How to Design an Equitable Metaverse

What is the metaverse?

In recent years, the 'metaverse' has been a hot topic. It has been marketed as a second reality, a virtual alternate world where individuals can create their own unique identities (similar to or opposite to their real-life selves) and interact with others.

The ultimate goal of the metaverse is to create a virtual place that allows us to learn, game, educate, socialize, create, commerce, and work; accessed through immersive technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality.

Going beyond physical boundaries

If executed correctly, the metaverse can enable previously excluded individuals and communities to participate in more effective ways – going beyond physical boundaries. However, if executed incorrectly, it can reflect real-world inequalities and heighten injustices – as individuals can potentially misuse the nature of its decentralized infrastructure. 

For example, anonymity alone can enable individuals to abuse their power, creating misinformation and digital chaos. Additionally, organizations and online advertising strategies may change to aggressively target this new space – potentially causing concerns around personal data and security. Addressing these concerns is therefore a key responsibility of metaverse designers.

Understanding equitable design

Current ways of building products and services often strive for universal design – that’s to say they’re designed to be used by the general population, not groups with specific needs. But, this isn’t a sustainable practice, especially with the shift to and reliance on digital ecosystems.

Equitable design considers inclusivity at every step of the process, making appropriate considerations for people who require different levels of access, and the context surrounding their use. To be equitable means to be adaptable – in order that we can cater to the intersectional nature of human needs. Accordingly, ethical design means to respect privacy, promote wellbeing, and avoid bias and user deception.

So, how can we be more equitable in our design practice?

There is no all-encompassing method, but a good starting point is through co-design or participatory design, which means including members of various groups in the design process to help us better understand and design for previously unfamiliar user groups. 

It’s important that designers do not lead by assumptions – rather by lived experiences. Given that the metaverse is an emerging space, it can be viewed as a blank slate of opportunity to redefine new experiences. So, companies looking to break into the space should uphold the motto ‘design for people with people’.

Dark patterns in the metaverse

Dark patterns are deceptive design practices that subtly manipulate users into performing actions that ultimately serve larger organizational interests. With poor design considerations and a lack of understanding of human emotions, physicality, and cultural influences, we can end up creating a series of ‘dark patterns’ that could potentially cause the downfall of the metaverse.

Tactics often involve keeping users online for prolonged periods of time, to increase conversion and subscription rates, compelling users to agree to cryptic terms and conditions, and generating tailored ad strategies that influence individual behavior even beyond the metaverse – all of which are detrimental to user wellbeing.

The metaverse is currently dominated by tech giants who are each pursuing their own agendas in terms of how they control participation in the space. And with this competition, companies may end up compromising their values, prioritizing monetary KPIs and goals to gain competitive advantage. This could also create barriers to accessibility, as many companies are monopolizing the compatibility of company-created devices with specific metaverses. As designers, it’s our responsibility to advocate for our users and be adaptable to consider these consequences.

Reimagining the metaverse

The speed of the metaverse’s growth has likely surpassed the discovery of its flaws, and with it being so entwined with digital ownership, blockchain, and decentralized finance, we also need to be wary of limitations due to financial and technical literacy. So, it's important to provide guidance to help users navigate through the metaverse. Although it’s difficult to find and fill gaps, one thing designers can do proactively is to ensure user literacy so that individuals are aware of the consequences of their actions.

So, how can we mitigate these ‘dark patterns’? 

• Co-creation: By involving users from different age groups and with varying accessibility needs, we can identify user patterns and co-define what safety, privacy, trust and engagement means. This helps build trust and enables users to develop a self-governing metaverse community that promotes due diligence.
• Literacy and guidance: In support of autonomy value and autonomous ecosystems, designers should create an environment where users can navigate the space on their own, without the anxiety of making a wrong move. At the bare minimum, users should be given enough information and context about what response their interactions in the metaverse could trigger. This can be managed by prompting informational or instructive pop-ups wherever it's contextually relevant, to prepare users for what to expect when interacting with certain metaverse elements. We must give users reassurance that their actions are secure and provide feedback when they stray off path – and this can be done through warnings and support messages.
• Relevance: Given the vulnerability of users in the metaverse, especially considering the large amounts of personal data they must provide to access it, we as designers need to fundamentally rethink the design of terms and conditions. We must strive to avoid blindsiding users with lengthy text that they’re likely to accept without reading. By addressing this, we not only protect user rights but also increase trust and buy-in to the metaverse. For instance, we may consider breaking up terms and conditions into chunks that users can agree to as and when they reach and unlock the relevant parts of the metaverse.
• Accessibility: Interoperability is important for users with accessibility needs, in order to ensure their assistive accessories and hardware are supported by metaverse technologies. This ensures that users can onboard the metaverse with little to no disruption of their existing practices/mental models. Also, screen fatigue and loneliness are real: to ensure user wellbeing, we must add reminders to take breaks and spend time offline.

Liberating users while ensuring they’re protected

The purpose of redesigning the metaverse is to ensure that this new platform does not reflect the systematic inequalities seen in the wider world. We must be mindful not to unconsciously implement dark patterns of design into the metaverse, especially in its early development, as this can set the tone and standard for future versions. It’s crucial that we don’t conceal the shortcomings we are met with, rather we should embrace the gaps and be transparent so that future metaverses and related technologies can be based on informed decisions. 
Only with co-creation can we truly give everyone an equal opportunity to be ported into this alternate world and live our double lives. As designers, we must be liable in our design decisions to promote inclusivity and create a space that brings people together.

More from Synechron

Peter McConville, Global Head of Digital Operations at Synechron, demystifies the metaverse and how it's unfolding in our State of Tech podcast "Metaverse: Hype or Happening?".