The Lordly Affordance

Lordly - aristocratic, elitist, high-hat. Affordance - A quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. On this Tumblr we are looking at affordances specific to Digital Interaction Design, and how UX design mimick, reinforce and compound inequality in status and the ability flourish online.

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LUCIEN CLERGUE

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Peter Kolchin

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David Kiefer

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Sanne Sannes

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Hans Thoma - The Devouring Flames Curl Round the Body of Brunhilde as She Lies. 

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Algorithmic Accountability & Transparency

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When we zoom in, we see a form of step function. A large number of apps appear in the top chart for exactly 129 consecutive days. This is certainly not organic, and supports our thesis that an automated mechanism was involved. Like turning off the switch all of a sudden, we see a large number of apps booted off the charts at exactly the same time. I’ve seen this happen in the past with Twitter bot nets (see comment for more context).

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While the app store’s ranking algorithm is opaque, there’s much to be learned by looking at it’s output over time. In his work on Algorithmic Accountability, Nick Diakopoulos highlights ways to investigate the inner-workings of algorithmic systems by tracking inputs and outputs.

Apple, Apps and Algorithmic Glitches — The Message — Medium

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Demetricator

In response, he built a browser extension called The Facebook Demetricator, which, when installed and activated, hid all numbers on Facebook. Instead of seeing the little red pop-up showing the number of notifications you have, you'd simply see the icon take on a lighter blue color. Instead of seeing the number of likes a post received, you'd see the phrase "people like this."

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Personal worth

Personal worth, as adapted and developed through evolution, is an essential human need. It falls high up on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as esteem—the need for self-respect, self-confidence, etc.8 Within Edward Deci’s Self Determination Theory, personal worth functions as an intrinsic motivator, helping to satisfy our innate need for relatedness, or our need to be valued by and connected with others.9

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What do metrics want?

In this paper, I question the effects of metrics from three angles. First I examine how our need for personal worth, within the confines of capitalism, transforms into an insatiable “desire for more.” Second, with this desire in mind, I analyze the metric components of Facebook’s interface using a software studies methodology, exploring how these numbers function and how they act upon the site’s users. Finally, I discuss my software, born from my research-based artistic practice, called Facebook Demetricator (2012-present). Facebook Demetricator removes all metrics from the Facebook interface, inviting the site’s users to try the system without the numbers and to see how that removal changes their experience. With this free web browser extension, I aim to disrupt the prescribed sociality produced through metrics, enabling a social media culture less dependent on quantification.

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