# Project Description You see what social media wants you to see Youyou Hu Summary Final work I’m a transdisciplinary designer who uses visual storytelling to spark emotion, provoke thought, and challenge what we take for granted. Rooted in typography, layout, and narrative design, my work spans graphic, motion, interactive, and game environments and AI-driven media—bridging formats to build systems that speak across senses and platforms. For me, design isn’t just about making things look good—it’s a way to interfere, reveal, and reframe. I’m drawn to the messy intersections between media, perception, and society, where design becomes a tool for reflection, not just representation. I believe good design doesn’t just communicate—it asks better questions. I’m a transdisciplinary designer who uses visual storytelling to spark emotion, provoke tho... College Central Saint Martins Course BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design Graduation year 2025 Social media doesn't just show you the world - it reshapes the way you see it Each day on social media, we scroll through videos and tap into eye-catching thumbnails, believing we’re making free choices. But have you ever stopped to wonder—were those choices already made for you? Social media platforms are no longer neutral tools. Through algorithms, they systematically influence what we see, what we remember, and what we desire. This project focuses on Chinese lifestyle platforms like Xiaohongshu (RED), exploring how visual trends, recommendation systems, and platform incentives subtly shape user perception. Final work Through design, I aim to expose how platforms reinforce certain “content trends” via recommendation mechanisms and stylistic cues—gradually influencing our understanding of lifestyle, value, and even identity. To improve user retention, platforms often favor familiar narratives; creators, navigating this environment, face a dilemma: stay true to personal expression or adapt to mainstream formats for visibility. Meanwhile, users—through endless scrolling—gradually internalize these frequently surfaced ideals. This is not about blame or accusation but a structural reflection on how platform logic works: as content becomes more uniform, are we still aware that our space for choice is quietly shrinking? This is also an invitation: to pause and reconsider how our judgments are subtly influenced by daily, algorithmic nudges. The project stems from my own experience. Even when I realized that the platform was shaping my emotions and decisions, I found it difficult to disconnect. I came to understand that this wasn’t a matter of personal willpower, but a closed loop between platform mechanics, creator strategies, and user psychology—addiction, anxiety, and mimicry are exactly what keeps us engaged. To explore this, I designed an interactive website that replicates the most familiar features of Xiaohongshu（RED）—thumbnails, headlines, and recommendation logic. But I subtly embedded moments of distortion and mismatch. When you instinctively tap on a post and encounter something unexpected, that brief sense of friction is what I want you to notice. By mimicking the scrolling experience and design language we’re used to, the site gently shifts the flow to invite awareness. What we assume to be a personal choice may, in fact, be a pre-structured suggestion. I hope visitors might begin to recognize unfamiliar patterns within familiar frames—and pause, if only for a moment, to ask, Who pushed this content to me? Why did I click? Did I truly want to see and remember this? If these reflections help even a few people reclaim their agency in reading, interpreting, and remembering, then I believe this design has fulfilled its purpose. In this project, design is not merely a form of expression but a critical tool to uncover how our choices are shaped and to help us reclaim control over our attention, memory, and mental autonomy. Share this project Social media doesn't just show you the world - it reshapes the way you see itEach day on social media, we scroll through videos and tap into eye-catching thumbnails, believing we’re making free choices. But have you ever stopped to wonder—were those cho... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Archives & Collections Digital Experiences Data Identity Health & Wellbeing Digital WebDesign SocialMedia GraphicDesign VisualCommunication