Anti-Hero in Play
The Anti-Hero card deck aims to expose manipulative and value-centered design intentions, helping designers strategize, generate, and rationalize solutions. We conducted an evaluation study using playtesting and lab protocols to observe and analyze how designers interacted with the card deck, focusing on their initial reactions, behaviors, outcomes, overall experience, and usability.
Evaluating the Heroes and Anti-Heroes
Each 60-minute session was divided into three parts: a 5-10 minute introduction to the session structure and purpose, a 45-minute main activity where participants used action cards to generate or evaluate design solutions, and a 10-15 minute reflection period.
Four sessions were conducted: on Reverse Brainstorming to identify negative user impacts; on Ethical Dialogue to discuss design aspects; and on Evaluation of existing designs. Twelve graduate students in Human-Computer Interaction, Product Design, and User Experience Design participated, with each session including three students who brought an in-progress or completed design project. Participants engaged with the card deck and discussed solutions using various tools, followed by reflective questions on the toolkit's design and their realizations as designers.
Information Experience Design students at Pratt Institute interacting and testing their project solutions with the card set.
Unveiling the Anti-Hero
The Anti-Hero card deck was prominently featured at the Pratt Info Show 2024, a key event in the annual Pratt Shows highlighting student achievements from the Pratt School of Information. It was also presented at Pratt’s Research Open House 2024 as part of a faculty research poster show and shared at Research Yard in Brooklyn, New York. Additionally, it was showcased on the Pratt Institute blog, highlighting its innovative approach to exploring design ethics (link).
Students in Information Architecture and Interaction Design course using the Anti-Hero Card deck to reflect and iterate their taskflows.
IA can be manipulative and Anti-Heroes to the rescue
During an interactive session in the INFO643-Information Architecture/Interaction Design course at the MSIXD Program at Pratt Institute, students were given a design prompt to manipulate users into granting privacy permissions for the company's data gain. Working in groups of two, students identified and categorized solutions as acceptable or unacceptable based on user values. They brainstormed redesigns to better support user values and recognize the intent behind these solutions.
This exercise demonstrated how Information Architecture can be manipulative in various ways and layers. The Anti-hero cards and roles illustrated how to identify and balance these manipulations, helping students understand how to align user and stakeholder values as future product designers.
Outputs from the course where students brain-stormed ideas regarding solutions through four of the Anti-Heroes: <list four>[Left], and their Hero counterparts [Right].
Anti-Heroes on Travel
During their TEI course in Normal Beijing University, Dr. Colin M. Gray and Dr. Austin Toombs used the Anti-Hero Card Deck to enagage students with the concept of dark patterns and how they can reflect on their intentions. The exercise give to student was to pick the Anti-Heroes and Heroes to “identify and discuss how your design concepts could be applied in a negative or positive way in your current project context.”
Reactions to Anti-Hero Card Deck
(Quotes from students who have reacted with the deck)
“Trap Setter [Anti-Hero] seems like the sort of thing that, you know, a lot of these educational content platforms do and it works for them. Like you can’t go to the next video unless you’ve completed this video that I think it’s pretty positive in that context.”
“We found a gray space, like they’re (holding up a card) not doing it totally, but they’re not being an antihero, but they’re not even being the hero. . . . And I don’t know how to evaluate that part.”
“Like I have been doing like many of the things that I mentioned as Anti-Hero up here for some time now . . . I’m having this realization. Am I actually doing something wrong? ”
“...how am I supposed to design that world? How am I supposed to design in this context? [while flipping the card], there is a good way to design for this. I think this is really helpful. I think the flipping for me personally, the flipping of Anti-Hero is like, really useful.”
What's next for Anti-Hero?
Anti-Hero Miro board is in the works for everyone to access the card deck and use in their teams.
