Jue Wang

Overview:

Discussions about Artificial Intelligence have become more and more prevalent in the last few years. And yet, despite its high profile in both tech and the mainstream media, people often read misleading content online about the nature of AI, rather than the truth. As a result, we created AI or Nay-I?, a 10 minute transformational experience that demystifies AI and fosters public conversation about AI’s potential impacts.

Skills: Interaction Design, User Research, Usability Testing, Visual Design, 2D/3D Art

Tools: Unity, Adobe XD, Illustrator, After Effects

Platform: iOS & Android

Project Duration: 4 months, 2019

Team: Zhiguo Lai, Lotus Li, Derrick Pemberton, Shitong Shen, Jue Wang

Phone Security AI Simulation Mini-game

Public Surveillance AI Simulation Mini-game

Together with Pamela McCorduck, our goal is to create an accessible experience that demystifies AI and fosters a more informed view of AI’s potential impact(s). We wanted this experience to be a thought-provoking process, and hope that people who come out of this experience:

1. Have a better understanding of how AI works

2. Have a better understanding of the moral complexities of AI

3. Feel better equipped to make judgements with regards to AI

We chose iOS and Android as our platforms in order to make our experience as accessible as possible.

To better understand both the complexities of AI and the public’s misconceptions about the topic, we began by doing research on AI and interviewing people, ages 21 to 45, about the subject. What we discovered was the following:

1. People have a vague idea of what AI is

2. Generally there is a negative to neutral disposition towards AI

3. People are fearful of the unknown power of AI

Additionally, we narrowed down our target demographic to an age range of 13-40 years old, who are interested and/or concerned about AI but lack professional knowledge about the topic.

To better approach our goals as an educational piece, we looked into the book The Transformational Framework, and started to establish our high-level purpose, analyze our target audience, define the transformations we wished to see, did competitive analysis, and contacted experts on the subject.

From there, we began to brainstorm potential approaches from different categories of AI.

Early Test

After an early prototype test and group discussion, I mapped out the user journey and sketched the key screens for the mini-games. I also started to create assets and implemented them into Unity.

Whiteboarding

We encountered several challenges during our tests:

1. Some players had trouble with the interaction mechanics

2. The status of their roles weren’t clear (were they an AI or a minister?)

3. They wished that they had more information about the potential consequences for the decisions they were asked to make

And we approached these challenges by:

1. Adding animated tutorials

2. Color coding the background of the different interfaces in the experience

3. Split the decision making process into two parts. First, they announce decisions on social media and see the public’s reactions. Then, they sign the directive and read news headlines that result from the decision the guest has made.

Poster for the Project