem related to online privacy. Taking that into consideration, I started to think more deeply about the structure of my app and how it would function. As result of our conversation, I decided to remove some features from the app that originally I was planning to include.
Secondly, my colleague suggested that I should consider making the app more attractive to people who are not familiar with the issue of online privacy and mass surveillance. She wondered what would encourage people to download my app in the first place. Responding to that, I believe that anyone downloading my app would already be familiar with the issue. The aim of the app is to guide people through possible ways to achieve online anonymity, and not to convert users who do not really care about the matter. For example, Pirate Bay is not trying to persuade people into illegally downloading files; they are just offering a service for people who are already into it. If they were to convince people to illegally download stuff, they would have to invest in advertising and marketing, however the functionality of the website Pirate Bay would remain unchanged. Convincing someone to buy something is a pre-purchase process, thus coming up with a marketing plan to sell my app goes beyond the scope of this assessment.
THE PROPOSITION
Project title: OFF app
Practice type: App and service design
The issue: There are great apps and software available that have the potential to help users to communicate and browse the Internet more privately, however many times they are hard to find or people are not aware of them.
The possible change: The proposed app aims to centralise information about existing apps (including links to download them) as well as providing users with tips, news and a forum where questions can be answered. The app will be nicely designed becoming attractive to the target audience, people aged 18-24. By providing an online platform where all other existing apps are made available and explained, I believe that the number of people who download anti-mass surveillance software will increase considerably.
The app will feature:
1) Information and news: a compilation of news around the world regarding software that enhances online privacy.
2) Search for apps: users will be able to search for apps according to their needs (e.g. text message encryption, voice call encryption, social media chats encryption, browsers, file-sharing websites, ghost-mail providers, etc)
3) Forum where users can exchange information, ask questions and inform other users or administrators of new available apps.
4) A glossary where online terminology will be explained.
5) If notifications for the app are turned on, users will be notified about safer ways to use the Internet in real time as they use their phones. For example, if someone is about to send a private message using Facebook Messenger, a notification will pop-up on the screen not only informing that person about the risks of sending an unencrypted message, but also what app is available to solve that problem.
During my week ten class, i expanded on some of the potential ideas and design proposals i had been researching since the mapping exercises, my concept has been slowing evolving to be focused on the measures and counter measures that are associated with intellectual property and data theft.
During the initial stages of my concept development i had a much broader target demographic, with internet being present in all mediums of communications and all age groups using devices, there was a huge range of potential for specific age responses.
After explaining to my group that i had been developing a proposal that would focus on intellectual property and the protection of creative content, the immediate response was to create a response using service design, which i was already planning on doing, however after going into more depth, my class mates said that i should try and make my proposal more engaging and less official/product focuses.
From this point i went into detail about how my secondary idea was to develop a system or some kind of data visualisation project that could help create awareness for those who use and continue to expose themselves online and agree to certain legalities without the proper knowledge. This would be a focus on some of the negative side effects of data exposure or online identity theft, and one method that i had talked about was to have a generative system that people could interact with.
For example, there could be a portrait (awareness focus) or a photograph of a piece of art (copyright focus), which would be placed in a public environment, each image would be broken into several pieces, like a puzzle, and then would allow each individual to take a piece and arrange it on another canvas. This is a good way to illustrate how online information can be manipulated by strangers, the results of this can provide the users with a visual insight into the complexities and problematic nature of having a digital profile and allowing people to have access to your private data.
Revised Proposals
Providing intellectual property security for digital creators or content developers that publish works into a digital environment.
or
Developing a system of information for the 18-35 group see the risks of online data theft and the measure on improving their security.
A service design app that has recognition software that uses visual and text based algorithms to calculate the originality of a piece of work, designers and businesses will use this app to verify the legitimacy of their content, and if they are using to much or their content looks to similar to another work it will not allow the user to publish or save the work.
A system that tracks every time someone makes a download or views a piece of visual content, and if that person re-posts or uses that information it will alert the user that their content is being re distributed.
A service design that translates scam emails/phishing/adds/pop/ups/ surveys and shows the original definition of the potential scammer and what the actual intentions are behind that attempt at your information.
A generative systems, that is a portrait of a person or a piece of art, and is situated in public spaces, individuals then have to place each piece of those images into another canvas and rebuild the image.
