Matching Items (9)
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- All Subjects: 19765
- Creators: Sanft, Alfred
- Creators: Barnett, Jessica
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
Social media is an industry that is rapidly growing and is affecting our society, our health, and our social environments. Emerging research suggests that Social Media has been linked to Poor Body Image, Cyberbullying, Depression, Internet Addiction, and Loneliness among other things. This paper looks at the research and discusses the designer's role in the matter. Is it possible that poor design is the cause of these problems? Can design solve these problems? Are there ethical standards that digital product designers in particular can abide by?
ContributorsDavis, Nicole Angela (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Fueled by fear in the post-9/11 United States, American intelligence agencies conduct dragnet data collection on global communication. Despite the intention of surveillance as preventative counter-terrorism action, the default search and seizure of global communication poses a threat to our constitutional rights and individual autonomy. This is the case especially for people who may be thought of as in opposition to our current political climate, such as immigrants, people of color, women, people practicing non-western religions, people living outside of the United States, activists, persons engaging in political dissent, and people with intersecting identities. Throughout the Fall and Spring semesters, I have done research, conducted visual experiments and designed exploratory projects in order to more thoroughly identify the issue and explore the ways in which visual communication design can aid in the conversation surrounding global surveillance. It was the intention of my fourth year social issue projects to explore the role of visual communication design in the dialogue surrounding surveillance, principally focusing on the responsibility visual communication design has in spreading ideas about how to globally subvert surveillance until governments disclose information about their unconstitutional actions or until whistleblowers do it for them. My final project, the fourth year social issue exhibit, focuses on how improving our personal password habits can help us gain agency in digital spaces. Using the randomness of rolling a dice to generate entropy can help us generate stronger passwords in order to secure sensitive information online. Using design as a method of communication, my fourth year social issue exhibit shared information about how encrypted passwords can act as the first line of defense in protecting ourselves from invasive data collection and malicious internet activity.
ContributorsBailey, Lauren Nicole (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
In early 2026, the NASA Discovery Program will fall into orbit with a metal asteroid named Psyche. Through discovery and interaction, this exploration will give us insight into an asteroid that we cannot see or interpret. From a certain view, you can look at how this mission mimics that discovery with experimentation of our own senses. As a part of a team of eight seniors, we were tasked to help develop a mobile application that reflects the Psyche mission and shows the future of the project ten years from now. Since this is also a government funded project, it is pertinent to adhere to the ADA compliance guidelines required to make digital applications accessible to the larger public. As a designer, I wanted to push this concept further to showcase that accessibility is not something that should be stereotyped or discouraged from a design perspective. Each person that interacts with the application will have a different experience but it is this collaboration between the object and it's audience that creates this sense of discovery. Taking the mission's core values one step further, this application was designed and explored to uphold the foundations of what Universal Design is about. It is about connecting interested parties to the material they are looking for without unrealistic access that is dependent on ability.
ContributorsSchaecher, Lauren Allison (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
DescriptionThrough artist book, printed photographs, paintings, writing, and web design, August Tang deconstructed their identity as a nonbinary person. Both educational and expressive, the creative project was a manifestation of a coming out journey, affirmation of gender identity, and experiences relating to gender with friends, family, and strangers.
ContributorsTang, August B (Author) / Button, Melissa (Thesis director) / Sanft, Alfred (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
"No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth." These were the words of former Facebook Vice President Chamath Palihapitiya who publicly expressed his regret in a 2017 interview over his role in co-creating Facebook. Palihapitiya shared that social media is ripping apart the social fabric of society and he also sounded the alarm regarding social media’s unavoidable global impact. He is only one of social media’s countless critics. The more disturbing issue resides in the empirical evidence supporting such notions. At least 95% of adolescents own a smartphone and spend an average time of two to four hours a day on social media. Moreover, 91% of 16-24-year-olds use social media, yet youth rate Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as the worst social media platforms. However, the social, clinical, and neurodevelopment ramifications of using social media regularly are only beginning to emerge in research. Early research findings show that social media platforms trigger anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and other negative mental health effects. These negative mental health symptoms are commonly reported by individuals from of 18-25-years old, a unique period of human development known as emerging adulthood. Although emerging adulthood is characterized by identity exploration, unbounded optimism, and freedom from most responsibilities, it also serves as a high-risk period for the onset of most psychological disorders. Despite social media’s adverse impacts, it retains its utility as it facilitates identity exploration and virtual socialization for emerging adults. Investigating the “user-centered” design and neuroscience underlying social media platforms can help reveal, and potentially mitigate, the onset of negative mental health consequences among emerging adults. Effectively deconstructing the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (i.e., hereafter referred to as “The Big Three”) will require an extensive analysis into common features across platforms. A few examples of these design features include: like and reaction counters, perpetual news feeds, and omnipresent banners and notifications surrounding the user’s viewport. Such social media features are inherently designed to stimulate specific neurotransmitters and hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and cortisol. Identifying such predacious social media features that unknowingly manipulate and highjack emerging adults’ brain chemistry will serve as a first step in mitigating the negative mental health effects of today’s social media platforms. A second concrete step will involve altering or eliminating said features by creating a social media platform that supports and even enhances mental well-being.
