User Research
This is the result of our user research
Project Direction
We envision a website that resembles the references section of a scientific paper, but virtual. When people engage in discussion online, they could add validity to their arguments by including a link to a virtual references list on our site. Sources are verified on our site through crowdsourcing (upvotes/downvotes) and possibly through a source-checking API. Users could navigate between topics and verify information after reading the corresponding sources.
Target Audience
Our target audience is Western culture young adults who consume news and engage in opinionated discussion online. At this age, people build opinions on politics, news, and life. They also often fall victim to misinformation due to youth and heavy internet use. Our resource would empower young adults to formulate their opinions based on reliable information. User Research Method
We chose to go with both surveys and interviews as our user research methods. We think that they provide different types of information, one which is more statistical and one which is more in depth and personal. Another reason we chose them was because we have experience with using these methods so we thought it would be the most reliable way for us to gather information. We categorized our questions into the AEIOU format to make the information more digestible. For example, we asked about who our participants normally interact with online and categorized that into the Users part of AEIOU. Additionally we followed up on survey questions in our interviews so that we could learn more about the reasoning behind our participants’ answers.
Research Participants
We managed to gather a substantial amount of data from our targeted audience. All of our interviewees were college students around the age of early 20’s while our survey respondents were mostly 19 to 22 years of age. The interviewees are all from asian ethnicity and STEM majors, which may skew the answers due to their background. From the way that our survey forms were given out in various online forums and chat groups, the survey respondents are most likely to have utilized the internet quite a lot in their daily life. With our information coming from our target audience, the resulting data will be helpful in understanding how to reduce misinformation in university students’ lives as they participate in online discussions.
Findings According to AEIOU Framework
Activity
Both our survey and interviews showed that Google was primarily used to verify ideas and fact check due to easy access and time efficiency. That was followed by news websites/articles which could be found and shared on various social media platforms. Whether users evaluated trust online depended on the sensitivity of the topics (Politics vs. Games) and how clickbaity was a title versus articles with accreditation.
Environment
The majority of users get their news through two sources. One is apps that users personally seek out (New York Times, Reddit, etc.) and two people (Youtuber, family, friends) sharing news. Online discussions were held either on predetermined platforms by their social groups (Zoom, Messenger, Discord) or seeking personal interests (Tinder, Reddit).
Interaction
Users reported that they mostly lurk on platforms as they are wary of the permanent nature of online posts. Still they noted that they feel frustrated and annoyed at toxic and hateful comments (from people and bots) and are skeptical (being cautious about comments others make), as users are less likely to trust strangers. Additionally, they categorize trust depending on comments with the most upvotes, and are generally inclined to trust friends instead of strangers or individuals proven to have educational or experience accreditation. Lastly, when asked about facing misinformation users said that sometimes it is hard to label depending on the topic and recounted that the blatant ones are very outlandish statements that spark disbelief and curiosity aimed to make users fall into a rabbit hole in the given subject matter.
Object
Most of the users noted that verifying information physically using books or library resources was uncommon. Some users would usually talk with their friends who are more knowledgeable about the topic, while others described using their phones and laptops to access the internet and verify information online. More than 90% of users also mentioned that it would be very helpful to have a website that could accurately verify information. Some users, though, voiced reservations about how a website could have constantly precise information.
Users
We found that most discussions are either 1 on 1 messaging or on platforms like Reddit where conversations are between groups of anonymous users. Furthermore, trust depends on the people that users are discussing with. For example, users don’t typically trust other anonymous online users to provide valid information, so they have to do fact checking themselves, but most people trust information that their friends provide. Interviewees also brought up some concerns about a platform that crowdsources fact checking information because it is possible that other users could act as trolls or upvote/downvote articles mindlessly.
Overall Takeaways:
Through our study we were able to identify two types of users. Firstly we have users who want to easily and quickly fact check or verify ideas. This type of user will not be spending much time on our platform. Secondly we have users who enjoy interacting and contributing to information on the platform. These users would take their time to slowly review articles and confirm information. Our goals for the first group includes providing a familiar and efficient option to fact check information as an alternative to the traditional methods like Google and news articles. While for the second group we want to explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, while also seeking to maintain our goal of promoting neutrality within our design. Finally, we learned that the fact checking process varies depending on the topic, so we want to design a platform that accommodates all types of discussions.