The UX of democracy
second part
Time: November 11 – November 18
Brief: Design an experience that addresses the democratic process.
Partners: Xiyun, Carol, Jialing, Riezan
Following our presentation, we received a feedback from Mor, where she suggested that we develop our model even further. With that in mind, we decided to create one space that would serve different purposes. At first, we wanted to transform the space based on the number of participants, but later on, we came to the idea of creating an installation. To combine the two, we decided that after the debate space would stay there for some time and serve as a public installation. The installation would be designed in a way that people could go through different rooms and listen to the debate that took place there. It could also serve as an interesting space for children to play.
Making of our model.
In addition, we also wanted the debate to be moderated, so we came up with guidelines and rules for everyone to follow. If a participant disregards the rules more than twice, he or she is asked to leave the debate. The way we envisioned the idea was through a platform. Through the platform one can listen to the debates, write on the forum and sign up for different debates. To ensure that participants are educated about the discussed topic, they would also have to pass a test with at least 70%.
Making and testing of our second model. Photo: John Fass.
As an experience, we wanted to create a live representation of the debate in class. We built a second model that would represent different transparencies and enable the simulation of the debate between three people. We gave an article about Extinction Rebellion to Hugh, Melanie and Ann and asked them to study it. In class, they had a three-minute debate about what they thought on the subject.
The feedback we received was quite interesting. On the one hand, the participants were bothered by the fact that they couldn’t see each other faces, but on the other hand, they liked how the space enabled them to think about their opinions without distractions.
Our final model.
We designed a safe space that, rather than aiming at making political changes, is there just to evoke critical thinking and encourage opinion formation and dialogue, in hope that a more informed population would lead to better decision making. To make the space in real life, it would require to take many more factors into consideration as well as think about materials, expenses and so on, but I do believe that something like this would help people to be more informed and involved.
Model transformation.
