Abstract
Technological design decisions can subtly shape user behavior, often embedding corporate priorities into everyday digital experiences. This connection between design and ethics is central to my capstone project and STS research. For my technical project, I re-architected the micro-frontend structure for LoopNet's Account Manager at CoStar Group, creating a flexible system that balanced code reusability with platform-specific customization needs. Meanwhile, my STS research paper explored how features like infinite scrolling on social media platforms function as political artifacts that influence user autonomy. Both projects explore how technical decisions, whether architectural or user-facing, can deeply impact end users, demonstrating that even seemingly neutral designs are imbued with corporate, political, and ethical significance.
My capstone project addressed a core architectural problem within CoStar's product suite: how to enable distinct brand experiences, such as Apartments.com and LoopNet, without sacrificing the efficiencies of a shared codebase. The goal was to refactor the micro-frontend system to allow deeper functional and stylistic customization while maintaining the scalability and maintainability necessary for a multi-brand ecosystem. Using modular design principles, I reorganized core components to allow for dynamic behavior, enabling brands like LoopNet to offer tailored functionality, such as subscription management dashboards, without duplicating core logic across brands.
The results of my capstone project showed that modularization and clean coding practices could allow for significant brand-specific redesigns without compromising overall system integrity. By refactoring components for extensibility, I enabled LoopNet to achieve a completely distinct look and feel within the shared architecture, improving user experience for brokerage clients managing subscriptions and billing. Importantly, this architecture supports future growth by allowing new CoStar brands to more easily adopt unique interfaces without requiring ground-up rewrites, aligning with the company's scalability goals.
My STS research investigated the political and ethical dimensions of user interface design, focusing on infinite scrolling as a case study. My research question was: How does infinite scrolling function as a political technology that influences user autonomy? Using Langdon Winner’s theory of technological politics and Actor-Network Theory, I framed infinite scrolling as an artifact that encodes corporate values, prioritizing engagement and profit over user well-being. I combined theoretical frameworks with a case study of Instagram and a review of emerging public policies aimed at curbing addictive design patterns.
The findings of my STS research reinforced the idea that infinite scrolling, though often presented as a benign convenience, operates as a corporate tool to extend user engagement and maximize data collection. The research concluded that features like infinite scrolling subtly erode user autonomy, especially among adolescents, and that regulatory interventions are necessary to rebalance corporate power with public interest. Overall, my work highlights how architectural decisions, whether in backend systems or user-facing designs, carry profound social and ethical consequences, emphasizing the engineer’s responsibility to consider these broader impacts.
