Thinking Cap #7

[albertkun]

How does data justice and design justice relate? How have you considered both in relation to your group projects?

Completing this week's reading on Data Justice will be necessary for this thinking cap.

[rachan2023]

Data justice and design justice go hand in hand. Data and design can be used in the interest of big corporations and institutions to exclude or exploit certain communities whether that be intentionally or unintentionally. This results in different types of inequalities across different groups of people. However, data and design (alongside ethical practices) have the capability to empower underrepresented communities to tell their stories. In particular, design justice can enable accessibility and inclusivity for marginalized communities to share their stories and data justice ensures that the data that community members are providing has a specific purpose that is outlined to promote a good cause or change. This is where the idea that data justice can “facilitate processes that may lead to emancipatory outcomes” can also be extended to design justice as well (876).

I have considered both in relation to my group project. As I’ve stated in my previous Thinking Cap, I am incorporating design justice into my project by breaking the language barrier by having my application and survey in different languages, ensuring that the application and survey is as accessible as possible, and actively thinking about whether or not this application will benefit my community (ex: women and elderly). In relation to data justice, I want to emphasize transparency, data equality, and responsibility. I am going to promote transparency by explaining to my survey-takers why I am collecting this data and how it will be used in the short and long-term. I want my target community to feel safe about sharing their stories/data with me knowing that I am using this data for the sole purpose of providing a platform for Asian American women and elderly to share their fears as a result of the rising Asian American hate crimes during the pandemic and that the data collected will only be populated on my application. Furthermore, I want to ensure that I am promoting data-equality in which there is no “good” or “bad” data. All stories and data collected are treated as equally valuable because they are individual and unique experiences that share an important sentiment and can add to the conversation. Most importantly, I am taking responsibility for the data that I am collecting and the aftermath of my data collection. I will hold myself accountable for respecting people’s information (ex: I will not disclose data to anyone), ensuring that the use of this data will only be used to shine light on their stories, and giving people short and long-term access to their own data, so that they know my intent of this application and how their data is being used (for good).

[ghost]

I agree that data justice and design justice can be used simultaneously to both uplift and exploit communities, sometimes regardless of intentionality. A lot of the points you made in relation to your group project particularly resonate with me because my group is working to incorporate similar aspects into our project. I especially like that you discuss transparency because I think that is key to truly making survey-takers feel comfortable as well as to understand the further reach of their personal input. This goes hand in hand with my goal of ensuring that value, in the form of community voices, is instilled in my application so that participants can see their experiences being promoted and heard.

[nnhimichelle]

I agree with how both data justice and design justice work together in communities versus how they would work together if used within corporations context. There's a lot of gaps that have to be filled in order to create the capability of empowerment, and that's where careful decision making within our responsibilities take action. I also really like your emphasis on accountability and transparency as well and highlighting the idea of data equality! It's definitely key to have the emphasis on having no "good" data or no "bad" data.

[jason-muljadi]

The articles presented at the conference as mentioned in the reading was really important for the fundamental aspects of how data should be treated. Similar to the idea of design, data should not be distanced away from human morals, but rather, we have to acknowledge how human biases and agendas affect the data aggregation and design creation processes. Understanding how supremacy and elitism exist in data and design inherently is crucial if creators, researchers, and other individuals want to utilize technology "for the good" of a community.

The Masiero and Das article also helped to elucidate three major drivers of data injustice: legal, design-related, and informational. Legal issues or anything related to bureaucracy can be problematic depending on the policies that are implemented. Information can also be misleading whether it is through poor research accidentally or agenda pushing purposefully. An interesting component is seeing design-related issues being a main component, as design can skew against people who are in poverty.

Taking an interdisciplinary stance on the data we collect and the designs that we make is a necessity. Simply collecting data and putting them onto a nice website does nothing for the community if the substance behind the actions is not found. I find that in our group project, Mapping the Stories of Southeast Asian Bruins for the SEA Admit Weekend Program, there can be a lot of value from our project, but also inherent laziness that exists within the data collection. Through data justice, I believe that the true stories of the community should be heard and shared so as to increase empowerment in Southeast Asian identity. This can be easily lost if we do not define what It means to be affirmed as a person of color, for everyone has different journies in understanding their ethnic identity and where it holds value in their life. Complications can arise more quickly if the design is trivial or confusing; we want to ultimately show members of the Southeast Asian UCLA student community that they do belong and allow for there to be community and care through a conduit in which their thoughts, ideas, and visions can be gathered.