A rubix cube that has a portrait of an individual, and each main face has critical information on it, and can be solved to reveal the information, which can illustrate how easy it is to access someone information.
Final Proposal
My final chosen proposal is to create a service design that protects content creators from copyright infringement and online piracy. This service will be primarily used by people who publish digital or visual content often and want to retain a significant legal precedent over their work, the service will provide users with a system that compares their browsing history and previous published works against visual and text based archives to see if the work they’re trying to publish is derivative, this will then show a user in a pre publish screen i.e before you save a PSD document, if the document is original and not retaining identical content. This service also digitally encrypts the successful published files and uploaded it to this services data base, and provides the user with a choice of which creative license they want to apply to it.
Name of Service Design
Dominus- Application/Plugin
Issue
Copyright infringement and piracy have become rampant over the past decade, with illegal content existing in some medium on almost every single device, we begin to see an over saturation of the creative markets. There is now so much content to go through, a huge percentage uninspired or unoriginal, which is slowly destroying the industries of design, a big part of that is when a larger businesses appropriates the content of an individual user. My proposal is a service that provides the knowledge and security of publishing digital or visual content online, embedded in adobes suits of programs, this service would allow the user to choose the kind of license they want and also check to make sure their content has no be stolen or imitated from another individual,.
Potential change
This will give security from a legal standpoint for all content creators and publishers, and allow the appropriate accreditation for original works, this service will also remind those who create content that unless the proper resources have been referenced, your work can not be considered legitimate, and if a large business decides to imitate the work of a smaller user, there is a digital record proving that the content was published before
Design Executions
This app would have a series of different functions that would help the user publish works to an online clouds that would securely store and license the content, if every the legitimacy of a work of art is in question this service would have provided the evidence that would remove those claims. Similar to a reverse image search on google, and a font based search algorithm, this app would use functions similar to calculate the percentage of original content, and make sure that if a user had copied and pasted, or screen shot content or directly drag and dropped elements, that the user could not publish unless those elements had the appropriate creative commons.
I have recently partaken in a group critiquing exercise, in which myself and a small group critiqued each other’s work for design intervention proposals to a given problem space.
My first draft proposal for design intervention involved a Twitter bot that would aggregate comments made on Twitter regarding online privacy and data security — and pair these comments with other comments — creating an ongoing and dynamic ‘conversation’ that would be presented visually within a web space. The conversation was to also permeate print material, and form a campaign — targeting those aged 18-25 in Australia. The concept arrived as a poetic and generative response to my research; which found there to be quite a lack of discourse between teens and young adults in Australia on social media, regarding the issues of online privacy and data security ( covered in blog post 6).
I received some critical feedback from my peers regarding the initial concept which certainly proved most useful. I have outlined some of the key moments from the feedback session below:
The group questioned whether observing a conversation was too passive in terms of getting people ‘involved’. More of an active, or interactive role could be more appropriate for getting people involved.
As the data collated by the bot is gathered from Twitter, the ‘conversation’ created by the bot may only reflect those currently discussing the matter on Twitter — meaning that the target audience, would again, be dissociated from the conversation.
Is a bot creating a conversation strong enough for a campaign that permeates print? Is it even a campaign? It is perhaps more of an art project.
The printed material discussed could be pushed further to better resonate with the concept and the target audience.
Perhaps interaction might give the interface or the web space more currency in creating change. Perhaps the web space can be a space of voicing opinion.
The target audience could be more specific
It was interesting to note the level of self-critique that also occurred when attempting to articulate my concept: There were moments where I found it particularly difficult to articulate what I was trying to achieve. This is perhaps a major advantage of voicing concepts in such a way; where by articulating an idea, one is able to better realise how a concept may reach other people or how it actually resonates with one’s self.
After receiving feedback, I began to rework the concept accordingly. There were certainly some issues with my first iteration that required addressing. The group critique was most useful for identifying such issues and allowing a space for self reflection.
Refinements
In response to my feedback I hoped to address a number of issues within my concept of which I have outlined below:
Explore ways of making the piece interactive.
Allow the user to be more active within the generative process
Explore printed material so that it better resonates with the concept and the affordances of the data collected.
