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Jiwon Kang portfolio
UX UI Case studies
Crime and Punishment
2022 Research & Studies
11, 2022 / Personal Study
0. Brief
I believe that the greatest force that keeps this world is the law. In the world we live in, we are punished when we commit a crime. If we commit a small crime, the punishment will be light, and if we commit a serious crime, the punishment will also be great. Meanwhile, punishment for committing crimes in digital space is merely 'account suspension for several days'. The number of suspension days increases according to the scale of the crime. I don't think this is a punishment in nature. It rather, is just a convenient 'measure' taken by the administrator of the digital space. As the digital world grows, there will be more number of people committing crimes. What would be the proper 'punishment' in the digital world?
1. Setting
I think 'punishment' means a restriction on freedom and penalty. In this project, freedom in digital space is controlled and the penalty is imposed. The experiment is conducted under strict control of freedom for the participants. Every scenario encountered in the digital space resembles real- world cases, so participants may feel uncomfortable as if the situation happened in real life. Every situation is recorded and observed, and this also makes the subject of the experiment feel deprived of freedom.
2. Scenario
In the studio, install a laptop that plays a prototype. After the subject of the experiment uses the prototype, an interview is conducted.
3. Branding
Style
The program in the project used familiar UI such as Google and iOS to make the test subject feel uncomfortable in familiar situations.
Branding
Eye-shaped icons are attached to apps and files. This means that all individual activities are being monitored, thereby suppressing individual freedom.
4. Output 1
In the first experiment, an interview was conducted after having the subject of the experiment use the prototype according to a scenario. The subject used the prototype without difficulty. When the user tries to move on to the next step, a pop-up with a penalty clause appears.
After the experiment
The subject was asked about her impressions on using the prototype, her own definition of punishment, and her thoughts on control of freedom in digital space as well as on penalty. At the end of it, I explained about the project and asked if the set rule could serve as a punishment. The answer from the subject was as follows.
"If I do not agree, I can’t go to the next step. So, I recognized it at first, but I did not recognize it later, and eventually, I just did not care about it. Feels like nothing and I did not realize it was a penalty.
5. Output 2
In the second experiment, different rules were introduced, to accommodate feedback that the existing method would not serve as a proper punishment as it is often times, ignored. The prototype produced results contrary to the user's intention. This was because it set the meanings and functions of icons and buttons incorrectly. They were set reversely and users couldn’t override it. The experiment was conducted through a ZOOM video.
After the experiment
The subject of the experiment was asked if the given rule could serve as punishment when she compared it to the previous experiment. The answer to the subject is as follows.
Q: You said the before one didn't feel like punishment, so I tried to give you pain. Will this be a punishment?
A: Yes.. It is pain..It was crap. Who made this? Fire the developer.
Insight of the experiment
In Experiment 1, the given penalty could not serve as effective punishment because it was ignored, and in Experiment 2, the rule that made the subject of the experiment annoyed could serve as punishment. The definition of punishment I had before the experiment was the restriction on freedom and penalty, but through the experiment, I realized that punishment is closer to inflicting pain.
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