[rachan2023]

I agree that we have to be aware of our biases when it comes to data collection/use or design. As the readings on data justice and design justice point out, data collection/usage and design possess the capability to harm communities, especially those are marginalized. As a result, in our projects we should be intentional in how we collect data, use data, and design our websites to ensure that we make our applications as accessible and safe as possible for our target communities to share their stories. As you've mentioned, it is necessary to be specific in how we ask for information from members of our community. In terms of data justice and data design, we should ensure that the responder also feels respected and safe when sharing their story. This can be accomplished through having a short survey to be respectful or their time, translating the application in multiple languages, being transparent about what the purpose of collecting these stories/experiences is, and ensuring that the data is used for a single purpose of promoting some good cause or change.

[epham36]

Data and design justice are two prongs through which social justice in technology can be enacted (or the lack of it can be critiqued). Upholding principles of equity and social justice in our collection, analysis, and utilization of data is critical as we live in an increasingly datafied society that integrates data in surveillance, evaluation, and collection of information.

The concept of data justice is crucial, especially as my group is thinking about how to disseminate this survey and make sure it is reaching those whose opinions would be informative and empowering. Data justice, which is concerned with how data is collected and analyzed (for it has the potential to be weaponized or be used as a tool of empowerment), is deeply intertwined with the way principles of equity inclusion are ingrained in the design of our survey and the way we can ensure that it is adequately accessible to those whose voices we are trying to uplift.

Another concept of data justice that works in tandem with design justice is what Gangadharan and Niklas declare to be the decentering of technology. While technology can be used as a tool for increasing access to information and tools for uplifting communities, it has also been used as a tool for oppression, through surveillance, biometrics, the extraction of data from vulnerable communities, and other form of state-sanctioned, institutionalized oppression. Proposing data-centric solution to social issues overlooks the ways in which the data-centric systems in place are not necessarily ones created with principles of design justice in mind. To reform an oppressive and unjust system without radically reimagining it makes the perpetuation of those very injustices practically inevitable. Principles of design justice are required in order to challenge the oppression related to our relationship with data itself in the way our systems are designed and our interventions are implemented.

Hence, data justice requires principles of design justice to challenge tech-deterministic views which assert that the centering of data -- a tool which is often used to uphold unequally distributed power and privilege -- is the only means to objective, effective, and just social change.

Thus, our survey must be equitable in its design and relationship with data, and recognize that people must be centered in the solutions and methods of empowerment we suggest. While our project to collect and map the stories of Southeast Asian students at UCLA for SEA Admit Weekend does rely on the collection of data, it does not purport that data itself is the conduit for empowerment, but the presentation of stories and of SEA narratives that uplift and reveal the strong SEA community presence at UCLA. Though we do utilize data, it is ultimately the community that is the focal point of our project.

[rachan2023]

I agree that data justice and design justice work in tandem with one another! There are designs in place that try to oppressed marginalized communities and data collection/usage methods that are used to exploit others and a way to counter both of these is to practice design justice and data justice. In particular, collecting data in ways that value inclusivity of everyone's data, as you've mentioned, and designs that promote accessibility for people to share their stories is important. Having a people-centered approach definitely does play a role in trying to promote design justice and data justice. Your point about equity also extends to data justice because ensuring that all the data that is collected is treated in right manner can also promote data justice.

[avaitt]

I like your point about how data and design justice influence one another. I had never stopped to think that even a product that has design justice may not have data justice. Often we take products for granted, but understanding how they were made and how data is used helps us gain a bigger picture about data collection as a whole and the growing problems surrounding data privacy.

[nnhimichelle]

Data justice is fairness in the way that communities are being represented in overall digital media while design justice rethinks design processes using collaborative practices to address structural inequalities within society. That being said, the two go hand in hand together, and it can be easily pointed out that one affects the other and vice versa.

In design processes, many decisions, big and small, accumulate into an overall product that could come with one larger effect. Data itself can drive many of the decisions made in design. Because these decisions can include anything from website formatting for accessibility to the addition of nuanced stories, results can be unpredictably beneficial or detrimental in the long run. Personally, designers have to be able to understand data in order to know what approaches they can take to express the data in a way where they can still empower community members. If data happens to be misinterpreted, designers are able to create a product/take approaches that misrepresent the data to even people in the general public, which can increase harm to those communities.

With this in mind, my group and I want to create transparency with what the data we are collecting is for and exactly how we will utilize it. Because we want to present community stories about mental health and well being, we will do such without creating a large focus on the spatial data to be gathered, as focusing on such will take away from the stories. Because of this, with the design of the website, we will create a larger focus on the stories and make sure to present them clearly. We will be careful with all decisions that we make with out website, as well as hold ourselves and each other accountable whenever there are mishaps, even if unintentional.

[epham36]

Yes, I really appreciate how you bring up the importance of design justice to ensure that data is adequately represented and visualized so as to effectively empower communities, rather than coopting their narratives. Especially since the discussion about mental health can be so unpersonal and dehumanizing when it places too much emphasis on the numbers, treatment, and symptoms over the people with their own personal experiences with mental health.