Depart from making the project a campaign — perhaps look to make it more micro or specific.
In attempting to address these issues within my original concept, I found it useful to do some more brainstorming visually, upon a map. See below:
Further brainstorming in response to feedback
Refined proposal
My revised proposal is informed by my probe task; which explored a student peer’s emotional, physical and aesthetic associations with her personal data — and how these associations might be altered by reframing or re-contextualising this personal data (through design intervention). Within the probe task I found the participant to be quite emotionally detached from her personal online data. This got me questioning; whether by reframing this personal data I may be able to create more of an emotional attachment in the participant to her personal data, which perhaps, in turn, may promote engagement with the topic and promote design thinking surrounding the topic, which is perhaps a responsibility of a design student.
I have considered that I perhaps located quite a interesting location for the designer within the probe task — where the designer finds him/herself a mediator of data. By mediating the personal data, the designer perhaps has an active role in shaping people’s associations and perceptions of such data — which certainly has a currency in creating an emotional attachment to data, which may promote discourse and future design movements within the problem space.
The proposed design outcome is a generative art installation, titled ‘Eternal monologue’ located in the exhibition space on level 4 of the DAB — which explores this notion of reframing, curating or re-contextualising personal data to create an emotional response.
The piece explores the dichotomy between physical and digital space — the bodied and the disembodied — seeking to orientate students with the issues of online privacy and data security through an experience of art.
Essentially I am filling a space with an ‘infinite’ monologue — printed by a printer onto continuous feed paper, which sits upon a stool in the corner of the exhibition space.
The printer will be connected to a centralised computer interface that uses a web-scraping bot to collate and print social media posts, status updates and imagery arriving from students within the University campus —using the UTS WIFI portal as a parameter.
Students can also interact with this interface and connect with the monologue online by following a link printed upon the walls of the gallery space. There could also be a digital means of providing this link to students, such as upon the desktop of UTS DAB lab computers, for example.
The interactive interface made accessible online to students, will be a blank page, similar to a word doc, in which students may type sentences and drag and drop images etc. — contributing and interacting with the monologue which continually prints — filling the gallery space. The content will be printed constantly, along with the social media content generated from the scraping bot — creating a continuous monologue or script of data. I have included a rough flow chart of this method of data aggregation below:
A quick sketch of a flow chart that outlines how content will be generated for the printed monologue
I have considered the exhibition space on level 4 as an appropriate touch point for reaching students, as the exterior of the exhibition space is glass, meaning that students can observe the interior of the space and the piece whilst they move through the building. This particular location within the building also experiences quite a lot of traffic, so I suspect that the space receives quite a lot of exposure.
I have considered also creating a gallery art book: which displays sections of the monologue in a concertina-like format. I will also look to create post cards and typographic treatments for the exhibition space.
I believe that the scale of the piece is what will give the piece its resonance: I am particularly interested in how this dichotomy between digital and physical space is being explored. I imagine the monologue after 3 weeks to be upwards of 200m long, curling and congesting skyward within the gallery space.
I have considered how the web of things, as a material, is infinite — which perhaps lends itself to generative systems. This infinite material in a digital space is perhaps disembodied. I am interested in how this material may fill a physical space (or become embodied) and thus drive an emotional or physical response in students.
I am also particular interested in creating a festering, unfiltered, raw piece of printed material — as a manifestation of the student’s interactions online. As the monologue will be unfiltered, I expect quite vulgar material to be printed upon the monologue.
I hope to create a space for exploration and interaction that doesn’t aim to immediately solve all, or even many, pressing problems regarding online privacy and data security — but instead aims to orient minds to the problem space by allowing a space for emotional and physical reflections of space, scale and time. This may in turn encourage discourse and forward thinking surrounding the problem space, which is perhaps a social responsibility for students of design.
