Social Media Design Power!

My PhD project explores the power of design in the context of social media – I will showcase highlights here in my research portfolio, but you can find more in-depth updates (e.g. a summary of the first paper published) as well as pop and scientific resources on the project log!

The very short version is: we know a lot about the effects social media have on us as individuals and as a society, we don’t really know how this connects to specific design features yet. Because there are indications that social media impact those disproportionately who are neurodivergent or experiencing mental health issues, as well as those otherwise marginalised, I plan to use participatory design techniques to examine alternative social media designs with neurodivergent and queer participants.

I will update the list of publications and content as I go:

Publications

Upcoming: Banal Autistic Social Media: A Found Footage Autoethnography – K. Kender, K. Spiel. ASSETS 2023.

The Shape of Social Media: Towards Addressing (Aesthetic) Design Power – K. Kender, C. Frauenberger. DIS 2022.

Tumblr is Queer and Twitter is Toxic: Speculating about the Vibe of Social Media Spaces – K. Kender. NordiCHI’22.

Videos

A short disclaimer: I usually make my conference videos more of an introduction to the paper rather than a summary of the entire thing, so don’t rely on the video to know what’s in the paper. I am v annoyed at academic formats generally.