Online news sources are abundant and highly convienient to the average user, but how can someone be sure about the level of bias present in what they are reading?
They cannot, bias is inherent to every work.
Instead we aim to acheive an awareness of bias in all stories and posts consumers read. By presenting articles side-by-side and clearly displaying the alignment of the person/people behind it, we hope to assist users in being conscious of what they are reading and broadly encourage the critical evaluation of media.
We arent trying to produce the new all encompassing social media craze, more a hot-debate of the day that can brefiley engage users but also allow for extended reading into other viewpoints.
We have delivered a news source pooling website, which focuses on comparing articles while delivering convienient news. Each day, a single topic will be posted and a number of articles (2-5) on that topic/story will be selected for display. The articles will be taken from all kinds of news sources and rated by a variety of socio/political leanings (using the economic/social progressive/consevative matrix). Complex methods of discussion will be facilitated, including quoting parts of the article, emotional responses, and the ability to build comment threads in various places within an article, as well as a general thread at the end. After 24 hours has passed, the discussion is locked and no further changes can be made.
The design process started with research, and sketching out some ideas.
Then we built the site, adding more features as we generated new ideas.
Finally we did some user testing, and iterated the site accordingly.
Final version promo page, this would be the first page a non-logged in user would see. http://registrar-deer-58253.bitballoon.com/
Early promotional material, low fidelity but minimal and eye-catching. Could be good for advertising link. https://s4291106-union.uqcloud.net/Prototype3/promotional.html
Our final interactive prototype https://s4291106-union.uqcloud.net/Prototype3/index.php
- Click the login button in the top right and login with the username 'deco3500' and password 'union'.
- Click on an article that is underneath the centered article, to center it.
- Click on the matrix icon on the top right of the article, then click on five or six different squares to see the matrix calculate an avareage vote.
- Click on a comment, or a reply, with replies to collapse it, and again to expand it.
- Click on the up or down arrows on a comment to vote on it.
- Click on the '@' sign on a comment to open a reply to it.
- Click on your username in the top right to see your own profile and matrix.
- Click on 'log out' in the top right corner to log out.
- Click on any username in the comments to see their profile.
Users must register to post or vote but anyone may view the articles and discussion. Once registered, they can log in from the login page.
Users can vote on each article by using the matrix based upon their agreement with the presentation, language or opinion of the publisher. Users can also rate each others comments that are made on the topic. Comments can be expanded and collapsed by clicking on them, and users can reply to a comment by clicking on the '@' sign.
Comments are arranged based upon discussion contribution but will only compete with comments from similar matrix ratings. This allows users to be exposed to a variety of views while still encouraged positive contribution.
User accounts will develop their own matrix rating as they vote and comment, which is openly displayed on account pages. Articles also have a matrix based upon votes from the users.
Worked on the back end of the site, allowing articles and users to be imported through xml, and building an account log in system using PHP to handle session data for logged in users.
Researched topics explored including matrix types and application, comment and fourm methods and rating systems. Wrote intorductory text for early promotional page.
Designed all pages of the website, inlcluding building it in HTML, styling it in CSS, and making it function in Javascript. These functions include allowing comments to be collapsed, expanded, voted on, and replied to, as well as the clock counting down till the discussion is closed.
Designed the matrix, inclduing building it in HTML, styling it in CSS, and making it function in Javascript. These functions include highlighting squares which are clicked on, and finding the average result and marking the corresponding average square.
Designed the promotional page, inclduing building it in HTML, and styling it in CSS.
Did some user testing.