Project Name:
Respext
Anti Cyberbullying Keyboard plug-in
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Duration:
February 2018 (1-day workshop)
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Team:
Jonathan Quah
Vesali Ellango
Kee Wan Qi
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Role:
Concept direction ; UIUX ; Prototyping
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​Motivation: Engaging the next generation to spread positivity
We were heartbroken to hear stories of our friends’ cousins getting cyber-bulled. No matter where they are from, teenagers and children are growing up in an era that is tremendously digital. We realised that they are exposed to an ever-evolving online world that can be difficult and mentally exhausting to navigate, made worse by the confusing changes that comes with puberty and sexual development.
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Introducing Respext, a keyboard plug-in that aims to empower children to recognise the power behind their words, to inspire them to use it for positivity and to instill a culture of “rethinking” before typing something that might unintentionally hurt someone.
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Product features:
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Android / iOS Compatible Keyboard
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Learn about the context of misappropriated words
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Machine Learning to Track Profanity / Negative Language Use and Agent Identification (Anonymous or Known) over a period of time
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Instantly provides positive word replacements
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Keep track of your online activity and your feelings
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Design Process
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Research: Sticks and stones can break my bones, but only words can hurt me
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Before we begin, we came together and talk about scenarios where a kid might face cyber-bullying, bouncing ideas; writing down possible situations on post-its. It daunt on us that it all came down to words - words do hurt when it comes to social media.
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We came up with a list of criteria our solution should try to fulfil:
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There are several sub-categories of cyber-bullying to take note of (e.g. flaming, impersonation, male-female sexual harassment)
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We should provide them alternatives for positive language. It’s important to not restrict them but to give them the choice and the liberty to choose respectful over negative language
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We need to observe language usage over time. One-off use of denigratory language may not be fully indicative of an instance of cyber-bullying.
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Because it must be accessible across multiple platforms for both private communication (e.g. Whatsapp, Telegram) and social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook), we evolved our idea from an app to a keyboard plug-in.
Wire-framing,proto-jamming and creative direction
Scaling down our ideas to a few necessary features, as the designer of the team, I created wireframes of how our keyboard plug-in should work.
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We decided to make our plug-in vibrant but non-invasive to appeal to our target audience, children from age 7-12 years old. Purple was used due to its significance in the LGBTQ+ community and illustrations were created to be cheery and relatable scenes from their everyday lives. (See images below for visual exploration.)
Introducing respext
Here is the final design for respext. The digital realm is a magnificent place for us to share and explore, but it can also be frightening to navigate...especially for children and preteens.
respext will guide you to spread love and respect as you text and connect to your friends, loved ones and the online community.
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