Timeline: January - April 2024 (4 Months)
Discipline: UX/UI Design, App Design
Role: UX/UI Designer, Design Researcher, Interviewer, User Testing Specialist
Tools: Figma, Prototype, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effect, FigJam
Thought Matrix is a learning platform on Apple Vision Pro developed for college students, who looking for an immersive platform to explore information from different perspectives.
Problems and insights
My thesis, "Echoes of Autonomy: Investigating Strategies to Strengthen Independent Thought," examines the pervasive influence of social media on independent thinking.
Echo chambers make people gradually become narcissistic, vulnerable, and stubborn. A study on Facebook users revealed a tendency to encounter content from like-minded sources rather than diverse viewpoints, leading to ideological segregation.
User numbers for various social media platforms
Research
Books
Papers & Articles
Regarding the impact of social media on people’s autonomous thinking, she engaged with a series of resources and spoke with professionals who work in educational systems and study new technology.
Ian Gates, a 19-year-old social media user said, “love to see new ideas on my feed. I try to go out of my way to follow people who disagree with me.” - Aina Marzia
If teenagers remain addicted to a culture of instant gratification and continue relying on social media, they risk diminishing their capacity for proactive thinking. Adolescents are still in the learning phase, and they have not yet reached maturity. This stage influences their future decision-making, which benefits from diverse perspectives.
How can we develop collaborative platforms that encourage people of diverse backgrounds to share and learn from a wide range of information?
Thought Matrix enhances decision-making and learning through immersive storylines with captivating visuals, presenting diverse viewpoints. The platform encourages information gathering along with insight sharing, helping users visualize their choices and reasoning through knowledge graphics.
Ideation
User persona
User flow
The process of verification when encountering contradictory information is critical in developing knowledge graphics. This insight suggests that users value the ability to verify the credibility of information, especially when faced with conflicting viewpoints. Thought Matrix encourages users to critically evaluate and verify the information they come across. The process of making predictive judgments, seeking information, and then making evaluative judgments is central to thinking development.
The Solution
Users make intuitive decisions, connecting each choice to relevant knowledge. They access diverse perspectives from philosophers, authors, and user-contributed content. After they go through the resources users can record their thoughts.
Kong Blocks embody interactions and achievements from users' journeys. Users can build upon their learning journey by stacking blocks, each linked to a new resource.
Users revisit scenarios with different choices to gain new insights.
Users join friends' journeys and collaborate through calls or video chats if divergent answers arise.
If a friend is offline but has completed part of their journey, users can explore their thought process by viewing their "Thought Matrix." For example, clicking the “Skip to Chapter X” button lets users explore new content.
After users finish their adventure, they can review their thinking process through their Thought Matrix and check the relevant references by clicking on the bubbles.
user testings
Rui conducted user testing with over 24 participants who provided positive feedback. Participants expressed that they hope future classroom teaching can adopt this format, as they believe this medium can resonate with young people. They think it helps promote critical thinking, and that making choices based on intuition is a good thing. This method allows users to focus on the information they are interested in, as these choices are not about right or wrong. Participants make choices based on personal resonance and feel a connection with others who made similar choices, whether they are past philosophers, fictional characters in novels, or other users of the thought matrix.
One of the 12-year-old middle school students said
Next step
Rui will continue to add new plots and references to Thought Matrix, making the story richer. She particularly liked one participant’s suggestion: ‘I hope I can choose both the red and blue pills, or maybe there’s a pink pill or something.’ This has shown her more interesting and even unexpected possibilities to explore new plots and relative references.
prototype
