Feel data: Public data visualization as a medium to motivate data donation

Abstract

In our everyday activities, trackers and IoT devices are recording an increasing amount of data in the wild. It is believed that incorporating these data will contribute to more inclusive products and services as well as stimulate designers' creativity. As a result of the General Data Protection Regulation, users can now access their data and take the control of its usage. Under such circumstances, one can freely donate personal data for research purposes. Moreover, users have the opportunity to utilize their data more efficiently and to be aware of the importance of their privacy.
This project is about exploring how an effective public data visualization could be designed to encourage more people to donate personal data at the very beginning of the data collection process, with a limit on the amount of data that may be manipulated. Students who are not experts in data visualization are the target audience. And the brightspace platform is chosen since it is the simplest and most convenient way for students to receive faculty notifications. As data visualization outcomes and people's willingness to donate data vary depending on the type of data, according to the research insights, this project focuses exclusively on public photo visualizations. A series of two design iterations was conducted in order to leverage the intrinsic motivation of students to donate photos of their home working environment to be used for research purposes. This project explores motivation from the perspective of self-determination theory, and proposes criteria and design directions for designing photo visualizations for behavior change purpose.
In this study, the author identified five fundamental needs, including autonomy, competence, connectedness, purpose, and stimulation in order to evaluate data visualization's effects on the intimate data donation experience. Autonomy: Donors should feel free to choose the type of photos they want to donate. Their photos can also be used to express themselves creatively. Competence: Users should feel their photos are needed for the visualization. Relatedness: Users could feel connected with the visualization platform as they explored or interacted with it. Additionally, they believe they could build relationships by donating photos. Purpose: Users believe that donating their photos is meaningful to themselves or to researchers who require them. Stimulation: The way to ask for their donation is novel. And the entire experience with this visualization platform is enjoyable and interesting.
Through the study of three types of photo visualization, it was discovered that whether the visualization is explanation dominant or exploration dominant has an impact on users' willingness and results in varying types of photo donations. Further, design directions for effective self-determined public photo visualization in terms of information, function, and visual form were synthesized as a starting point for more future data visualization projects to motivate autonomous data donation behavior.