In approaching this brief as a design exercise, I chose to highlight the three platforms that I frequent: Google, Instagram, and Facebook. These three are symbolized by each platform’s primary color scheme. The filter bubble is a product of the algorithms that operate on each platform. The intersection of the lines of the grid on each produces an illusion of white nodes pulsating – a visualization of the continuous calculations of the algorithms to provide a more personalized user experience.
During use of each platform the user is constantly communicating and the outcome is not always what the user had intended. This can be interpreted as the communication lines being weak or fragmented. This is illustrated in the overall confusion of each piece at first glance of the designs.
The emphasis is on the characteristics of each platform in respect to the filter bubble. Google, is an information highway that provides search results based on what is most relevant to the user. Instagram curates a “hotspot” materialized by the data logs of each user. And in regards to Facebook, the user’s newsfeed is polarized in one direction or the other. The experience has become restricted and therefore the full experience was not able to be fulfilled. Consequently, the usability is controlled and moderated expressed by the invisible circular boundaries.
The white squares or “openings” of the filter (represented as the grid on each) are an illustration of what is included and/ or excluded from each platform. The size of the openings vary from platform to platform leading to different experiences for the user. The issue of transparency
The consequence of this phenomena is a complete, but inaccurate and flawed picture of a user. Because different platforms have their own unique algorithms to identify wblob:https://www.behance.net/ba40897a-8b70-42bb-93f2-8f38d8ebb3afhat may lead them to think a user likes, their picture of the user can vary at different points in time. This result is illustrated by my name, in Korean Hangul characters, which has been disfigured and is imagined in different layouts. As a whole, it is me, but an altered picture.
