Join the Cyber Policy Center on January 7th from 1PM–2PM Pacific for Measurably Improving Online Experiences by Design, a seminar with Ravi Iyer, moderated by Jeff Hancock. Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 12:40 PM for lunch, prior to the seminar. This seminar is part of the Winter Seminar Series, running January through March. Sign up for individual seminars or the whole series.

About the Seminar

Ravi will talk about the current harms resulting from online platforms and present a taxonomy of observed harms - including unwanted/harmful contact, unwanted/harmful experiences, and excessive usage. He will discuss evidence from both technology companies and external research to show that these harms are relatively common and exacerbated by the specific design choices of platforms - as captured by the Neely Center's Design Code for Social Media. In contrast to a common focus on moderation, a design focus results in more effectiveness and fewer concerns about bias or censorship. Several specific design principles will be discussed with the idea of communicating that is indeed possible to effectively and measurably improve online experiences.

In the 2nd part of this talk, Ravi will discuss how platforms have often measured progress and the limits of measurements based on policy violating content. User experience measurement is an increasingly common method of evaluating platform impact, both within companies and for regulators. He will discuss the creation of the Neely Indices, which are longitudinal platform specific measures of user experience that can help bring needed data to debates about individual platforms' effects on society. These measures can illuminate both current and future risks from technology.

In the final part of the talk, Ravi will discuss how these tools - both our Design Code and Indices - are informing regulation and platform changes across companies and in various jurisdictions.

About the Speaker

Ravi Iyer is the Managing Director of the University of Southern California Marshall School’s Neely Center. He advises the authors of The Anxious Generation, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, and the UK's OfCom on improving the societal impact of technology. Previously, he spent 4+ years leading data science, research and product teams across Meta toward improving the societal impact of social media. He has a Ph.D. in social psychology from USC, co-founded Ranker and continues to work at the intersection of academia, civil society, and the technology industry.