Anti-Heros, a card deck with an equivalent ``hero'' on the other side, is a method to expose the un/intentional manipulative and persuasive roles designers take during generating designs. This method leverages on revealing the manipulative intentions of technologists in the realm of a range of shareholder values which support monetary benefits and user values which support human needs and agency. A range of ethics-focused methods available for practitioner’s support have often focused on providing ``good’’ practices to identify ethical outcomes, and we identified the need to also showcase and make certain ``anti-’’ ways of thinking resulting in unethical technology solutions.
As a part of this research, evaluation studies to play-test the card deck with Pratt students is in progress which will allow iteration of the cards.
Collaborative research with Dr. Sai Shruthi Chivukula.
Leading the Play-testing workshop session for evaluation of the Card-deck
The 'Action' Cards like a playing card deck would have set the stage for three different kinds of situations, enabling discussion of role-based decision making. These discussions can facilitate more meaningful design decisions in a group of UX designers, product managers software engineers, and also be a useful tool in discussion with stakeholders along with the role cards.
The Role cards were derived from research on solution-focused and rationale-focused roles of designers. These were defined and described as the Anti-Hero roles, We then ideated the Hero Roles in design as a conflicting role side to the card. 24 total roles were devised and the visual design of the cards were iterated.
