Enlight fights “fake news” by helping users to assess
the veracity of what they read and to access better
sources of the information they want.
MFA Interaction Design Thesis | Aug 2017 - May 2018
DESIGN PROCESS
Identifying the Problem
and project scope
Research and concept
validation
Design solution
Usability testing
and iterations
Secondary research
Contextual research​
Demographic study
Concept testing
User's behavior study
Target platform study
User interface design
Visual Design
Interactive prototype
Information assessment logic
User testing
Quantitative analysis
Qualitative analysis
Addressing the core problem
Like other information, fake news has a starting point but it does not have an ending point. In between, three reasons keep the fake news and false information alive.
Illusory truth effect
The implausibility of this false information creates familiarity and constitutes a boundary condition on the illusory truth effect.
Content overload
People are being exposed to fake news and false information with much greater frequency.
Time-consuming
evaluation process
The user needs to depend on Google or other web sources to evaluate information, which is a manual time consuming process.
problem
PROJECT SCOPE
Platforms that deliver fake news
TARGET PLATFORM
Instant Messenger
Fastest peer to peer information transfer network.
1
2
Provides end to end encryption.
The messages get sent to and received by friends and family. This personal touch makes it a more impenetrable echo chamber.
3
181.2
Million
Monthly active instant messenger users - 2018*
Instant messengers are a primary source of news in developing countries like India
Instant messengers (IM) like Whats App, Facebook messenger, and WeChat are very popular.
TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
India
Understanding target demographic
Contextual Research
Process
SURVEY
INTERVIEW
CONCEPT VALIDATION
Findings
50-60
Minutes spent
on IM per day
“Hard to distinguish
between real and fake”
“I get tons of messages every day,often repeated once”
“I often have doubts but validation process is time consuming.”
People do not prefer to read entire article most of the time.
Lack of awareness: what to look for while validating messages.
The good or reliable news is objective as well as subjective.
Behavior Study
Collage and Mapping
A set of 12 pre-existing pictures were given to the user to sort into groups or make a collage in a way that makes meaning to them. Once the collage or groups are formed users can express their thoughts behind the collage formation.
Outcomes
If people find something doubtful, they treat it differently.
Some of the pictures are purposefully photoshopped for the exercise but none of the users were able to identify them as a fake.
Perform a Task
A task of identifying fake news was given to five users. Once participants finished the task, they were asked to express how they identified the fake news.
Users avoid reading: The tested prototype provided various detailed information to explore, which users tended to avoid.
If the user has a specific doubt about any skeptical content, the proposed prototype includes all the necessary dimensions to evaluate the information. However, this resulted in content overload and the evaluation process was left unfinished.
Starting point
Understanding target platform
1
Whenever fake news comes from the outer domain to the instant messenger ecosystem, one infected user will eventually infect all users because users are directly or indirectly connected to each other. Because the user group is formed by friends and family the news continues to spread as opposition is highly avoided in Indian culture, thus, the fake news remains in the IM ecosystem.
2
There have been scenarios where people have created fake news and false information within the instant messenger ecosystem and tried to spread these messages.
Design solution
Enlight Setup
Enlight works as a feature in Instant Messenger.
A user needs to switch on Enlight from IM settings.
Settings
The problem of
Starting point
The problem of
1
is resolved by
Alert user before the
information is sent further
At the bridge level, Enlight will help the user to learn more about such message before forwarding.
Scenario
A user named Anu found an intriguing story on Twitter and she would like to share it with her friend.
2
No ending point
is resolved by
User perception validation
Enlight provides an opportunity for users to react and open a window to learn and validate their doubts.
Scenario
Neha forwards a message to a friend Anu.
Anu, who receives it, has a doubtful feeling about it.
Enlight UI flow
The big question: How news is getting assessed.
newsapi.org
Enlight uses Google News API as a primary database source. Based on the API Enlight looks for five parameters but having these five parameters does not ensure the authenticity of the news. Each parameter has different criteria to verify the news.
User testing
Three rounds of user testing have been completed. Each testing round was performed with a new set of users and different objectives. User testing helped gather user's behavioral and functional performance quantitative data, which lead to an improved user experience.
Prototypes
Interface
Round 3
User testing results analysis
QUALITATIVE
FEEDBACK
"Liked the idea of setting the reliability scale is in my hands."
"It's good that I do not need to jump between multiple web links to assess news."
"Reading news is better now, at least I can get to know that how much it is fake and real"
​
"I like the idea that within the chat window I can suggest my friend to see the reliable side of the news"
​
"Best thing I like is I am not gonna see the fake message again and again."
OBSERVATION
Only one user visited the full article.
Familiarity with Facebook feature of reacting on individual message helped to ease the flow.
Users got confused when they set one parameter and other moved by itself. They thought since it is a prototype they can only set one as an example.
Benefits of Enlight
BRINGS CLARITY
Using parameters and rationales behind it.
REDUCES “DOUBT CLOUD”
Provides an opportunity, where one can react and read to clear doubts within the chat window.
SAVES TIME
Compared to manually searching through websites.
MANAGES OVERLOAD
Takes care of fake message and false
information overload.
Major takeaways
The project helped me to take responsibility to define the timeline from identifying the problem to the final execution of the design.
It provided opportunity, where I can use the user-centered approach as well as system design approach to deliver design solution.
Often users actions are contradicting. This project provided an opportunity to observe and learn user's mindset to propose accurate solutions.
While defining fake news evaluation criteria, so much missing information and lack of data availability issues came upfront. The openness of news media platform opens an extensive opportunity for fake news and false information to manipulate readers.
There is an opportunity for gathering and restructuring the current news media data, so it will become easier to evaluate fake news.
