What should an appeal button do when an automated decision is wrong? · Elias Thorn
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What should an appeal button do when an automated decision is wrong?

If a system makes a decision that affects someone, I want the appeal process demonstrated alongside the decision process.

Start with an ordinary error: the system has mixed up two records. Let the person point that out. Can they see enough of the reasoning to identify the problem? Can they correct the source record? Who can actually reverse the decision, and how does the person know it has been reversed?

A chat window that apologizes without changing anything would be a particularly irritating place to get stuck. Someone needs the authority to resolve the case, and the affected person needs a way to reach them.

There will be information that can't simply be exposed to everyone. That makes the design harder; it doesn't make the mistaken person disappear.

I'd be interested in examples of appeal processes that work well. What makes you feel that your explanation reached somebody able to act on it?

Date or period · 2026-10-11

Open source ↗ (https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/appeal-button/)

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