Fifteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

We are living in a society that has been driven apart by media, technology, and misinformation. The effective use of violent extremist propaganda to recruit youth is an ever-present challenge and danger. The Ex-Out mobile app is a digital handbook that helps those looking to make a difference, create shareable social media content, and educate others in combating hatred and violence online. Through access to educational materials and a custom image creation tool, users can become more socially aware and inspired to create and share their messages. Alongside the app, our website houses an open-source media kit of visual assets that are free and ready-to-use creative assets, templates, and a style guide to promote users’ messaging. Leveraging emerging tools, a diverse group of student creators, and a collaborative process, we can create engaging, interactive solutions that help transform our digital dialogues. Our goal with the Ex-Out project is to create a space that delivers educational materials and encourages others to bring positive change through the experience of learning, making, and sharing. We hope our work will sow the seeds for future communities to educate and encourage others to bring positive change. Our showcase aims to share our practice of making digital products with a small group of people in academia. Our lessons learned and project process, including the available tools and software that we are using for productivity and the collaborative process of building the mobile app and digital project management in a small group setting.