Dysfunctional systems: digital products and addiction John Voss UX Collective

Table Of Content

• Why Companies Should Prioritize Emotional Intelligence Training Alongside AI Implementation
• Editorial: Sending armed troops to quash peaceful campus protests is a dangerous idea
• Moving forward with What is Humane Design? The New standard for User-Centered Design
• How can humane design be used to create more empathy in products?
• • An action
• Designing Addictive User Interfaces
• Digital design ethics: from addictive design to humane design
• Look & Feel…Now & Then

When considering the association between FA and BMI, close to 20% were obese and little over 40% were underweight (248). Addictive mechanisms serve a homeostatic function so that if food is scarce one will seek it and binge when found. Additionally, those in the underweight category may be dieting or displaying restrained eating patterns which can increase reward sensitivity for food. The failure of human models of food addiction using YFAS to control for dieting behaviors is a shortcoming of this construct (discussed below). Other neurochemical similarities between drugs of abuse and sugar dependent rats have been observed. Behavioral sensitization is a phenomenon linked to several facets of drug dependence and consists on a long-lasting increase in locomotor activity following repeated administration of psychostimulants or opioids (204–206).

Why Companies Should Prioritize Emotional Intelligence Training Alongside AI Implementation

We cannot discard FA because not all obese people are food-addicted and not all food-addicted are obese (251–253). A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of human studies “support that altered general reward-related decision making is a salient neuropsychological factor across eating and weight disorders in adulthood” (255). Taken together, the FA perspective suggests that biochemical changes and genetic predisposition to addiction can lead to excess food consumption independent of social factors.

Editorial: Sending armed troops to quash peaceful campus protests is a dangerous idea

Considerable controversy exists with respect to sugar intake and obesity (266). There is general consensus indicating that sugar (sucrose, fructose) is not a direct cause of obesity (267, 268), however, other studies have linked sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) to an increase in body weight in children and adults (269, 270). Several reasons are offered to explain this discrepancy, but somehow SSB appears to be a special case. First, it is possible that liquid calories are not compensated by a total decrease in energy intake. None of these studies have linked SSB to sugar addiction so we cannot adequately assess the direct impact of compulsive SSB consumption on body weight. The design legislation that’s still alive in the state Senate would require companies to implement common-sense privacy requirements such as stringent default settings and clear, concise terms of service.

Moving forward with What is Humane Design? The New standard for User-Centered Design

Acetylcholine (ACh) is released by local interneurons that compromise less than 2% of neurons in the NAc (131, 132). They have an extensive axonal arborization and form synapses in the medium spiny output neuron (133). The idea that ACh opposes DA function in the striatum comes from research on Parkinson's disease (PD). It is known that anticholinergic (antimuscarinic) drugs were the first medications used in the treatment of PD antagonizing mainly M1 receptors (134, 135).

How can humane design be used to create more empathy in products?

The gateway hypothesis claims that legal drugs (alcohol or nicotine) precedes consumption of cannabinoids, and cannabinoids precede other illicit drugs (218). In animal models of drug abuse this phenomenon appears to be linked to cross-sensitization and instead of increasing locomotor activity it increases the intake of another drug (“consummatory cross-sensitization”) (168). For instance, exposure to cannabis in young adult rats enhanced opiate intake when adults (219). In a separate experiment, pre-exposure of ethanol enhanced cocaine self-administration in adult mice (220, 221). They may seem to beckon you and gnaw at you and even bark at you to open that app BUT you don’t need to follow their call.

I imagine most of us have had the frustration of thinking that we are activating one burner of the stove, say the left front, only to find that another burner, the back right, has actually heated. It turns out that every stove manufacturer has a slightly different way of aligning the knobs to the burners, and this design problem is surprisingly complex. Most of the time, the mismatch between knobs and burners simply causes frustration, but it can cause a fire in some cases, and it only takes a minute or two for a house fire to reach out-of-control levels. Robinson also discusses a plane crash in Colombia that was caused by a glitch in the autopilot software and other instances of design problems leading to injury and death, like the ignition switch failures in GM cars back in 2015. Besides, there will be rules in place eventually to prevent businesses from manipulating and exploiting customers using addictive design patterns.

Designing Addictive User Interfaces

As mentioned, social media algorithms manipulate what people see online in order to keep them addicted to ‘liking’ and scrolling through nonstop ads and content. Hence, it’s not just the manipulative algorithms that are a problem but also the addictive design of social media. For instance, two examples of addictive design are the ‘like’ button and the infinite scroll. The nutrition transition theory is also supported by compelling evidence suggesting that a wide range of animals have also been gaining weight in recent years (25, 26). Other terms that support the “environmental theory of obesity” include “globesity” at the most distal levels, and the “neighborhood effect” at more proximal levels (27). Notwithstanding, the “neighborhood effect” has far-reaching social implications, given that the neighborhood where one lives is merely a proxy for socioeconomic status.