[jsxu315]

I really like how you brought up that designers need to understand data! I feel like there's a general mentality that the tasks of designing apps/websites and processing data are performed by people who only specialize in one or the other, but in fact a more holistic perspective would mean that there are more people that can provide input throughout the entire process of making a project.

[ghost]

Reading about data justice and its implementation makes me truly wonder if any community-based application can be successful/uplifting without equally intentional design choices. It is hard to imagine implementing one without the other, although I know it's been done before. Just as data and design can be used simultaneously to harm and exploit communities, they can also be refined to complement each other with the overall goal of benefiting a target community. They relate because of their ability to engage with topics such as inclusion, accountability, ethics, equality, and more to address concerns and priorities put forth by a community.

Both data justice and design justice have been at the forefront of my mind in relation to my group project. The most important things I am promoting through my survey and application are inclusion, value, and accessibility. Some tactics I am employing tie into language and making sure there is no barrier for community members in understanding and participating in the survey and web application. This factor helps to ensure that responses and experiences can be taken into account across generations and input can be gathered from all corners of the community. Similarly, this critical focus on the entirety of the target community (Ktown members) will allow for this project to regain true value, in the form of community voices. Without accessibility and inclusion implemented through data and design justice, my survey/application would not be doing the community itself justice because their stories would not be heard and prioritized. Ultimately all aspects I am incorporating into my project are working to maintain a people-centered approach that promotes equality and works to give ownership back into the hands of the community.

[okcirE]

Reading through your idea of implementing different languages to reach more people in the community which my group is also trying to do, I can't help but wonder how technologies in the future or even in the present are helping those that are disabled. I mean for example, how can we translate our survey to reach people who are blind, while not compromising his/her autonomy. Through a simple google search, I was able to find that screen readers do help disabled people navigate around the internet, but could be hard for us noobies to implement right now.

[skarakas1]

One of the insights in this paper that I found especially important was the finding that data justice issues will become more problematic as 'datafication' accelerates. This is in contrast to conventional narrative assumptions of technological determinism that more technology will solve problems of inequality.

A similar trend can be seen in neoliberal international development thinking: that as globalization and "free trade" reach more and more of the Earth's population structural inequalities will solve themselves via the "invisible hand" of the market. In fact, the opposite has been the case for most countries -- terms of trade for countries exporting agricultural commodities and natural resources have declined (terms of trade being the relation of export to import prices--in this case, manufactured goods vs primary commodities). Rather than a world economy that converges towards more equitable, livable lives we instead see a world diverging and becoming increasingly inequal.

Dencik et al. warn against looking for 'easy' fixes--these are likely to fall back into the trap of technological determinism, and the problems we face are not simple. The rights of workers in the US at Amazon fulfillment centers are not more important than the rights of workers in Bangladesh, and so one piece of legislation here will only accelerate the race-to-the-bottom elsewhere. If US politicians are concerned about China's increasing influence in Africa, for instance, then they need to empower stakeholder communities rather than engage in geopolitical posturing.

The tech industry holds increasingly more political and economic power, and there is no reason to believe that this trend will reverse on its own. We live in a world where elites are less and less committed to any national politics and in which multi-national corporations collude with each other across borders. The best way to resist this will be to form grassroots connections across national borders as well, from the bottom-up, and for activists to take on a global consciousness in the interest of workers rights and human dignity.

Design justice is one of three forms of data injustice (along with legal and informational data injustice). More inclusive design can help to bridge the tech gap, but there is no easy solution--it is a dialectical, iterative process. Tech access worldwide is increasing, but whether or not it is useful (and truly accessible) hinges on design.

The group project has helped illustrate exactly how this should work: every time we meet we bring different ideas and make different tweaks. Going forward, I expect that we will get more feedback and have to continue adjusting the design so that we de-center the technology, de-center English, and make a more user-friendly and more accessible app.

The most-recent Radiolab episode describes the realities of working in 3rd-Party Logistics (like Amazon fulfillment centers) and offers a great example of how technological 'solutions' tend only to solve the problems of the wealthy: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/brown-box

[avaitt]

I really like how you warn against looking for 'easy fixes'. I think in this day and age it is far too common for companies and society to fall back into the "trap of technological determinism" that you mention. By putting less focus on the product and more focus on the worker, I think we can sway away from efficiency to efficacy. If a product benefits a subset of a population, but also negatively impacts another subset how can we justify its use. Design justice both before and after a product or survey is presented to a user is important.

