My role:
Solo Designer. Conducted literature review, research, built 3d modeling, created branding and visual assets for the experience
Time frame:
Sep, 2020–May, 2021
Skills:
3D modelling (C4D), interaction design, visual design, critical thinking
The Persona Lab
To gather objective feedback and minimize bias, general public can submit safety reviews by answering fact-based questions covering the five safety dimensions. Additionally, for dedicated Google Maps Local Guides, question cards are prompted while they are at the location, minimizing the effort required to recall current safety conditions.
A speculative experiential design on algorithm-generated online persona
In today's digital era, algorithms increasingly shape our online self-representation and perception. For my senior thesis, I want to explore the paradox between our authentic selves and online personas, reevaluating our relationship with technology. The concept of the "Persona Lab" is proposed, where visitors experience a generated persona based on algorithmically collected data. I aim to critique and raise awareness about the commodification of identity and the impact of algorithmic decision-making. Initiating a conversation about personal autonomy and its implications for our digital identities becomes crucial as we become more conscious of these issues.
Context
01
Entrance: Vending Machine
Learn more about the lab experience and avatar creation. Complete a personality test and face+body scan to acquire a customized digital avatar calculated by the algorithm. The avatar that encompasses the visitor’s personality dictates what they see, analyzes their interactions and produces feedback on their glasses in real time. Visitors see in the perspective of their new avatars from now on.
The Persona Lab speculates a persona-building and taster experience, where visitors try out and reflect on their new virtual identities through a persona-customized digital interaction dictated by the algorithm. Visitors will acquire a receipt of their avatar’s data before leaving and rethink how far personal autonomy goes in their relationships with algorithm-generated identities. After all, could it be that everyone has been living freely in the unfree…
The Experience
02
Station one: Persona Building
Take a personality test and undergo a face+body scan to obtain a personalized digital avatar generated by the algorithm. This avatar determines the visitor's visual perspective, analyzes interactions, and provides real-time feedback through their glasses. Visitors now perceive the world through the lens of their new avatars.
03
Station three: Persona Takeaway
Reach the final station, the "backstage" of the lab, where the inner workings of algorithmic speculation and control are unveiled. Visitors place their glasses on a smart counter connected to the lab's AI, receiving a printed persona receipt summarizing their digital avatar's components to take home. Alternatively, they can access the complete avatar features online for installation in other applications. Congratulations! The persona has now assimilated its host.
Studies that go behind "building" the lab: define+discover
“The Truman Show” discusses the parallel between reality and illusion in a media-saturated society, to what extent is our life dictated and “branded” by external forces, such as social media without knowing?
Challenges
“The presentation of self in everyday life”
When the public has become the “observer” who influences how someone acts at the “front”, this performer is likely to put on a “mask”, i.e. a “persona”.
"The age of surveillance capitalism”
self-identity no longer reflects how “I” feel, but mirrors the audience’s opinions. Thus ubiquitous computing has made the persona-performance analogy a never-ending show.
In a spectacular society, “social relations between among people mediated by images”. Spectacle focuses on appearance, and appearance is governing our life and society.
--Society of Spectacles