Below are some initial sketches for the piece, in which I have considered the way in which the space may be filled by the printed material. I have also began to think of ways in which Typographic vinyl may be used within the space or around the university to promote the piece and encourage interaction. I have also began to look into the format of the potential art book that would come as physical take-home merchandise as part of the exhibition — showcasing sections of the monologue in a book form. See bellow:
Potential branding and space typographic vinylSequence 1 of 4 of the printer In situ printing the monologue and occupying spaceSequence 2 of 4 of the printer In situ printing the monologue and occupying spaceSequence 3 of 4 of the printer In situ printing the monologue and occupying spaceSequence 4 of 4 of the printer In situ printing the monologue and occupying spaceContinuos feed printing paper suitable for the pieceContinuos feed printing paper, suitable for the monologuePossible format for the art book that showcases sections of the monologue
After I completed my draft proposal, I hadn’t defined which approach to employ, as I was unsure about task 3A and 3b. Seeing previous students work and brief lectures, I found was very beneficial to give me a direction on how to visualise and refine my thinking and proposal.
In class, we were paired up with different students who didn’t know each other’s proposals. I paired up with my classmate who is interested in ‘Create awareness of factory farming’ with mine being, ‘Create an awareness of online social media privacy’. Our directions may have been different but we found our responses quite similar. Both of us aimed to create data visualisation to create empathy and create an emotional response for society.
To refine our draft proposal, we first discussed our own findings throughout the entire research we had performed over the past couple of weeks. We drew out our thoughts, draft proposals and refined the solutions.
For my study issue (online social media privacy) I was unsure about my target audience and which age groups to focus on. After discussing with her she suggested I think about the young adult age group and their response to social media privacy. I also wasn’t sure whether I should create an app or any add-on page for social media privacy. I am more interested in showing people how much information they are sharing on the internet without knowing how to lock their personal data from third party users, such as governments, large multinationals, and hackers. She suggested I make a life storybook for an individual person, who has been tracked through social media and lost her identity. I could create a data visualisation to show other people and create empathy.
She and my tutor also advised trying a ‘Google Tab’ or ‘Add-on’ page as a useful and clever approach for users as a means to check how much information they are sharing. It could also make sure every time users try to share information that could potentially lead to losing their identity, it will stop them.
I also learned from her approach regarding data visualisation creating an app for users. In her example, it was an app that could show users alternative solutions, such as the supply of meat and the various options. Her approach actually allowed me to think of a similar solution for my direction.
After we discussed our proposals and solutions in pairs, we both discussed individually with our tutor – where I received positive feedback. She suggested collecting data from social media from at least 5 people on Facebook within the 18-25 age group with the following questions:
How are they sharing their information on social media such as personal information, photos, check-in, emoji, hobbies and interest?
How often they check their privacy on social media?
What kind of emotional responses do they exhibit on social media and how are they sharing it?
Are they aware of social media privacy? If they are, how would they like to control their information?
Is an idea like the Google Add-on page be something they consider useful?
Project Title: Data Track
Practice Type: Data Visualisation (Google/Chrome Add-on)
Issue: Social Media Privacy
Refine Proposal and Solutions:
DATA TRACK
A Google Add-on or Chrome Add-on Tab option which will visualise data to users every time they log into social media and share their information such as personal info, photos, check-in, their hobbies and interests, as well as if anyone is tracking their data and how they are hacking them due to the user sharing information. It will also act as a reminder to warn them if they are providing highly personal information.
I discussed my work with two classmates today. At the beginning of the studio class, I put forward 5 possible design outcomes to Krupali, my first colleague, and we discussed the quality of each. She understood my problem statement, and agreed that within her demographic, users of the Internet and mobile devices have no real concept of the spread of their information. Krupali suggested some more poetic design outcomes, focusing on installation art and sculpture. However, while I’m all for a visual metaphor – I think my problem statement necessitates a more pragmatic, service design orientated response.
When I discussed my ideas with Gemma, she identified two outcomes she thought had potential – the generative system exploring social media photography trends, and my favourite, the app or extension that browses on it’s own, generating search histories, device location data, and website visits – ‘misinformation’ – under the user’s IP address, obscuring their actual online activity.
This is the idea I then went on to present to Britt. Britt was excited by the idea and confirmed that the app would be something that she would see value in as a user who is aware of the issue (data surveillance), but doesn’t understand its workings. Britt was very helpful in helping me make a clearer connection between the outcome and my problem statement; data surveillance is difficult to understand because of the lack of transparency around it and this results in users feeling a sense of powerlessness and reduced agency.
