Visuals for Emancipatory Technology: A Case Study in Co-Designing a Visual Language to Counter Online Gender-Based Violence on Indian Twitter

Twisha Mehta; Shagnik Chakraborty

doi:10.21814/vista.4133

Authors

Twisha Mehta Independent, Bangalore, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9440-6321
Shagnik Chakraborty Independent, Pune, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4685-455X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21814/vista.4133

Keywords:

visual design, Twitter plugin, online gender-based violence, feminist technology, interdisciplinary design

Abstract

This essay is an account of the visual design for Uli, a user-facing browser plugin to detect and moderate online gender-based violence on Twitter. The authors of this essay, who were involved as visual designers in the team that developed Uli, discuss the co-design process behind creating the visual narrative of such a tool to represent the collective labour in its creation by journalists, activists, community influencers, writers, technologists, and researchers engaged in the struggle against the interwoven caste, religion, gender and sexuality-based violence both online and offline. The essay finally sheds light on how such a visual identity and narrative can promote an alternate visual culture that challenges the dominant visual language of social media that's complacent in the propagation of online gender-based violence.

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Author Biographies

Twisha Mehta, Independent, Bangalore, India

Twisha Mehta is an independent researcher, freelance educator in design studies and works as communications facilitator in feminist philanthropy for women's human rights. She is a Futuress coding resistance fellow, has previously published in Distributed Design, Driving Design (upcoming) and has presented her work at the Relating Systems Thinking and Design symposium, Swiss Design Network winter summit, and at Commons in Design.

Shagnik Chakraborty, Independent, Pune, India

Shagnik Chakraborty is a visual artist, illustrator and graphic designer based in India. At the core of his work lies the belief that art is incredibly political, which dictates many of the projects that he has worked on, which covers a variety of themes which usually challenge far right conservative ideas. He currently works with the Caravan Magazine as an editorial designer and illustrator.

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