Project Overview

In today’s digital age, scams increasingly take place on social media. This project focuses on the “perfect victim” scam, where perpetrators create attractive, tragic personas to gain sympathy and money. As a former victim, I designed a wearable device that offers an interactive experience to help users detect manipulation and protect their empathy from exploitation.

Year

2024

My Role

Designer, 3D Modeling Artist

Related Field

Product design; 3D Modeling; Speculative Design

Research

Design

Social Context

In the era of big data,
short-form videos are taking over Instagram and TikTok.
Live streaming is booming,
with more creators — and more audiences — than ever before.

I was one of them —a fan enchanted by the world of live streaming.
Until one day,I discovered I had fallen into the very trap I never saw coming

Cause

What if
the very kindness we offer turns against us ?

A Pig That Will Be Eaten After 100 Days

Creator:

YouTuber てんちょー (Tencho)

Content:

Documented a pig’s life over 100 days, teasing that it would be eaten at the end

Impact:

Audiences grew emotionally attached to the pig

The final twist — the pig was spared — caused massive discussion, with some viewers feeling manipulated or “tricked”

Keywords:

Emotional engagement, moral tension, virality, social media storytelling

Emotional Manipulation

→ Exploits empathy for a helpless figure, mirroring the “perfect victim” trope.

Social Media Format

→ Episodic storytelling keeps audiences emotionally invested.

Human Kindness as Currency

→ Compassion itself becomes the driving force behind reach and influence.

Target Group

Co - Design Workshop

I. Information

Location: Shanghai, China
Date: 10 / 11 / 202 12 p.m. ~ 5 p.m.

II. Goal

Rationalisation: Refine and iterate the insights I collected from secondary research and experimentation.
Ideation: Ideate with easily deceived audiences and gain insights from their thinking.
Objectification: Make the design process the objective before the formal ideation session.

III. Agenda

IV. Observation

v. Result - Comparison of brain wave

Conclusion

People’s judgment is shaped by many factors — upbringing, cultural background, core values, thinking patterns, and even emotional states.

In the digital age, these influences can make individuals more vulnerable to emotional manipulation and online scams, which is why raising awareness and understanding this cycle is so important.

What if compassion becomes
a consumer product ...

Design Concept

In the age of screen-based Internet, it is difficult to rely on the screen to identify the behavior of perfect victims, and people can easily be systematically introduced into the designed traps that deceive people's sympathy by falsifying information and eventually influencing their judgment.

Design Goals

The design was originally intended to help viewers screen fraudster behavior through a small program, and determine a fraudster behavior through data, so as to achieve the way to help viewers reduce the possibility of being cheated.

Product Design

Details

Anti Glare Panel

Bone Conduction Loudspeaker

Focal Length Ajuster

App Design

I. Skyeye
— Your Second Pair of Eyes

Skyeye acts as a second pair of eyes, helping users recognize potential scams through real-time data analysis.

It evaluates the credibility of people or situations — both online and offline — and alerts users to signs of emotional manipulation, including artificially created “perfect victims” that exploit kindness on social media.

II. Real-time Scam Alert