Revised proposition
Title – Just Browsing
Practice type – service design & generative system
The issue – With data retention laws recently passing in Australia, the telecommunications industry is now required to retain metadata for two years to promote and maintain national security. With this, the threat of an Orwellian future where mass-surveillance prevails is rife. From a series of interviews, cultural probes and web scraping exercises, I have found that users of the internet and mobile devices are interested in their online privacy, but lack the technical know-how to take complicated and time consuming precautions to protect their data.
The possible change – Users of the Internet and mobile devices have an increased sense of ownership over their data. Empowered to take actions to reclaim their privacy, users’ individual agency and autonomy is restored as they feel less like they are submitting to the will of larger stakeholders. Here, individuals find freedom in privacy.
The design action to support change – “Just Browsing” is a web extension that conceals a persons’ data history by ‘browsing’ the Internet under a user’s IP address. Essentially, a user’s actual online activity is hidden within the large volume of false data or ‘misinformation’ generated by the extension. The extension generates search engine searches, visits websites and inscribes the device into international locations (like a VPN). Additionally, a visualisation of what your IP address has been searching for, and where your IP address has travelled to can be accessed after a day (week, or month). “Just Browsing” works in the background while a user is online and therefore is an accessible, and non-invasive way to protect information. It can be switched on and off at the user’s will, and only generates visits to pre-approved webpages and locations.
As I got terrible skin problem with redness and itching, led me miss last class feedback. Therefore, I develop myself and also did some research. I combined the visual impact and practicality two points in project. The project warms and protect of access the internet.
Proposition:
Project title: Umbrella of Network
Practice type: Service design & data visualization
the issue: Data leakage when using public network.
I got more information of this part, when I finding a cover picture. Tennyson LaJeunesse(2015) clearly point out there are two forms in this problem, one is hackers target the guest network and using malicious software to riddle devices. The other one is infecting the corporate network through public hotspots , when they connect in next part. This part is I haven’t through before.
In the past, I was little be worried does this project only work with guest but now the project also benefit with suppliers.
the possible change:
Lots of internet users are not aware of the dangers of using public wifi. The project will be led people changing this area and pay attention on this problem by data analytics and collection, in order to raise awareness on public networking privacy.In the other hand, users will be no worry about data leakage.
the design action to support change:
*Creating a service app to proactively blocks malicious in any port, protocol or app, when using wifi. Preventing malicious links or organization to steal information. Sending garbled or invalid data to proactive instead of a real and effective information.
*Monitor system recording all online action and data, and showing how much intercepted malicious data. At the same time,using different color warning displayed on the window of connect of wifi, in order to show different degree of danger in network by using real-time cyber and analytics threat classification
Detail：
logging
As the name of Umbrella of Network, here is a big umbrella in the middle of screen. I hope this app will be like protect the network security like shelter rain by umbrella.
Feedback: the umbrella does not work well. I will change its in the future.
Features
It has 3 main features.( see detail in image)
WI-FI
it looks similar with our normal network interface login window. The only different thing is there are color warning icon on the list of wifi. It has 3 different color, green,yellow and red,to show different degree of rick on online.
Green shows safety. This network probable is the first choose. People can safe to use.
Yellow means middle degree. This is network probably has the issue of advertising Information section, spam, binding account, even this app is able to solve this problem.
Red means basically this is a high risk network.There is a high possibility of phishing, viruses, information leaks . Advice customer do not use this wifi as soon as possible.
virus
This part shows what is this app done.
Use pie charts to show the number of intercepted data and classification. It allows users to easily know its benefits
Slide the screen to get detail information of that. It shows when,where and what happen. These data will be collected and analysis.
It also has map features to show the location of wifi. It also in same color of rick degree . The degree of rick follow by the analysis of the data report and the number of the virus types. On the one hand, the purpose of doing so is to increase user awareness of network security. At the same time, reduce crime by the exposure method of location.
Besides,you can get a clear monthly rectangles of all rick data, when rotate the screen.
Settings
This feature could be set notifications.Grasp the latest developments of you using the network security.
Youth (18-24) disengagement with big data and online privacy due to generally negative news headlines. Young people are generally unsupportive of sharing their information when asked directly about it, and when it is done without their knowledge they don’t care or aren’t bothered by it because it isn’t effecting them directly. Young people are also seemingly unaware of the potential positives that data sharing could deliver on both individual and social levels.