ContributorsGupta, Anay (Author) / Flores, Valerie (Thesis director) / Carrasquilla, Christina (Committee member) / Barnett, Jessica (Committee member) / The Sidney Poitier New American Film School (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The Barrett Honors College website contains a lot of information that isn’t easily accessible by Honors Students. Many honors students have trouble finding the correct information they need. Important information is scattered all over the website making it difficult for honors students to find and understand the information they need. One example of this is the requirements for Lower and Upper Division credit. This website displays the upper and lower division credit needed for a student to graduate from the honors college via a noninteractive flowchart. Many high school seniors find it difficult to understand the mundane flowchart outlining the required honors credit that is required for graduating from Barrett at Arizona State University. Also, it is confusing for many transfer students with unique circumstances to determine the necessary requirements for them to graduate as a Barrett student.
These difficult flowcharts and confusing websites have a huge impact on a student’s ability to adequately receive the information they need and, in the end, can have a negative impact on their ultimate decision when deciding if Barrett is right for them. A better user experience can be a more effective way of displaying information to students. A better design that allows to user more interaction would allow for the user to better understand the information they are presented. Instead of a monotone flowchart displaying the requirements necessary to graduate with honors status, A web application where a user can input their information and get an output of the necessary requirements tailored to the unique circumstance would be more informative, useful, and easier to use. The web app would take information such as a student’s year, whether it be an incoming freshman or transfer student, and their current and previous course credit to determine the specific number of honors credits, The Human Event courses, and Thesis project required for this user to complete the requirements for Barrett Honors College. This application would give the user a better understanding of what is required of them and in turn lead to a better user experience.
These difficult flowcharts and confusing websites have a huge impact on a student’s ability to adequately receive the information they need and, in the end, can have a negative impact on their ultimate decision when deciding if Barrett is right for them. A better user experience can be a more effective way of displaying information to students. A better design that allows to user more interaction would allow for the user to better understand the information they are presented. Instead of a monotone flowchart displaying the requirements necessary to graduate with honors status, A web application where a user can input their information and get an output of the necessary requirements tailored to the unique circumstance would be more informative, useful, and easier to use. The web app would take information such as a student’s year, whether it be an incoming freshman or transfer student, and their current and previous course credit to determine the specific number of honors credits, The Human Event courses, and Thesis project required for this user to complete the requirements for Barrett Honors College. This application would give the user a better understanding of what is required of them and in turn lead to a better user experience.
ContributorsGandhe, Nikhil (Author) / Menees, Jodi (Thesis director) / Barnett, Jessica (Committee member) / Davis, Jonathan (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Animal testing is a social issue often forgotten because it does not directly affect the individual on a daily basis. I believe animal testing is an important issue to combat because these animals cannot speak for themselves. I focused the entirety of my senior year on creating projects within the Visual Communication Design program centered around animal testing. I felt it would be powerful to approach animal testing through visual communication design because it allows for the audience to digest the issue in a well-designed fashion, while also being informative. In the Fall of 2019 I designed and constructed a fully functional clock that highlighted the unaccounted for animal lives lost due to animal testing, specifically within the United States. In the Spring of 2020 I completed a virtual exhibit space advocating for individuals to switch to a cruelty-free lifestyle through the products they employ in their daily lives. This exhibit space was originally meant to be built and displayed in person, but due to COVID-19 this was unable to happen. Instead, I was able to work through this setback and construct an augmented reality exhibit. To view this and a process book of creating this virtual exhibit space, visit https://asudesignshow.com/Riley-Padua-Cruelty-Free-Beauty. Finally, I created a book to document the work I created within my senior year with an additional section dedicated to the social issue of animal testing. It is my hope that through my designs and throughout my life that I can be a voice for these animals and work to fight for the end of animal testing.
ContributorsPadua, Riley Sinclaire (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This is a collection on research into, and designed pieces pertaining to, the loss of language in the USA. In particular, the analysis and social consequences of English-as-a-second-language learners losing their native language as they progress through American society. A number of factors have caused many American immigrants or natives to lose their first or family language, causing a cascade of personal and societal issues that range from educational deficiencies to federal and healthcare system failures.
ContributorsGilton, Carter Lewis (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
DescriptionThis project explores the impacts of partisan media bias on the American people and government through a book, website, and three-dimensional exhibit. It is meant to make audiences question the validity and reliability of the information around them while encouraging skepticism.
ContributorsVan Zile, Kara (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05