EU opens probe of TikTok Lite, citing concerns about addictive design - TechCrunch

EU opens probe of TikTok Lite, citing concerns about addictive design.

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 17:15:00 GMT [source]

We will also look at how interfaces have changed over time and what this means for users. Regarding addictive design, social media companies like Facebook or Twitter can redesign their platforms by getting rid of the addictive features, such as the ‘like’ button and infinite scroll. Likewise, social media platforms may become addictive because they work like a game that never ends. Specifically, we’re referring to the infinite scroll feature—like the Facebook News Feed or Twitter timeline. The infinite scroll (as well as similar features like ‘auto refresh’) can easily give rise to “doomscrolling.” Doomscrolling refers to endlessly and mindlessly scrolling online, with no end in sight. America’s young people face a mental health crisis, and adults constantly debate how much to blame phones and social media.

Look & Feel…Now & Then

Remember to keep things simple and safe, and you will be on your way to creating a truly humane design. With rapidly growing technology, we are exposed to massive amounts of information and start to feel like drowning in a pool filled with information. Thus, digital product companies need to do something to shine out and draw more attention, because day by day attention and time become an increasingly scarce resource. Accordingly user experience and interface designers started to focus more on habit building tactics while designing a digital product. Tech companies started to compete with each other, in terms of finding the best solution for hooking users into their platforms.

“It literally is a point now where I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. I would encourage all of you, as the future leaders of the world to really internalize how important this is. If you feed the beast, that beast will destroy you.” The fact that this criticism comes from a high-level tech insider makes it that much more shocking. Instead of focusing on addictive design and dark patterns, perhaps creating more value, attracting more customers, and everything else that we’ve discussed in this article can be a better approach to generating revenue. I’m not convinced that addictive design is a bigger moneymaker than ethical design anyway, at least not in today’s society where people don’t hesitate to boycott businesses that treat people badly. I suppose we all have a responsibility to make digital products healthier to use, don’t we?

These behaviors are then tracked by algorithms that show users more content likely to keep them engaged. Surely, redesigning social media in this way would be a step in the right direction. Instead of platforms that addict users to outrageous, erroneous content, we could have platforms that help people find credible, accurate information.

The design of an interface can significantly impact how users interact with it. This is because the design of an interface can influence our emotions and behaviors. The terms UI and UX are often used interchangeably, but there is a distinction between the two. UI design focuses on the visual elements of an interface, such as how it looks and feels. On the other hand, UX design is concerned with how easy it is to use an interface and how efficient it is at doing what it’s supposed to do. The primary motivation of all online platforms is to keep users on the platform and extend the amount of time they spend on the platform.

There appear to be two camps, one that has determined the driving force is addiction while the other asserting that obsessive anxiety is what makes us return to our devices constantly all day (and night). Addiction and obsession are different processes according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In fact, smartphone or Internet addiction or obsession are not even in the manual although Internet gaming disorder was placed in the appendix of the latest version as warranting further study meaning with more research it may appear in the next version. Anxiety certainly appears in the DSM in many guises but nothing is said relating it to the Internet or smartphone or tiny red dots. In the literature, it is often referred to as FOMO—fear of missing out—or nomophobia—fear of being without your smartphone or being unable to use it. The Commission also said it’s minded to impose interim measures that could force the company to suspend access to the TikTok Lite app in the EU while it investigates concerns the app poses mental health risks to users.

By taking these factors into account when designing products, it is possible to create more user-friendly items that are still enjoyable and satisfying to use. European Union regulators on Monday opened an investigation into TikTok over potential breaches of online content rules aimed at protecting children, saying the popular social media platform’s “addictive design” risked exposing young people to harmful content. People are more willing than ever before to spend money on things that don’t come with these negative effects. Most digital platforms, when looking to establish credibility, turn to some measure of “social proof”, whereby they utilise phenomena where users can be influenced and motivated by the desires, actions, and behaviour of other people.

Former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris who recently co-founded the Center for Humane Technology raises that question. He has become one of the most outspoken critics of how devices are intentionally made to hook users at the cost of their time and comfort. Some of his alternative designs illustrate what a different app ecosystem could look like — where health and time are prioritized over constant engagement. The company was fined roughly $370 million in September for having weak safeguards to protect the personal information of children using the platform. Policymakers in the United States have also been wrestling with how to regulate the platform for harmful content and data privacy — concerns amplified by TikTok’s links to China.