[Wny-Duong]

There's a line in the Data Justice reading that specifically mentions that "data justice" should be used as a framework for critiquing and I believe that that's really where the ideas of data justice and design justice are tied together. From a development standpoint, good design comes from having good data in order to make informed decisions on how some new tool, system, or project should be developed. A failure to abide by either data justice or design justice principles lead to a less than desirable outcome in the development process. If data is not given the strict scrutiny that it deserves in terms of properly representing the target population of the product or if the process of collection negatively impacts the population, then the product that gets designed following data analysis is not going to present much good to society. If the design itself is not concerning itself with the needs of target users or is attempting to help resolve community issues with properly consulting communities, then the data collected is essentially devalued, wasting the time of the people its collected from and the labor it took to try and draw conclusions from data.

More simply, both data justice and design justice are necessary safeguards to society in order to ensure that society cannot be impacted negatively as a result of leaps and bounds tech has made in the past few years. You can't really have one without the other because they're both reflective of the need to consider the societal impact of technology that ends up being produced. One just deals with making sure that the extraction of information from communities is done in a way demonstrating respect and cooperation with those groups (data justice). The other ensures that the information is being used in a responsible manner, to make sure that a majority of society can benefit from the design drawn from data without presenting a risk to any minority or otherwise disadvantaged groups.

For our group project, specifically, I think we can do a better job with data justice (the implementation of it versus the idea of it) simply because we have spent a much greater deal of our course dealing with the matter of design justice. Design justice gets practiced mostly by discussing our project plans and ideas with other people to ensure that there isn't something lacking consideration or that the project provides some kind of benefit to the society its designed for. In regards to the tie-in between design and data justice, we have reconsidered our project from the initial draft of it to ensure that the data we hope to collect can yield benefits to people by focusing on more disadvantaged communities specifically and allowing them to voice concerns regarding their food insecurity as opposed to an initial concept that simply involved giving people information about food service locations because we believed that that would help ease their food insecurity without really reconsidering if such a thing would be useful to them. I'm hoping, in our attempt to do better with data justice, that we look into ways to allow survey responses to be revocable by the initial respondent and to look into ways to encourage responses from underrepresented communities through the data collection process.

The main points of the thinking cap done, I wanted to briefly talk about a discussion I had with a friend recently that actually really tied into the whole point I made earlier about data justice and design justice being tied together in acting as safeguards to society. My friend is an Econ student who was writing an article about the cost of college and a topic that came up while he was writing was a proposal to use data to make student loans more selective in order to resolve an issue that "some people were not getting enough value out of their education to justify loans." This struck me as a really good example of a complete and utter failure in data and design justice that demonstrates why those frameworks are necessary. In terms of data justice, the proposal ignores the obvious issue of whether or not to allow students to hide their personal information when taking out loans, as not doing so might lead to them being disadvantaged by those algorithmic systems. In a more extreme case, it may be that the student would not even be allowed to withhold such information if they want any economic hope of attending college. There's also the problem of someone's personal situations and futures being left up to a projected abstraction made from a bunch of mismatched/unrelated variables that only appear related because certain groups of people that are successful in paying back loans have similar qualities that may not even be related to their ability to pay back a loan(note: correlation isn't causation). This is clearly not a responsible way to use data. In terms of design justice, the proposal has a much larger problem in that it treated the matter of education from a problem-solving perspective as opposed to a human-oriented one. When considering the societal good, education is an opportunity for most disadvantaged people to try and enrich their lives, through things such as developing their careers and skills or exposing themselves to different viewpoints and information. Trying to treat education as a business that derives profit from granting people opportunities presents the potential to incredibly damage already disadvantaged groups of people as it facilitates the exclusion of large groups of people in the interest of a few creditors and their profits. (edit: This basically all boils down to data and design justice being frameworks that help you identify groups harmed and helped by projects and that help you scrutinize your personal biases in order to finetune what you would actually want to achieve by the end of the design process, from data collection to project deployment.)

[okcirE]

I think another problem with your friend's writing proposal is that it totally disregards that our society has created a hierarchy of majors that are derived from prestige and potential graduating salary. I totally agree with shifting the focus from solving a problem to understanding the individual's aspirations and passion. I hope your friend would expand on ultimately using user's stories to inspire financial literacy over the value of education/majors.

[avaitt]

Data justice works in conjunction with design justice. When used for good data justice helps create design justice and in turn empowers marginalized communities. However, the possibility for misuse is ever-apparent with large corporations often exploiting vulnerable peoples through their design or simply through the data they collect. Desing justice allows for diversity and fosters creativity. By allowing for various people(s) to communicate their stories, design justice fosters a sense of inclusivity. Data justice acts as a facilitator and this is said in the text as we see that data justice can “facilitate processes that may lead to emancipatory outcomes.” At the end of the day, data justice creates for engagement on all fronts - be it through ethics, equality, or equity.

