21 June 2021
by Poopak Azhand, Glasgow School of Art
In order to explore the research question _ how can Interaction Design be used to investigate the young adults’ (18-24 years old) understanding of respect in the context of cyberbullying in Scotland? User-centred approach has been placed at the core of this project through the collaboration of the key stakeholders and young adults (18-24 years old). It adopted Interaction Design and co-design approaches to play a role in the direct participation of both key stakeholders and young adults living in Scotland. The Interaction Design approach offered a unique chance to create interventions by taking into account the social, environmental, cultural and technological aspect of the online environment and online ethics. This enabled an understanding of respect in the online environment, ways to minimise cyberbullying by promoting respect in an online environment and its relation to the physical environment through creative asynchronous and synchronous activities, group workshop sessions, semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis.
Throughout my practice, I collected data/ info through online workshops, online interviews and asynchronous activities (starter kit). Five key stakeholders and one young adult participated in interviews, online workshops, and asynchronous activities. After the online interviews, they have received starter kits containing booklets.
The booklets enabled me to engage with participants in the physical and online environment and collect meaningful data. The starter kit intended to provide a further opportunity for participants to rethink and reflect on the project scopes and questions. It was designed to simulate a mini mobile workshop and create a real workshop experience at participants’ homes. Similar to a workshop, a starter kit had all the materials they needed to complete the activities. The starter kit contained pens, markers, post-it notes, glues, prepaid envelopes, snacks, and a booklet. The booklet held all the activities, where participants could elaborate on their thoughts, beliefs, experiences, knowledge, and ideas.
After asynchronous activities, they attended group-online workshops where two activities enabled participants to elaborate their experience, knowledge, ideas and thoughts on reducing cyberbullying. And, we concluded the sessions with a shared idea and intervention to reduce cyberbullying. Next, I analysed all the findings and data using thematic analysis, and then I planned the evaluation session. Evaluation sessions designed to allow participants to choose collectively the ideas that promote respect and reduce cyberbullying.
With the support of SICSA, I was able to design and prepare asynchronous activities (booklet) and starter-kit in a short period of time. Besides, the fund allowed me to appreciate participants’ engagement with offering voucher gifts.