Most technological products we interact with daily are meant to assist us in our daily tasks. From the smartphones that guide us through our schedules to the smart home devices that anticipate our needs, technology, in both tangible and intangible forms, has become an integral aspect of our daily lives. While these technological advantages convenience us, it often comes at a cost. We are so used to the technology in our lives that it's almost impossible to imagine doing simple daily tasks without them.
Intentionality and consequences
Social media, namely Facebook, intended to connect people regardless of location, has sparked many implications beyond its intended purpose. While designed to foster meaningful relationships, social media has become a catalyst for the complexities of loneliness and self-affirmation in society. In more extreme instances, it has transformed into a tool that amplifies news controversies, igniting conflicts and, in some cases, sparking wars. Facebook has constantly been the cause of several competitions around the world. What is happening in Sri Lanka and the plight of the Rohingyas people illustrate that even well-intentioned platforms may not guarantee safety.
Waze, a product with a feature that navigates users to get the most effective route to reach their destination, caused a neighborhood disturbance. The product or feature intends to help people, but it unintentionally harms people who are not meant to be the target users.
In August 2023, South Korea experienced a wave of fear due to a series of stabbings and acts of terror instigated through social media. With the enormous number of social media posts that threatened people, a group known as 01ab developed a mobile application with the feature of showing threat maps. This map is intended to help users be more careful in areas that are mentioned in threatening online posts. Despite its noble purpose, some citizens argue that the application, meant to enhance safety, inadvertently heightens fear among the populace.
Similarly, during the COVID-19 outbreak, several tracking applications were made to help detect the areas that might be threatening to public health. However, the unintended consequences of these apps became evident as they inadvertently fueled fear and escalated public panic to unprecedented levels.
These instances serve as poignant reminders that technological solutions, even when designed to address genuine concerns, can sometimes give rise to unforeseen challenges, impacting society in unexpected ways.
Beyond functionality
Even with the best intentions, designers often fall short in envisioning a product beyond its immediate functionality. The realization of the design development process, often resulting in the creation of the Most Viable Product, is primarily geared towards testing and assessing whether a product meets current user needs. Unfortunately, discussions about the long-term trajectory of a product are seldom part of the discourse once it successfully fulfills its initial purpose.
The design development process emphasizes the creation of optimal solutions without a thorough examination or evaluation of the context surrounding the identified problem. Solutionism is an attempt to create solutions through technology to solve problems. Although solving problems might seem like a noble idea, providing aid to every aspect of human life will not only make humans more dependent on technology but also drive the commercialization of all things.
Reevaluating and aligning the intentions of solving problems with the reality of possible scenarios in the real world helps to illustrate how a solution is not always an answer to an existing problem. As the future is unpredictable and many factors can contribute to changes in later days, it is crucial to be mindful and intentional in designing every aspect of the product. Every product or feature must do well in its last environment. Therefore, envisioning possible futures will give a clearer picture of paths that designers can track down to find the best alternative without compromising the potential harm that may arise.
Future-proof design
The essential idea of the future-proof principle is to anticipate and mitigate consequences. Several studies have been conducted to make sense of the present and future relationship and how to minimize unexpected future outcomes that are yet unknown.
Second-order thinking
This methodology illustrates how a product can impact even indirect or non-intended users. In this methodology, a design team can project what scenarios can happen after a product serves its purpose. It will lead to multiple layers of cause-and-effect, a helpful scheme to redirect the future to be in a preferable state.
Futures Wheel
Developed by Jerome C Glenn, a futures wheel gives a way of organized thinking and questioning the future. Every event will have consequences, and every outcome will have more direct or indirect results. This exercise maps out future implications structurally.
Project Pre-mortems
By applying premortem in a development process, a design team imagines that their product has already failed. Through this workflow, designers can draw out a timeline that goes back to the beginning and understand what might be the contributing factors of failures. By the end of the process, a project may be revised with considerations of potential harm in the future.
Considering the paths that designers can take to make their product not only good but also do good sheds a ray of hope on how designers can shape society towards a better future. Designing a future-proof product is a way to change the conventional method of developing the non-desirable situations we face today to an ideal relationship between humans and technology tomorrow.
Chad De Guzman. 2022. Meta’s Facebook algorithms ‘Proactively’ promoted violence against the Rohingya, new Amnesty International report asserts. Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/6217730/myanmar-meta-rohingya-facebook/
Nicole Jao and Nicole Jao. 2020. Virus tracking apps aren’t helping fight panic. TechNode. Retrieved from https://technode.com/2020/02/26/virus-tracking-apps-arent-helping-fight-panic/
Cho Min-Jeong. 2023. Online stabbing threat map, notification service surfaces - The Korea Herald. The Korea Herald. Retrieved from https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230807000655
Tate Moyer and Tate Moyer. 2023. The emerging loneliness economy. The Michigan Daily. Retrieved from https://www.michigandaily.com/opinion/the-emerging-loneliness-economy/
Pew Research Center. 2020. Social media served as an important outlet for Black Americans in 2020 | Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/12/11/social-media-continue-to-be-important-political-outlets-for-black-americans/
Amanda Taub and Max Fisher. 2018. Where countries are Tinderboxes and Facebook is a match. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/world/asia/facebook-sri-lanka-riots.html
2014. Waze traffic app causing controversy in quiet neighborhoods. CBS News. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/waze-traffic-app-causing-controversy-in-quiet-neighborhoods/
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