The possible change:
Have users engage with big data in a positive way by providing them with a real-time, effective solution which would improve their day-to-day activities through the use of big data.
The design action to support change:
Using anonymous medical data which is already available (hospital records, doctor information, pharmacy sales) on a geographic scale and in a time-sensitive way, create both a website and mobile application which suggests likely outbreaks of the flu (or other infectious illnesses) in any particular area to proactively let people know that they might get sick soon, allowing them to prepare earlier (medication, doctor visit), or to steer clear of a hotbed of illnesses. The app version could alert you as you enter an area, and the website would give you more in-depth statistics, and detail how the data being used is translated into a positive outcome.
My draft design proposal, discussed in ‘The Proposal’ was mainly based on online fraud, the type that comes from scam emails. Since researching this topic further and discussing it with my colleagues, I have decided to keep my proposal still on the topic of online fraud but explore the part cookies have in it. This way, my proposal is very much related to the 18-25 year old audience and has room to really make use of emergent practices, as the varying uses of cookies are being increasingly discussed in the media. While explaining this revised proposal to my tutor, who gave very helpful feedback, we decided that rather than designing a complete website for someone to use, it would be more beneficial to create a plugin similar that the user can simply click on while browsing to see the desired change appear. I was shown a relevant example of a pre-existing plugin for Gmail, ‘Just Not Sorry’. This plugin highlights ‘problem’ words/phrases in emails and prompts the user to swap them with a similar but more confident word. The plugin is free to download and automatically does its ‘job’ without the user having to very much at all. The outline below explains my proposition in greater depth.
Project title: Don’t be a rookie
Practice type: generative system
The issue: Cookies. Cookies are files stored by a website on a users online device and are mainly designed to hold onto amounts of data for the particular website. These can either help improve the site for the user or do the complete opposite (as is the case with airline sites and hotel sites). All one person has to do is visit an airline site, view ticket prices for a trip and close the window. The next time this user enters that site to have another look at those prices, they will have increased, all because of cookies.
The possible change: Many internet users are not aware of the dangers or even inconveniences of websites that use cookies. There are also many internet users that are aware of these cookies but forget to delete them. Creating a system or plugin to remind users is a simple way to create a change in this area as it will raise awareness and prevent online fraud.
The design action to support change: To limit online scamming through cookies, I propose to create a plugin that warns users of the inconveniences and dangers of websites saving cookies whilst also educating them on what cookies are and how to prevent being scammed in the future.The plugin, ‘Don’t be a rookie’, will incorporate a five minute timer and a cookie that blows up the price of something the user is looking at into cookie crumbs. This price, once turned into crumbs, will re-emerge at a significantly higher value. A drop down box will appear saying ‘Don’t be a rookie, delete that cookie. Or go incognito’. A ‘read more’ link will also be available, allowing the user to read more about cookies and be informed on how to delete cookies from a website or how to use an incognito tab in their browser. This plugin will most benefit users on airline and hotel sites but will work on all sites, reminding the user to watch out for cookies, and can be turned on/off at the users disposal as can be done with a regular plugin.
Nearing the concluding stages of this Emergent Practices subject, I finally felt the pressure to conjure a design solution that would be worthwhile and progressive. In the past week, we were prompted to confront the issue with a closer interrogation at details that we were truly passionate about. From there I gained feedback that was imperative to the execution of my current design proposal.
The draft proposal workshop was great, and highlighted a number of issues and opportunities with my proposition. Speaking briefly to my tutor I quickly realised that I would be unable to get administrative access to the Visual Communication and Emergent Practice Blog. After this, the workshop quickly turned into a brainstorming and rapid prototyping session. In reading out my ideas from the previous week to my partner we both felt that the application that converted complicated terms of service agreements into plain text would have the most value as a design proposition. We brainstormed some ideas around this, and developed the idea into a browser extension with a set of coloured icons that would reflect a site’s privacy policies in relation to specific areas of online privacy. We were able to come up with this idea much faster than in previous weeks because tasks 3A and 3B were finally explained to us. This was useful, but also extremely frustrating as would have been valuable to have this information earlier so I could have better shaped the research I conducted for the blog. This lack of communication has really detracted from my experience with the subject.
