How to design away hate
What can we as digital creators do to protect people from harm and why is it a good business investment?
As online harassment is increasing while people are finding themselves more online during the COVID-19 crisis and as we’re seeing a spike in domestic abuse with victims being trapped with their abusers, the digital tools in our daily lives turn into powerful weapons of violence. Our current predicament is the time to seriously start thinking about how the things we design could be used to inflict pain and harm in others.
But many don’t know where and how to start. How can you who’s working with digital products and services design away digital hate and violence? The task is nothing but simple and anyone who claims to have a quick fix to a complex problem is at best a charlatan. But there are concrete steps and processes that can decrease the risk of your users being at either ends of abuse.
- First and foremost, accept that whatever you already know is not enough. Do your research and keep up to date with how digital harassment and violence looks like right now. Zoë Quinn, a video game developer who became the first victim of Gamergate, wrote Crash Overdrive pedagogical book about her experience with online harassment and practical advice on ways to protect yourself and others from it. You can also use the Cyber Hate Assistant, created by Make Equal, to read more about different forms of online abuse and how to protect yourself from it.
- Understand that whatever you learn will always be old news. Humans are creative creatures, even when it comes to inventing new ways to harm others. Be in regular contact with the experts in the field. Reach out to universities Gender & Women Studies departments, who may have extensive studies on the subject. Consult with hotlines for domestic abuse. Talk to organization’s working for marginalized minorities rights in society. And do not forget youth organizations. These groups are usually the ones who speak directly with victims of digital abuse and are often the leading experts on the subject, knowing more about new harassment tactics well before law enforcement and the digital businesses.
3. Don’t think that whatever you’re working on is impossible to use as a tool of violence. Even the most mundane inventions can end up being used in the most surprising way. Because of the rise of commercial Internet of Things, people are finding their air conditioner, doorbell and lights being used to harass, monitor and control them.
While many, including this author, first chuckled at the news of discovered security issues connected to a wireless buttplug, this news is testament to how pervasive the issue is and how easily overlooked the question of security may be.
4. Anyone can run at risk of being a victim of violence, but what that looks like can vastly differ depending on who you are and what you look like. While both antisemitism and afrophobia are forms of racism, the rates and forms of abuse online can take different shapes. Jewish communities are seeing an increase in anti-semitic conspiracy theories, while a report from 2017 showed that 1 in 4 black Americans have been harassed because of their race or ethnicity. Violence against women, especially committed by a partner, is a global health problem, with over a third of women worldwide having experienced abuse from their romantic partner. However, that does not mean that men are unlikely to experience domestic abuse. Research in the UK indicates that almost 1 in 10 men have at one point been a victim of domestic abuse. The rates are alarmingly increased when looking at intimate partner violence experienced by transgender and non-binary people, with more than half having experienced abuse.
5. Work in diverse teams and test your ideas with heterogeneous groups. Diversity in your business can increase creativity and more innovative solutions, but they may also result in a deeper and broader understanding of what risks a particular feature or product may have. By also testing your ideas with a diverse group of people, you may end up finding issues and problems at an earlier stage, that may increase your profits and minimize your costs.
Can a person with learning disabilities understand your terms and conditions? How easy is it for a person with low vision to report an issue? Can a user feel protected by your community rules no matter what their ethnicity, race, gender, sexual identity or ability may be? If you don’t know where to start, get in touch with firms that do know how to recruit certain minorities, such as Axess Lab.
For most businesses the issue of online hate and violence can be daunting, another big problem stacked on a mountain of to-do’s. But this isn’t just a matter of doing what’s right. What happens online has a deep and severe impact on our offline world and alters the fabric of our democratic societies, yet for many companies the question is “will this affect our profits?”. Women and minorities are finding themselves leaving social media or using it in a limited way after experiencing online abuse, scandals and bad experiences of using digital solutions may very well scare off customers as well.
While paying for user testing, research and hiring designers and developers with expertise in these issues may seem expensive, ignoring these very real problems will have a taxing affect not only on the world as we know it, but your bottom line as well. Imagine the costs of recalling products, losing loyal customers and paying for damage control dealing with a scandal, and you’ll quickly realize how cheap the former alternative truly is.
Do you want to learn more about online harassment and how you can work to mitigate it? Reach out!
Want to learn more?
If you’d like to become an expert in UX Design, Design Thinking, UI Design, or another related design topic, then consider to take an online UX course from the Interaction Design Foundation. For example, Design Thinking, Become a UX Designer from Scratch, Conducting Usability Testing or User Research — Methods and Best Practices. Good luck on your learning journey!
