This graduation opportunity is now closed!

Context

Technologies that measure or collect data about our bodies, feelings, and behaviours are increasingly present in our daily lives. One example of these are menstrual tracking technologies, mostly in the form of smartphone applications (e.g., Flow, Glow, Clue), or integrated into health platforms (i.e., Apple Health, Google Health, Fitbit, Garmin), that allow people who menstruate to collect (via self-reporting), analyze, and share information about their menstrual cycle, including pain, sexual activity, sleep patterns, and emotional state. For this, they collect (via self-reporting) a wide range of (potentially sensitive) data, including menstrual dates and cycle length, breast tenderness, fatigue, emotions, and dates and types of sexual intercourse, among others. The data collected by these technologies can be very valuable to reflect on their use and inform the design of future products and services, as they accurately describe the characteristics and behavior of their users in-the-wild. Designerly data donation presents an opportunity to access this data. However, for this, it is essential for data donors to be sufficiently motivated and for them to obtain benefits or recognition after donating their data.

Project

In this project, you will work in the intersection of menstrual tracking technologies and designerly data donation by designing donorโ€™s badges. The goal of these badges is twofold. First, to offer recognition to donors. Second, to promote normalizing a behaviour (i.e., to donate data) through sharing (e.g., in social media, with friends and family, with colleagues) which could potentially motivate others. The design of these badges implies investigating the when, how, where, and why, and developing the appropriate mechanisms so that they are shared in a timely manner.

Student Profile

You are creative, and critical. You are interested in technology, ethics, and persuasive design. You feel comfortable with the unexpected and with using methods such as journey mapping, personas, scenarios, observations, and interviews.

Outcome and Evaluation

You are expected to design, prototype, and evaluate, through predefined metrics, donorโ€™s badges. Including the when, how, where, and why. Leading data donors to develop positive feelings (e.g., pride, satisfaction) from being recognized, and prompting them to share their behaviour with others.

Literature to Get Started

  • N. Campo Woytuk, M. L. J. Sรธndergaard, M. Ciolfi Felice, and M. Balaam, โ€œTouching and Being in Touch with the Menstruating Body,โ€ Conf. Hum. Factors Comput. Syst. - Proc., pp. 1โ€“14, 2020, doi: 10.1145/3313831.3376471.
  • S. Fox, N. Howell, R. Wong, and F. Spektor, โ€œVivewell: Speculating near-future menstrual tracking through current data practices,โ€ DIS 2019 - Proc. 2019 ACM Des. Interact. Syst. Conf., pp. 541โ€“552, 2019, doi: 10.1145/3322276.3323695.
  • D. A. Epstein et al., โ€œExamining menstrual tracking to inform the design of personal informatics tools,โ€ in Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, May 2017, vol. 2017-May, pp. 6876โ€“6888, doi: 10.1145/3025453.3025635.
  • A. Skatova and J. Goulding, โ€œPsychology of personal data donation,โ€ PLoS One, vol. 14, no. 11, pp. 1โ€“20, 2019, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224240.
  • L. Dupuy, C. Consel, and H. Sauzรฉon, โ€œSelf determination-based design to achieve acceptance of assisted living technologies for older adults,โ€ Comput. Human Behav., vol. 65, pp. 508โ€“521, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.07.042.

What is Designerly Data Donation?

Designerly data donation is an approach for data collection in-the wild, where people are invited to contribute to research and design projects through their personal data and insights.

Contact

For more information and application, please get in touch with Alejandra Gomez Ortega.