Proposal
Users are generally unaware of how much information they contribute, either willingly or unwilling to online services. To help users understand how much data is being collected about them, I plan to create a service that simplifies deliberately complex terms of service contracts into easily understandable icons similar to those used in creative commons licensing. This icon set will breakdown the key terms that companies often obscure in complex legal documents, to help users better understand how their privacy is being affected. Some possible icons include: collection of personal and activity data, 1st and 3rd party data storage, selling of data and data ownership. These icons will be made open source to not only increase awareness of deceptive data practices but also create a framework for protecting privacy in the digital age. In addition to this, the service will also include the development of a website and browser extension designed to popularise the use of the icons. This website will work across desktop and mobile devices to provide an index of popular sites with their privacy policies broken down into icons and short descriptors. What’s more, the website will also act as a portal for users to suggest sites to be indexed and while also providing ways for them to aid in the development of the program. In addition, to this the website, the service will also include the development of a browser extension, which will provide users with real time information about the privacy policies of the site they’re currently visiting. Unfortunately owing to the more restrictive mobile ecosystem, this extension will be desktop only, which is disappointing given the popularity of mobile browsing. Despite this, the service’s icon set and accompanying web presence will help raise awareness within the target market of poor privacy practices while simultaneously providing a framework to promote greater transparency.
Although we were in a group of 2, we’ve discussed our grounds of interest and common areas of focus. Robert and I looked into the social, economical and political context of our problem issues and speculated around design solutions under each emergent practice. The consistent categories that we mainly covered were under visualisation practice (data driven design) and service design.
Robert looked into the whole concept of ‘Hackers’, What are hackers, The lack of transparency and laws of hacking and the designed situations of hacking in a government/ corporation setting. Robert differentiated that there were 2 types of hackers; white hats and black hats. Both serve the same purpose but driven by different causes. White hats serve to benefit services by taking and providing resources to optimise our communities and economic values. Generally governments and corporations. Black hat hackers are generally individually, personally motivated. Deliberately to cause potential harm to individuals or groups in society and for personal gains.
We looked into the connections between both of our design issues such as the use of surveillance cameras in government buildings, big corporations, the tracking and monitoring that happens behind the physical space and the potential ‘USE’ of that data. What happens if that personal data is hacked or appropriated for unethical intentions?
In class, we went through a problem statement analysis to identify and understand the Issues of ‘online privacy’. From the previous week of the ‘Issue mapping’ exercise, we underpinned various scenarios/ design complexities in our vast field of opportunities to explore. From the mapping exercise, I wanted to further investigate the roles of technology in society and their relations with data and the digital sphere. In particular, I wanted to understand the role of a surveillance camera in a public/ private space and the Interactions with the general audience.
The Image above shows my analysis on this Issue and their relations to who, what, where, when and why. This process of understanding the stakeholders and participants of surveillance in a space will generate scenarios and potential solutions to solve this issue.
From my analysis, I’ve determined that the problem affects the entire space of a location whether in a public or private context. This issue is generally associated greatly in a geographical sense than any specific target audience. So what is the Issue?
The objective and function of a surveillance camera are to optimise security and safety in our communities, private property and infrastructures. CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras are a ubiquitous technology which is Iconically active all around the world. A sub-conscious topic that isn’t actively engaged with the general public. Often forgotten or looked passed. Essentially, the issue is ‘A lack of awareness’ on security cameras in a public/ private space and the transparency of tracking & monitoring that goes on.
Also, In relations to ‘A lack of awareness’. Social Issues also arise when the topic of ‘who is watching us?’ and to what extent is it acceptable? In Six pillars: futures thinking for transforming by Sohail Inayatullah. He speculates on six concepts of emergent future thinking: the used future; the disowned future; alternative future; alignment; models of social change; and uses of the future. To put this reference in a design context. I’m going to critically formulate a connection with Sohail’s disowned future and the issues of the surveillance cameras.
In the article, Sohail states and references homer’s quote that: “Our excellence is our fatal flaw. What we excel at becomes our downfall.” Sohail mentions that we do not see this because we are always too busy on our strategic plans. A future we’ve pushed away that eventually comes back to intimidate us or brings negativity. Essentially to portray this concept, the ‘hare and tortoise’ could be used as a primal focus. The tortoise (a personal reflection of what could’ve been us and the future.) but always so quick and determined we are (like the hare) we’ve exceeded our expectations.
