everybody hurts: content for kindness
TRANSCRIPT
EVERYBODY HURTS sara wachter-boettcher @sara_ann_marie
flickr.com/photos/rickharris/3282983235
content for kindness
Yes No
Have you ever been sexually abused or assaulted?
Yes No
Everyone’s history is personal.
Everyone’s life is complicated.
Everyone’s reactions are unpredictable.
Joy Excitement Love Anxiety Fear Shame Loss Life
Make things for humans.
Make things for whole humans.
‘‘When I look out at this room I see a comparatively small number of faces but I also see a trillion heartbeats. Not your own heartbeats, but those of your users…
If we are going to ask them to spend their heartbeats on us, on our ideas, how can we be sure, far more sure than we are now, that they spend those heartbeats wisely?
—Paul Ford, “Ten Timeframes”
make every decision an act of
KINDNESS
rethink “normal.”
Imagine your user.
Imagine your user. What gender are they?
Imagine your user. What gender are they? Race?
Imagine your user. What gender are they? Race? Age?
Imagine your user. What gender are they? Race? Age? Where do they live?
Imagine your user. What gender are they? Race? Age? Where do they live? How do they feel?
Imagine your user. What gender are they? Race? Age? Where do they live? How do they feel? What are they doing?
What if you’re wrong?
Don’t force false categories.
Don’t assume feelings.
Don’t forget who’s in charge.
Don’t overstep your purpose.
What assumptions are you building into your work?
‘‘These assumptions… are yet another example of technology telling queer, unpartnered, infertile, and/or women uninterested in procreating that they aren’t even women.
—Maggie Delano
‘‘It’s telling women that the only women worth designing technology for are those women who are capable of conceiving and who are not only in a relationship, but in a sexual relationship, and in a sexual relationship with someone who can potentially get them pregnant.
—Maggie Delano
Smooth, seamless, easy. For whom?
Ask users what they want.
Accept nuance in their replies.
What do you want to track?
Cycle length/timing Fertile windows Pregnancy risk Sexual activity Moods and feelings General health
✓
✓
What do you want to track?
Cycle length/timing Fertile windows Pregnancy risk Sexual activity Moods and feelings General health
✓✓
What do you want to track?
Cycle length/timing Fertile windows Pregnancy risk Sexual activity Moods and feelings General health
✓✓✓
KINDNESS IS letting users define
themselves
make space.
Shane Creepingbear Lance Browneyes Robin Kills the Enemy Dana Lone Hill
Your Name Wasn’t Approved.
It looks like that name violates our name standards. You can enter an updated name again in 1 minute. To make sure the updated name complies with our policies, please read more about what names are allowed on Facebook.
Your Name Wasn’t Approved.
It looks like that name violates our name standards. You can enter an updated name again in 1 minute. To make sure the updated name complies with our policies, please read more about what names are allowed on Facebook.
Your Name Wasn’t Approved.
It looks like that name violates our name standards. You can enter an updated name again in 1 minute. To make sure the updated name complies with our policies, please read more about what names are allowed on Facebook.
Your Name Wasn’t Approved.
It looks like that name violates our name standards. You can enter an updated name again in 1 minute. To make sure the updated name complies with our policies, please read more about what names are allowed on Facebook.
Your Name Wasn’t Approved.
It looks like that name violates our name standards. You can enter an updated name again in 1 minute. To make sure the updated name complies with our policies, please read more about what names are allowed on Facebook.
Your name is wrong.
You don’t belong here.
You need to change.
We think this name might be fake.
You’ll need to verify this is your real name before you may use it.
We could be wrong.
We want to fix this.
Here’s what you can do.
KINDNESS IS adjusting to our users’ needs,
not asking them to fit ours
set aside ego.
We are very important.
You’re likely not good enough.
We don’t need you.
Our authors matter.
Your ideas count.
You’re why we’re here.
KINDNESS IS swallowing our pride if
it’ll help our users
be intentional.
Ich bin das __ Kind meiner Mutter.
Ich bin das __ Kind meiner Mutter.
2
Ich bin das __ Kind meiner Mutter.
3
Ich bin das __ Kind meiner Mutter.
Every field carries weight.
We can’t change that.
But we can ask why.
The question protocol
A question protocol includes: • Every question you ask • Who within your organization uses the answers • What they use them for • Whether an answer is required or optional • If an answer is required, what happens if a user
enters any old thing just to get through the form
—Caroline Jarrett, “The Question Protocol”
‘‘This is the uncomfortable truth—everything is a trigger for someone.
—Roxane Gay, “The Illusion of Safety/The Safety of Illusion”
KINDNESS IS only asking for what we need
find the fractures.
That’s just an edge case.
That’s just an edge case.
That’s a stress case.
Stress cases show us the weaknesses in our work.
Fun facts create real risks.
MailChimp is: • fun but not childish • clever but not silly • powerful but not complicated • smart but not stodgy • cool but not alienating • informal but not sloppy • helpful but not overbearing • expert but not bossy
—Kate Kiefer Lee, “Tone and Voice”
‘‘Over the years we’ve moved to a much more neutral voice …We focus on clarity over cleverness and personality.
We are not in an industry that is associated with crisis, but we don’t know what our readers and customers are going through. And our readers and customers are people. They could be in an emergency and they still have to use the internet.
—Kate Kiefer Lee,Mailchimp content director
Ask: do I control the context of my content?
Identify: what’s the ideal scenario for this content?
Imagine: what would the opposite look like?
KINDNESS IS designing for
the worst
cultivate compassion.
‘‘We’re pretty good at being able to kind of get inside somebody else’s head and sort of model their task… But that cognitive empathy, that’s actually just one level of empathy.
—Karen McGrane
‘‘There’s actually a much deeper level of it that you would call compassion. What that means is that you have genuine emotional feeling for the struggles that someone is going through and you are spontaneously moved to help them because you feel them.
—Karen McGrane
Compassion takes action.
Compassion takes courage.
Compassion takes practice.
The only unit of time that matters is heartbeats.
Paul Ford
Flickr images used via Creative Commons Attribution license unless otherwise noted.
@sara_ann_marie sarawb.com
thank you.