From Personal Data Visualization to Data-Empowered Citizens

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This research focuses on empowering citizens with data through promoting visualization of personal data. Utilization of data is becoming ever more prevalent in societal and economic discourses and decision-making processes. Data literacy - the ability to read, understand, create and communicate data as information - is becoming as essential to citizens as the ability to read and write words and numbers. But many people lack the skills to interact with this data. To fill this gap, my research focuses on empowering people with data by i) supporting them in creating and sharing personal visualizations, and by ii) seamlessly integrating personal physical visualizations in their homes. Humans have a long history of using personal data in everyday life, such as maintaining duty boards, marking the height of children on a wall, and displaying mementos of past experiences. Nowadays people generate large amounts of personal data using devices such as smart meters and thermostats, wearable activity trackers and smart phones. Cities, cars and homes are becoming “smarter” and people track everything from health conditions to food consumption to movements. However, how most citizens will benefit from that data is not clear. These familiar datasets that people are self-motivated to collect and share, are a new opportunity for integrating visualization into people's lives thus contributing to empower them with data. My team and I will study, design for, and evaluate the everyday use of digital and physical representations of data in personal contexts. We will develop tools that help people create and share personal, relatable visualizations; for example of a six-month health condition using photography of people met, glucose levels, and subjective mood tracking. In parallel, we will research how recent technology like tangible, robotic, and augmented reality interfaces can be integrated into people's homes, to enhance their awareness of their surroundings and to support daily decision-making. For example, micro-robots climbing on the ceiling could show where electric cables are located. Or, physical representations in a bathroom could actuate their shape, texture and color according to several health indicators of a person. This research will contribute empirical data, design guidelines, software, techniques and theories for designing tools that support the creation and sharing of personal visualizations. Canadian companies that deploy smart-home, Internet of Things, wearable, and tracking devices will apply our research findings to designing technology that enhance people's cognitive abilities and decision making. Applications range from sharing everyday life hobbies to monitoring, improving and communicating personal health to making group decisions. Canadian society in general will benefit from this research that will improve people's data and visualization literacy, thus help people be data-empowered citizens.