Using Design As Provocation in Technology

Caroline Sinders uses design as a lens to see and explore the world around her – it’s a framework for interrogation, as she look at technology’s impacts in society, be it online harassment or artificial intelligence. This has been her focus for the past few years, which has resulted in numerous talks, workshops, and collaborations in how design mitigate or amplify harassment, the problems can design can cause through dark patterns, and how design can be used to illustrate (or obfuscate) AI, data and privacy in products.  Design isn’t just a skill but a practice, a language in and of itself. To start solving problems around harassment but also creating spaces for human connection, design needs to be at the equal forefront of this conversation. Design is what is distilling policy and code into a digestible and interactable interface for users. Design is critical to understanding tech’s impacts on society. Especially when it comes to harassment or understanding technology’s impacts in society, design is important.

• Dark Patterns and Design Policy: an article on why we need design policy for Data & Society’s online blog, Points.
• A paper co-written with Sebastian Rieger of Stiftung Neue Verantwortung on dark patterns and German policy
• A provocation on ‘data ingredients’ or how labels could help make AI more understandable- Privacy by Design, Harvard’s Shorenstein Center 
• An essay commissioned for the Barbican Centre on on architecture and rethinking architecture for social networks
• Her column on Responsible Technology for Glitch’s Magazine Glimmer.