Reflection #4

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Reading, Analysis and Writeup

Now that you have a rough sketch of the main features of your technology, iterate on the design of the features, focusing on the details: what is the single most important value your platform intend to support? what additional user actions can your features support to achieve the intended value? How do you operationalize (i.e., creating an actual formula) the intended value (e.g., fairness) in the data (e.g., the way you score and rank users, content, etc)? What do users see exactly, i.e., how would your data visualizations help them understand the intended values?

This week, you also learned about speculative design methods for brainstorming potential negative consequences of your technology. You are also asked to meet with students from ENGL 494, who will interview your team about the evolving designs of your imaginary technology and produce a piece of writing in the form of a digital/physical magazine.

In the reflection writeup, describe the re-design of your features in detail (e.g., additional user actions that your features now support, an actual formula that operationalize the intended value, specific data visualizations that help users understand the value you intend to support with your technology), and how speculative design methodologies---that you learned from the Tarot of Tech / Black Mirror activities, and meeting with ENGL 494 students---contributed to the way you re-designed your features.

Your writeup on Overleaf should be 2 pages in total. Please use this overleaf template for all writeups.

Presentation

The presentation will follow a peer critique format. The presenting teams will prepare a 10 minute presentation on the details of your feature re-designs---i.e., additional user actions that your features now support, an actual formula that operationalize the intended value, specific data visualizations that help users understand the value you intend to support with your technology. The presentation will be followed by a 15 minute discussion with your partner team. In total, you will present three times to three different teams, who will provide their critique and feedback.