My group has aimed to foster both data and design justice by ensuring that our content and questions are accessible to people whose native language may not be English. In doing so we expand our demographic and cater to a generally marginalized audience whose voices may have otherwise not been heard. We aim to explain to users the purposes of our results. Rather than hiding and obscuring our goals (akin to what large corporations do), we aim to fully explain the issue we are trying to highlight all the while emphasizing how individual stories can be used to paint different stories and bring a sense of growing awareness to the issue at the same time. Additionally, my group intends on allowing users to keep their data in some way shape, or form (possibly through a google form that would be sent to their email address upon completion). This once again resonates with the idea of openness and transparency in our group's project.

[skarakas1]

Great comment! Our group is also trying to center language justice with our project. Tenants' rights issues are complicated specifically by legal or contract literacy--it's not uncommon for people to be able to speak English conversationally, or even as their first language, and still be uncomfortable or at a disadvantage when it comes to parsing dense and often obfuscating legal documents (like leases and eviction notices). It has been challenging to strike a balance between detailed explanation and succinctness in our text. I also really like your idea of sending the data back to the user as well, I will definitely bring this up in our next group discussion, thanks!

[Wny-Duong]

I think that it's great that you actually have the idea in mind to communicate to users the intended results of your project. Most web application proposals that I've seen tend to focus on achieving their own separate goal with users only being a source of information that allows development teams to create solutions, so including the user as an active member of development is generally a good idea.

[alizezila]

Data justice and design justice should be used together to ensure a more equitable and non-exploitative way of moving through the world with and through technology. Data justice asks developers, engineers, and professionals alike to ensure that the processes of data collection, analysis, utilization are done in a way that communicates the purpose clearly, transparently, and does not target communities whose data may be sold or used for surveillance. Large corporations often collect data to study what is most popular/ profitable but can even sell that data to other companies that in turn are used to shape trends and influence other people's decisions. Through long, tiny-font fine print agreements, many people may not even realize they are allowing their data be sold off to other corps.
Transparency is necessary for data justice and design justice and disadvantaged communities that lack political agency to fight these tactics may be disproportionately affected.

With my group project, collecting data must be done with care and clear intention as our users will largely be undocumented. Due to their unauthorized status, offering up their location and some personal information can be dangerous because the data might fall into the wrong hands and lead to intervention from immigration authorities. My group must ensure our data collection remains anonymous and does not put users in danger as they are trusting us with information. My group will utilize elements of data and design justice to ensure our work does not target an already marginalized community.

[lvalles10]

I really liked your points about the mechanisms of data capitalization- it's so unfortunate that corporations use long, tiny-font fine print agreements to justify selling our data. Especially when I think about disadvantaged communities that lack the time and resources to be able to mobilize against this oppression, the dominance of capitalism seems daunting and unlikely to be reclaimed.

However, despite this reality, it's uplifting to hear the extent to which your group is being intentional about implementing data and design justice principles in your project. Ensuring that your data collection remains anonymous is integral for the safety of your survey participants, and I wish that larger corporations prioritized this safety over profit.

Protecting our survey participants has also been a large consideration within the data justice mindset of my group as well. I think more broadly using a data justice lens for these projects demands that we prioritize the safety of all of our survey-takers, especially those from some of the civil society's most marginalized groups.

[skarakas1]

Great comment! With our group project as well we have had to carefully consider the amount of identifying information we ask for (or not), as there is a real possibility of retaliation against tenants who might expose their landlords extralegal tactics. We want to show the location of where incidents are happening without risking exposure for users. There is definitely a careful balance between using data-based activism for justice while not participating in the sort of democratization of surveillance that accompanies a lot of data research.

[lvalles10]

Data justice and design justice relate in the way they are both efforts to reclaim their respective fields from the matrix of domination. Both data and design justice seem to subscribe to the holist solutions we’ve discussed earlier in class and prioritizing decentering technology as an end-all, be-all solution to civil society’s issues. For example, one of the articles in this week’s reading examined data justice within the context of Nancy Fraser’s notion of ‘abnormal justice’ as a way to understand tech’s role in the “production of social inequalities and the interconnections between maldistribution, misrecognition, and misrepresentation.”

Regarding data justice in particular, one interesting point in this week’s reading was that data collection and control has historically been the key to the European imperialist project of resource extraction and colonization. Data justice, therefore, is an effort to repurpose data collection for the use of civil society. Design justice has a similar motive- reclaim design from white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, capitalism, and settler colonialism.

