13.6. Design Analysis: Mental Health

We want to provide you, the reader, a chance to explore mental health more. We want you to be considering potential benefits and harms to the mental health of different people (benefits like reducing stress, feeling part of a community, finding purpose, etc. and harms like unnecessary anxiety or depression, opportunities and encouragement of self-bullying, etc.).

As you do this you might consider personality differences (such as introverts and extroverts), and neurodiversity, the ways people’s brains work and process information differently (e.g., ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Face blindness, depression, anxiety). But be careful generalizing about different neurotypes (such as Autism), especially if you don’t know them well. Instead try to focus on specific traits (that may or may not be part of a specific group) and the impacts on them (e.g., someone easily distracted by motion might…., or someone sensitive to loud sounds might…, or someone already feeling anxious might…).

We will be doing a modified version of the five-step CIDER method (Critique, Imagine, Design, Expand, Repeat).

While the CIDER method normally assumes that making a tool accessible to more people is morally good, if that tool is potentially harmful to people (e.g., give people unnecessary anxiety), then making the tool accessible to more people might be morally bad. So instead of just looking at the assumptions made about people and groups using a social media site, we will be also looking at potential harms to different people and groups using a social media site.

So open a social media site on your device. Then do the following (preferably on paper or in a blank computer document):

13.6.1. Harms

Critique (3-5 minutes, by yourself):

How might the mental health of different people or groups be harmed by this social media site? List as many as you can think of (bullet points encouraged).

Imagine (2-3 minutes, by yourself):

Select one of the above harms that you think is important to address. Then write a 1-2 sentence scenario where a user faces difficulties because of the harm you selected. This represents one way the design could harm certain users.

Design (3-5 minutes, by yourself):

Brainstorm ways to change the site or your device to avoid the scenario you wrote above. List as many different kinds of potential solutions you can think of – aim for ten or more (bullet points encouraged).

Expand (5-10 minutes, with others):

Combine your list of critiques with someone else’s (or if possible, have a whole class combine theirs).

Repeat the Imagine and Design Tasks:

Select another harm from the list above that you think is important to address. Make sure to choose a different harm than you used before. Choose one that you didn’t come up with yourself, if possible. Repeat the Imagine and Design steps.

13.6.2. Benefits

Critique (3-5 minutes, by yourself):

How might the mental health of different people or groups be benefited by this social media site? List as many as you can think of (bullet points encouraged).

Imagine (2-3 minutes, by yourself):

Select one of the above benefits that you think is important to consider. Then write a 1-2 sentence scenario where a user gets these benefits.

Design (3-5 minutes, by yourself):

Brainstorm ways to change the site or your device to make the scenario more beneficial to that person or group, or beneficial to even more people. List as many different kinds of potential changes you can think of – aim for ten or more (bullet points encouraged).

Expand (5-10 minutes, with others):

Combine your list of benefits with someone else’s (or if possible, have a whole class combine theirs).

Repeat the Imagine and Design Tasks:

Select another benefit from the list above that you think is important to address. Make sure to choose a different benefit than you used before. Choose one that you didn’t come up with yourself, if possible. Repeat the Imagine and Design steps.