2023 Brief by Kano Computing for Stemplayer
News-cube tackles the problems of media bias and algorithm-driven content, offering a healthier news consumption experience through the simultaneous display of diverse perspectives.
Today, algorithms dominate our digital lives, feeding us content that reinforces our existing views and beliefs. Research shows that digital news consumption through social media or online browsing can lead to increased polarization and intensify media bias, as we tend to stay within our echo chambers and may not consider multiple perspectives. These issues have far-reaching consequences, negatively impacting our mental health and hampering our ability to make well informed decisions.

News-cube is a tool designed to combat these problems and promote a healthier relationship with news consumption. Each face of the cube displays the same article from six different media outlets simultaneously. The six sources are spread out across the political spectrum, facilitating lateral reading.

News-cube further helps navigate the complex media landscape by providing information on the news sources such as their political bias and how rigorous they are in their fact checking. The feed combines topics that you're interested in with random topics that you might not typically explore, fostering a well-rounded understanding of current events.

01 The problem

News consumption through digital devices

01 Social Media & Search Engine Algorithms

Algorithms ensure we encounter only opinions and beliefs similar to our ownor content that keeps us entretained, keeping us in a confirmation bias bubble and hooked to our devices.

02 Echo Chambers
Echo chambers create a false reality, distorting our perception of what is kommon knowledge and what other people in our society think (e.g: in Brexit).

Only encountering information that emphasises our existing beliefs makes us more susceptible to misinformation and leads to more extreme polarisation.

03 Media Bias

Distortion of the objectivity and fairness of news coverage.

Many hidden interests behind how news is covered. News has the power of changing the course of societal, political and economical issues.

04 Mental Health
Doom-scrolling, where individuals repeatedly consume distressing news.

Algorithm anxiety stemming from personalized content that reinforces biases.

Media overload, causing information overwhelm and emotional distress.

02 Design development

Designing a physical product that fosters healthier news consumption habits

Exploring and sketch modelling unconventional interactions with digital devices:

Part of why we doomscroll is the easiness of scrolling. With just one simple movement of our finger we consume more and more content, get more and more stimulus, the entretainment is endless .

Here are some examples of interactions that I explored to find alternative ways that we could interact with our feed that would make it more conscious or difficult.

Modelmaking

Size and shape iterations to see differences in how they roll & how comfortable they are to hold. Models were filled with clay to get a more realistic weight.

I tested a range of sizes with a variety of people with different hand shapes and found out which one was most comfortable.

01 The problem

News consumption through digital devices

02 Design development

Designing a physical product that fosters healthier news consumption habits

Exploring and sketch modelling unconventional interactions with digital devices:

Modelmaking

Service Map

03 Interactive prototype

Built with Vectary

Olga Peral

02

News-cube