I have considered data justice in relation to our group project by being intentional about including all members of the Koreatown community in our target population, and crafting survey language that encourages them to express their authentic beliefs about the project. Furthermore, data justice has been a large consideration in our group project in the way we’re hoping to give ownership of the final project outcome to the Koreatown community; our project is an attempt to collect data that helps policymakers draft a plan for the amenities that should be included in the final “Reimagine 6th” product. In this way, the data we collect will embody a people-centered approach. Another way we’ve prioritized the data of the Koreatown community is by branching questions in the survey to separate Koreatown residents/frequent patrons and outside interested parties.

Similarly, design justice has also been an important lens as we build out the final phase of the project. We’ve been very intentional about being inclusive of different types of languages that Koreatown community-members may speak in our survey drafts and pending translations. As we look forward to the final stages of the project, data and design justice continue to be at the forefront of our group members’ minds so as to ensure our final project is one that truly reflects the opinions of the Koreatown community regarding the “Reimagine 6th” proposal.

[epham36]

That emphasis on inclusivity you bring up in your survey is so important! I love how you highlight the way data and design justice reclaim the tools used by colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism. This is especially poignant given the history of Koreatown in 1992 and how Koreatown's racial diversity and race relations was weaponized. In projects like these, its diversity is upheld so community solutions are representative of the needs of the most marginalized! Super excited to see how your project turns out!

[KenNL42]

I believe that in order to maximize data justice, design justice is required. In general, they both coexist together by uplifting each other, but generally design justice can also be independent, depends on situation. Since the goal of data justice is to collect data extensively and include different social group, the method of collecting them therefore needs to be robust. Hence, design justice needs to have a solid structure to help collect data from everyone. For example, creating a survey with multi-language is part of the design justice. With multi-language, it helps people generate data from a wide range of society. This can potentially maximize data justice when design justice supports it. On the other hand, design justice can exist by itself in certain situation, because it needs to concern with being inclusive but does not always expect to collect data from everyone in society.

To apply design justice and data justice, my group works on mental health and we need to consider both heavily. We try to design the survey to be minimal, while let users tell their story without being assumed or forced to answer a question that may limit scope and topic. In terms of data justice, we try to include large group of UCLA students who can share their story and also listen to others. However, data justice might be slightly difficult to implement due to constraint from pandemic and not being able to sanitize and validate data from users, so the data might not represent a large population of UCLA students.

[latishasumardy]

I agree you! I also believe that design justice and data justice coexist and have the potential to play off of each other in order to really help empower communities. I especially like your example on how multi-language features is an extension of both design justice and data justice, something that I had never really thought about until now. I agree that it is definitely difficult to balance the two ideas, but I really look forward to seeing your final group project!

[vcta99]

My understanding (I hope this is not wrong) is that design justice is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for data justice. Design justice concerns itself more with themes of user exclusion/accessibility, whereas data justice concerns itself with whether or not information is extracted/volunteered. Products/policy can be designed in such a way that requires information extraction, like an iPhone that requires facial recognition in order to turn on, this is both design injustice and data injustice. Design injustice can exist without data injustice, an example would be lack of color contrast in designs excludes colorblind users. Likewise, data injustice can exist without design injustice, but both require decentering technology (both as an isolated problem and as an isolated solution).

In relation to the project, I am worried about that overrepresentation will be a problem in our design. The mental health project is suppose to function as a barometer of sorts for Bruin mental health, but of course lack of internet access/zoom fatigue may act as a barrier of accuracy. If the project scale were larger, offering a physical address and paper mailing form might help, as paper copies could be inputted to our web application. Offering a physical copy (a la Post Secrets style) to be circulated around campus would also be cool. Data-wise, I'm a bit less worried. I think our survey stresses multiple times that users should give as little or as much information about they feel comfortable with, and only 6 out of 10 of our questions require answers.

[ninalong]

I definitely agree about the desire to have a physical way to participate in our projects, but being limited in scope. When thinking through public outreach and ensuring representative samples, we often have to make strategic decisions about who we have the resources to contact and include. As potential future managers of these kinds of projects, I think part of the solution is providing outreach coordinators with as much funding and resources as possible as a matter of priorities and values. The more that outreach coordinators have to work with, the better we are able to reach the most marginalized communities.

[brillianz]

I really appreciate the way you combined your interpretation of design and data justice! I think as people involved with research and data collection, it's important that we don't fall under a savior complex or extract data that we think is best for other communities. If there's one thing that I've taken from this week's thinking cap, it's the limits of techno-determinism that may be espoused as sole solutions to all the ills of the world. It also seems that you also identified the importance of physical copies of surveys as potential alternatives, too! I look forward to seeing how your group project continues to develop at this stage.

[okcirE]

How does data justice and design justice relate? How have you considered both in relation to your group projects?

