ARTICLE SUMMARY: The old saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” While the internet has been a boon to mankind, there are a lot of unintended consequences that designers need to deal with.
The rise of social media saw the unintended rise in depression and anxiety among young American students, add to that the high percentage of negative online experiences, that should be a major concern for all designers.
“The UX butterfly effect” by Martin Tomitsch is a look at and a help for designers to understand the unintended consequences in design and how to plan for them. He talks about:
- The law of unintended consequences
- Visualizing unintended consequences with systems maps
- Mapping the impact ripples
In an effort to keep users longer, based on their interactions, the company will use the algorithms to build a model of the kind of content a users like. As the model becomes more and more attuned to the interests of individual users, they will respond by staying longer on the site watching more content.
Unintended consequences are not part of the original design goals. They are side effects that emerge after the design is implemented and used. Creating a mapping the system early on helps spot these side effects and lessen their negative impact.
This article has a lot of insights that are well worth reading, let us know what you think in the comments.
