WebSG meetup

Using social translucency to tackle the issue of trolling online

Jude Yew

Can design help motivate prosocial behavior?

The spreading of disorder- Keizer, K. E. (2010)

Design of our current “conversation spaces”

Social Translucency

Babble (Erickson et. al, 1999)

Social proxies (Erickson et. al, 1999)

1 2 3

1. The first instance shows a 'hot' conversation 2. The second, a dormant one3. The third a mixture of activity, idleness, with three

people in other conversations.

Principles of social translucency

• Awareness• Visibility• Accountability

”It has totally changed my driving in that for the first time I’m completely cognizant of how the car works.”

- Lee Peterson, former Jeep driver

Design to surface information

Dynamic speed displays

“… they’ve proven to be consistently effective at getting drivers to slow down—reducing speeds, on average, by about 10 percent, an effect that lasts for several miles down the road. Indeed, traffic engineers and safety experts consider them to be more effective at changing driving habits than a cop with a radar gun. Despite their redundancy, despite their lack of repercussions, the signs have accomplished what seemed impossible: They get us to let up on the gas.”

- Thomans Goetz, 2011 “Harnessing the power of feedback loops” Wired Mag

4 stages of a feedback loop:1. Evidence

• A behavior must be measured, captured, and stored.

2. Relevance• The information must be

relayed to the individual, in a context that makes it emotionally resonant

3. Consequence• The information must

illuminate one or more actions to take.

4. Action• There must be a clear

moment when the individual can recalibrate a behavior, make a choice, and act.

The true power of feedback loops is not to control people but to give them control. It’s like the difference between a speed trap and a speed feedback sign—one is a game of gotcha, the other is a gentle reminder of the rules of the road. The ideal feedback loop gives us an emotional connection to a rational goal.

Feedback loops

Social Translucency mechanisms in online spaces?

Showing identity and relations of users (public pages for users)

Providing systematic feedback mechanisms on content X

Showing number of views or downloads

Publishing a summary of the activities of users

Capturing and visualizing activities

Providing a list of needed contributions X

Defining specific, well-formulated goals X

Tracking and depicting most active users

Providing contribution barometer for users/groups

Offering Mechanisms to contact users

Providing feedback mechanisms such as discussion forums

Providing possibility of adding certain users as “friends”

Connection to social networks X

Providing the possibility to create sub-communities

Forstering of group/community identity

Privileging users based on their reputation

Making the value of contributions transparent

Social norms

Norms refer to a pattern, and expected behaviors (in contrast to those established by law) when operating or working with a system.

People learn the norms of a community in three ways:

1. observing other people and the consequences of their behavior;

2. seeing instructive generalizations or codes of conduct;

3. behaving and directly receiving feedback.

Regulating online behavior (Kiesler et. al, 2010)

Wikidashboard (Chi et. al, 2008)

Architecture and design of social computing systems makes “socially transparent” (Chi et al., 2008) the participation of the

users on the website.