Stage 1: Empathize
The Vision
Every day, mass amounts of misinformation, miscommunications, and misinformed conclusions are made every day. There's a lack of curiosity in the minds of people than what should be helpful. I propose that a framework that helps encourage looking up information concisely would be beneficial for others.
Project Topic Selection
Topic: Clearing up misinformation and rumours that spread throughout the internet
The "Who": This aligns with my core value for justice.
Target Audience: Teenagers/Young Adults
Initial Assumptions
The "Who": A 17-year-old who experienced one of their favorite content creators get cancelled on the inernet.
The "Why": They want to know what they did and what actually happened.
The Status Quo: Relying on rumors and Google Docs made from other users.
The Emotion: Shocked, anxious, possibly angry, and maybe even sad.
User Interviews
Questions Asked:
1. Have you ever been misinformed or lied to in a way that personally affected you in any way, shape, or form?
2. How exactly did you feel emotionally about all that?
3. What ways have you concluded to make sure that doesn't happen again?
Answers:
Person 1: "It didn't really affect my days all that much, but I was shocked when I heard about the claims and went to tell my friends about it. Though, witnessing the aftermath of that whole ordeal, it made me realize just how far people can go when they believe something. That beign said, I'd try and Hear both sides first, see if there's any evidence if needed, ad then make a judgement from there. If I am not involved about something else or don't know enough, I just don't bother and move on."
Person 2: "Yes, I have, actually. I felt foolish when I was lied to and worse because something of mine was stolen due to that. To make sure that doesn't happen again I've chose to stay skeptical about unusual requests from friends."
Observation Notes
Observed: A good friend of mine getting rumours spread about them over liking a fictional pairing of two characters. Many of my other friends were worried and kinda stressed about the situation. One ex-friend in particular believed a call-out video on Tiktok that slandered my other friend on a personal level and disconnected from the friend group. In the ed, what everyone who was curious did was ACTUALLY ask my friend what exactly happened and she explained it all and turns out (just like I thought) the accusations were ENTIRELY overblown and everything was taken out of context.