UX Prototype for Blockchain Identity
Mixed Results, But Still Promising
Building trust is hard. It needs proof. We trust people about who they say they are based on their credentials such as government IDs, diplomas, passports, etc. For refugees or displaced people who’ve lost their homes and properties, proving their identity is a problem. Refugees are in a double conundrum. Rebuilding their identity would help them rebuild their lives, but how would you trust a system to put your personal information? As Robert Greenfeld of ConsenSys writes it: “… malicious actors could still capitalize on it as an element of control.” (Blockchain Identity for Developing Countries)
For my capstone project for the Interaction Design Specialization with UC San Diego with Coursera, I designed an app that can help us with trusting people we do not know, it’s an identity network that will use blockchain technology. The idea originally came from the Tech For Justice Hackathon+ Veterans last year hosted by The InternetBar.Org Institute. I was in another project that eventually won, but I was more intrigued with this project called The Invisibles. The Invisibles is a radical platform where refugees can recreate their identities to so they can go back to school, find jobs, get loans … a tool that verifies their identity to help them rebuild their lives with social proof from veterans, fintech companies, and other NGOs.
Displaced People As Wild Cards…
A wild card is a person or thing whose influence is unpredictable or whose qualities are uncertain. — Dictionary.Com Definition
The default reaction to uncertainty, is to fear, especially those we do not understand. In a robust situation, we’d rather not introduce wild cards, because we don’t want change in a status quo.
In an NPR Planet Money Episode called When the Boats Arrived, which is about the Cuban refugee influx in 1980s: And the researchers have succinctly identified two fears upon welcoming refugees:
Number one, they’re never going to get jobs, and they’re going to cost our country a ton of money. And number two, they are going to get jobs. They’re going to take my job.
But in a study by Michael Clemens, migration expert and Jennifer Hunt, economy expert, they’ve concluded that: “As a whole, the evidence from refugee waves reinforces the existing consensus that the impact of immigration on average native-born workers is small, and fails to substantiate claims of large detrimental impacts on workers with less than high school.”(Source: Center for Global Development). Refugees when given economic freedom help grow the economy, because they become consumers and have to start buying stuff from the get go.
But for refugees to fully join the economy, they’ve to utilize their skills and knowledge. But what we’re lacking is a tool to prove their identities. In the same NPR interview, a refugee from Cuba who said they have no way of proving who they are. In refugee camps elsewhere, they are given UNHCR Identity Cards, but this only proves their identity as a refugee, based in the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1951.
The Prototype Result
After 10 weeks of needfinding expeditions, interviewing, and a few iterations, I remote tested it with 4 people, as per course requirements. The results were mixed. The number is statistically insignificant, but this is more of a qualitative study, anyways.
For the question I asked, I went for the jugular: After using the this website, did your trust in the organization, increase, remain the same, or decrease? Explain your answer.
I did not disclose that the application was for refugees, because it was a proof of concept. My thinking was, regardless of one’s socioeconomic standing, would users trust a digital identity? Based on these heuristic evaluations, they could. I am not thoroughly optimistic enough, but the proof of concept could work. It is promising.
Filtering the Cluttering
I’ve considered blockchain should be the technology behind it (everyone else are). A digital identity needs to be authentic, so someone needs to do the authentication. Of course, we have to throw in machine learning to do that. A well trained AI can cross reference a person’s former environment if they were near hotbeds of nefarious activities, that analysts deemed truly nefarious, for reals. To make it cool and more interactive, it’ll have an interactive d3 worldmap. To add social proof, we’ve to replicate LinkedIn’s recommendation system for former colleagues. And to have that feeling of community, why not add elements of Meetup?
The result was a confusing Frankenstein:
I’ve thought of (ideated) cool features, and researched on what stack it can be built on. But those loftly goals don’t mean anything unless the user knows what they can do in the app.
So with a newfound understanding (and a looming deadline), I’ve pivoted and simplified. It became a a simple digital identification app.
Of course, the information the users provide is authentic and accurate (ie: that that handsome man is indeed named Tiburtis Korneli (which were provided by Google image search filtered by labeled with reuse and the Random Name Generator)).
But the true needs of the user needs to be conveyed by the user’s interaction of the app.
Does it provide authentic identification? Can it be trusted?
Based on the results, it can be.
