Madhuka De Silva

Co-designing for Online Safety with Women & Gender diverse people living in Australia

Research funded by Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) and conducted at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)

Image credits: People in circle holding smart mobile phones by davideangeliniphotos

Context

In Australia, majority of technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) is targeted at women and gender diverse people. This includes harmful activities such as cyberstalking, online harassment, and non-consensual sharing of personal information.

Problem

How can we co-design better safety features in social media platforms with women and gender diverse people?

What I deliver and research impact

Co-designing new and improved safety features in social media by working closely with women and gender diverse people across Australia.
- Facilitated 24 workshops with 75 co-designers deriving safety features, following a problem to solution taking an empathetic and qualitative approach.
- Pre-trained in trauma informed practice as a researcher.

Developing evidence based design guidelines with people specialising in gender based violence, technology experts and legal implications.

Writing public reports conveying research outcomes.

What I reflect from the research

Main Challenge and Lesson Learned

Every workshop is different given the nature of co-design, lived experience people bring in, the culture and identity representations. Facilitating by adapting to diverse perspectives and thinking critically without creating a power imbalance is important.

Our most expected outcome is not always the people’s expected outcome

We, as researchers might explore a definitive solution, but we have to always be considerate in co-design, people are there to share their experiences and ideas but we should NOT

burden them to go through trauma again and to
fully rely on them to design solutions to their problems
let them feel unheard or neglect their considerations