Similar with all this technology. Just like CCTV/ security cameras we’ve created this intricate network of surveillance and data trail to protect our communities, infrastructures and personal well-being that we’ve compromised and forgotten about our very own privacy. This ‘disowned future’ that we have established upon ourselves has contributed towards significant social and ethical issues to individuals, governments, corporations and the internet itself.
The Authoritative Figure
CCTV Live footage feeds aren’t accessed by the general public and only an authoritative figure has access to such data. This brings to question who is watching us? Who has access to the security feeds, what is it used for or where it goes?
We would like to encourage the public to participate and interact with the surveillance cameras. Without the involvement of individuals, the purpose of the camera is obsolete. To be aware of the physical and digital environment and own actions.
Throughout the process, the strength of our brainstorming session is that we all able to understand each other’s concern upon online privacy and surveillance. Each of us provide as least one point we can implement in.
However our weakness was that our process was all focusing on the direct way to solve the problem which I think it might not be the best solution to do it and eventually we ends up common solution that might already exist. We should have refer to our map generated previously and use it as a starting point to find other solutions. Our ideas were too broad as we didn’t narrow down to specific stakeholder or feeling. Which result of less resolution found at the end. Also we did not managed to analysis what we have written on the paper, otherwise we could came out with solution that takes the pros from all ideas and refine it.
When we are discussing about my problem, we came out with 5 different approaches yet they all very similar to each other. All of them are software or systems that either check, record, or analyse the website in order to alert the user about their online behaviour. However when I look at it now, I was tended to move towards to psychological aspect of the problem. Instead of solving the privacy issue problem, I focus on how to keep the user comfortable while knowing all those online tracking and metadata left behind.
Throughout the brainstorming session with the group, my point of focus for my discussion is about the unawareness of user’s distribution of their own digital footprint. Nowadays, people tend to access the service provided on the web without much consideration of what digital footprint they could left off. More importantly, people underestimate the duration of the data stored on the web. For example at social media, users sometimes post inappropriate or embarrassing content on the web. If those content are not dealt with caution, it could ruin one’s image or the others which result in disadvantage in the future.
In order to approach the problem, here are the possible solutions that came up in the session:
Monitor system recording all online action and data flow performed by the user
Database history that records data given out by the user
Alert System that perform a consent of what metadata is to given away when accessing the website
A system that list all of your own information, clicking on each info expand into all the website that contains that piece of information
Proposal
A software attached on an internet browser that aims to alert user when a piece of sensitive information is about to give away before accessing to a website. It acts like a consent confirmation on the mobile when installing a new app on the mobile phone.
It picks up every new website when the user is about the access, the external server is used to access it for the user first, then scan for all possible metadata that could be gathered from there. And eventually return the result and a consent confirmation back to the user. Every website that is acknowledged by the user can display all together in one screen, allowing user to view them in one place. The software can possibly risk assess for the user and make recommendation to user about the integrity of the website. They should also have a database that contain a list of safe website and blacklist in the perspective of the data mining issue.
With this software, people should start to realise that websites are actually services that give out information in returns of your metadata. People would start to evaluate the necessity to give out their information before accessing to a new site.
I learnt that though working with people who are doing the same topic, their understanding and value are different to other people. Through their perspective, unseen facts and ideas can be discovered. We created an issue map focusing on the relationship between government and individual. As we go through each the relationship between each stakeholder and emotion on this topic helps clarify how each of them affects each other. As we link up the relationships, we move on identifying the tension. Mapping out the tension of the issue provide a clear reason of the nature of the problem. In our cases, government and individual; Individual gain incentive, services and intellectual property rights while losing their freedom, privacy and ownership.
However our input was not extensive enough to identify the nature of the problem. We should more open and write down any small thing that might relevant to the issues.
In the exercise where we pretend to be an actor, it provokes more thoughts about the possible issues that is causing the issue right now. Through identifying the role of the object, it helps revealing association of it with people, politics, and issues. Which ultimately, find out a small issue that could be solved and make a step forward to tackle the online privacy issue.
Emergent Practices 
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