I think data justice and design justice relate in that both aim to work as a check and balance for our rapid technological advancements. If design justice works to shift technologies to marginalized populations, then data justice allows for these (marginalized) communities to communicate their concerns freely. To clarify further, design justice allows for technologies to be mindful of the process of obtaining data, while data justice ensures transparency and non-discriminatory practices while parsing through the data, especially when inferences potentially going to be made using the data which can drive policy-making, program planning, and more. Ultimately, both justices will eventually create a framework that disallows technologies to further alienate population(s) and perpetuate harm to society.

For my group project, we aim to understand and publicize the community of West LA's concerns about the lack of access or quality of food service programs in hopes to create a meaningful change in the community as well as empower the voices of West LA. I believe that it will definitely take humility to organize and analyze our data and to not display even an ounce of hubris. We have to ensure respect and clarity while surveying our surveyors as well as making sure that they are comfortable with taking our survey. And just as it is important for us to display the data we have gathered with transparency, integrity, and honesty.

[jason-muljadi]

Definitely agree with more transparency in data justice and how both concepts intermingle to create this framework that is absolutely necessary. Your group is really doing something great as well, and with the issue of food insecurity, it is best to be mindful of one's actions. I do have a few questions! How will your group create the safety measures to ensure humility though? Will there be an ethics board? And how will organization be meaningful to the point where people feel comfortable? Is it through wording of questions?

[ninalong]

The article summaries provide a handful of examples of the ways in which design justice and data justice intertwine. Masiero and Das identify design-related data injustices, displaying the role of design as a vehicle for negative consequences of the datafication of India's anti-poverty schemes. Park and Humphry focus more closely on design in their investigation of Australian social welfare services, demonstrating a disciplinary and punitive logic embedded into the design of these online sites and noting that even efforts to include participant input in design development can fall short. Both articles present examples of applications that do not protect participants' rights or prevent discrimination, with data injustices manifesting themselves through design processes and results that do not empower marginalized communities.
We have done our best to incorporate design justice into our group project, albeit with significant limitations. When developing survey questions, we sought to choose questions and fine tune wording that empowers the local Koreatown community and thinks critically about how it may impact residents. As people not from Koreatown, we tried to create a survey and wireframe that downplayed any preconceived notions we might have coming in, rather elevating the experiences and perspectives of those affected. However, despite our best intentions, we did receive feedback from Adriane (a local resident) that reminded us of the importance of incorporating those affected into the design process as well. We previously had a picture of Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade as an example of a similar pedestrianization project on our survey, and Adriane directed us to remove all mention of it due to 3rd Street Promenade's displacement of small businesses (a consequence entirely the opposite of the 6th Street project's intended effects).
We sought to include data justice principles into the project as well. Survey participants (representing a low-income, marginalized neighborhood) have the opportunity to see their experiences elevated on our site, but also have the ability to request that their data not be made public, as well as voice concerns about the way their data is being represented. Unfortunately, we don't give participants the ability to interact with our work in a non-tech way, primarily because of in-person limitations due to COVID.

[jason-muljadi]

That's so awesome that you get input from a resident of Koreatown, and that's one step closer to achieving that much-needed integration of data justice and design justice! I think it's also awesome to receive feedback, especially when making mistakes, which is bound to happen. I too would have most likely used 3rd Street Promenade, not knowing that this is a place that displaced small businesses.

I was wondering what steps would be taken to allow all residents to take this survey, especially those without easy access to technology? And if they had trouble even accessing their survey, how will they be able to access their data that they provided on the online website?

[rh5140]

I like how you tied data injustice with design shortcomings. It's wonderful that you're able to have a Koreatown community member involved in your design process! Your example of your best intentions still needing direction from Adriane is so important! I'm glad that you're able to give participants the opportunity to keep their data from being publicized and share any concerns they may have.

[rh5140]

Data justice and design justice both center marginalized people and challenge the dominant ideologies surrounding data and design, which often perpetuate inequitable power structures. Each of the frameworks implies the necessity of the other since data and design shape one another.

Here’s a quote I liked that the paper referenced: “Often, data justice is a response to prominent and rather limited perspectives on the societal implications of data-driven technologies that have tended to focus on issues of efficiency and security on the one hand and concerns with privacy and data protection on the other” (Dencik, Hintz, & Cable, 2016).

With regards to design justice, we intend to decenter English by cycling through descriptions of the project in a number of selectable languages on the landing page. Users will then be able to choose to proceed to the main site in that language if they wish. We will not be collecting any data that could easily identify an individual: we are not collecting emails, we are asking for zip codes rather than addresses, and we are not asking for demographic information. The stories and resources shared by community members is what we will emphasize in the layout of the site.

[Wny-Duong]

Placing the emphasis on information related to community members is definitely a good idea and it really highlights the greater problem in most tech nowadays where priorities are much more data-centric and quantitative in nature. The quote you mentioned did a good job of highlighting the problematic mindset when it comes to how data is utilized. Personally, I think the reason behind the limited perspectives and repeated emphasis on efficiency/security issues comes from the fact that most data science/application development education tends to focus on those things since they can easily be improved (things that can be answered through coding tutorials and textbooks) compared to addressing issues that communities might have in relation to privacy and protection (things that may require further discussion with those communities).

[jsxu315]

While design justice and data justice are both necessary to empowering communities, it’s important to not assume that you’re achieving one when you’re working towards the other; e.g. making a survey inclusive to multiple languages (design justice) doesn’t mean that people will necessarily be able to control how their data is used/opt out unless that option is explicitly added. So far, I’ve found it useful to think of them as two sides of the same coin in theory and to consider them somewhat separately in the design process to make sure that I’m not making sweeping assumptions.

I think that accountability and transparency are particularly important to data justice. Communities can hold small organizations accountable, but large corporations can get away with abusing user data (and the abuses can be hidden behind bad design) because they have the money and lawyers to win legal battles, which speaks to how inequality in our society prevents the goals of data justice from being achieved. The reading brings up the (important) point that working toward data/design justice doesn’t mean we should see tech as an ‘easy fix’; we should instead see data/design justice as a way to reduce the systemic harms that are perpetuated by the tech we make if we do nothing. What we need to do to work toward data and design justice evolves alongside social and technological changes, which makes it doubly important to center people and communities instead of tech.

For our project, the only personally identifying info that isn’t also shared publicly is people’s emails, which we’re deleting after using them to verify that respondents are/were part of the UCLA community. We could also make a contact form on the website to allow people to request their stories be taken down. The contact form should be easily accessible, which ties into the general design of the website. Some other ways to make the website more accessible are to add image descriptions and make sure that it’s screen reader-friendly.

[latishasumardy]

I really agree with your point that achieving one may not mean you are achieving the other, and I really believe that it is important to be mindful of both and not to focus on one more than the other. I also agree that data is very easily exploitable, and it is definitely important to hold guilty parties accountable for their actions, something that cannot be done unless we fight for transparency. I really like your idea for how to incorporate the two topics into your project, and the contact form definitely gives people a way to control the way their data is being used.

[nnhimichelle]

I really like the comparison you make with accountability in communities versus accountability in larger corporations, especially in the face of how larger corporations are also more likely to be silent/less transparent to their audience. I also agree that technology should not be seen as an easy fix, as the scales of consequences done by technology can be large. The deleting emails is also a great idea, as it helps users hide their privacy and addresses the large problems of surveillance that we see today.

[latishasumardy]

Design justice and data justice are related because they both force you to think about the impact that your choices within technological innovation can have on people. With design justice, it centered around how the programs you design can exclude or neglect communities, and it forced you to focus on how to create better programs that are more inclusive and ultimately empower communities. With data justice, it focuses more on data in general, and how we need to be mindful of the data we collect, as the data we collect can lead to discrimination or the exploitation of certain communities. Though both work towards a similar goal of empowering people, it is important to keep in mind that achieving one may not necessarily mean you're achieving the other, and that you must be constantly mindful of both when making projects.

For our group project, we are attempting to do this by being mindful of the data that we collect. For example, we decided not to collect personal information like addresses or names, so that there is no way to target people who decide to contribute to our database. We are also planning to make the website's design more accessible by adding more language options other than English.

[brillianz]

I appreciate the thought that you and your group placed into protecting privacy and private information for the respondents that you'll have. This made me think back to the issue of surveillance capitalism that was presented by the professor during last week's lecture, and how aggressively it seeks to privatize and monetize from human rights like housing, mental health, and privacy online.

[brillianz]

I would argue that data justice and design justice are not mutually dependent frameworks. Given the allure of originality and "new" research within university settings, I think that relationality is often overlooked for its benefits, particularly for racialized communities. Given the ever-growing relationship of civil society with technology, design justice and data justice work accordingly to embrace and seam the localized funds of knowledge through tech accessibility only when deemed most effective. Once broader concepts are connected with the specific desires of the community (data justice), these groups hold the next step on how to best engage with their tools and ethics.
Just as design justice allows for oppressed communities to consider equitable engagements with technology, data justice balances this out by outlining this as an available option for them, not an imperative. I identified this option with another group who was working with potentially sensitive data from their respondents. Because they are identifying immigration status and harassment cases, I think the option to move towards a more traditional physical version of the surveys should be considered. I also relate the same option for communities that we are working with (tenants) with the group project I am involved with. Because some communities may be more alienated from technology, I think of the importance of providing alternatives should they not have access to or trust with these mediums.