Daniela's Portfolio 2023

Significant challenges of our time, such as climate change, require new ideas and technologies to address them at a societal level. Data donations can give researchers and inovators insight into our everyday lives, to power meaningful change. Various scandals surrounding data collection have increased public scepticism and fear. This project looks at this topic and examines what conditions need to be in place to increase the motivation to donate data for the good of society and the planet.

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My bachelor thesis was based on the pilot project “DataDonation for Public Benefit”, in which the Stiftung Risiko Dialog, the University of Zurich, the City Development of Zurich, the POSMO Genossenschaft and the ZHdK were involved.

The goal of the project was to motivate the population to donate their mobility data anonymously and ethically for non-profit solutions. Cities all over the world are faced with the challenge of coping with climate change and the shortage of space per inhabitant. This poses the question of how mobility and urban spaces should look in the future.

But how do you get people to voluntarily donate movement data that is sensitive under data protection law in times of regular data protection scandals? I pursued this question in the course of my diploma project, which was an investigation on various levels and I did not see a finished app as a goal, but more as an element for communicating my research.

Swisscom inOne

Nationwide mailing to existing customers and potential new customers to introduce and explain Swisscom’s new “inOne” subscription package (According to action-triggering design principles).

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Discount weeks

Advertisement in the Coop newspaper as part of a nationwide two-week partner promotion “Discount Weeks” by Beiersdorf and Coop. With additional elements such as cross-stoppers, toppers, posters, tension flags, etc.. The aim was to increase purchases and drive traffic to the point of sale (according to action-triggering design principles).

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What does “Action-Triggering Design” mean?

“Action-triggering design means having control over the viewer’s gaze pattern.

Control can be gained by knowing the reading pattern of a viewer. This has three stages: (1). Looking, (2) Skimming: jumping from stimulus to stimulus and (3) Diving into the ‘semantic morsels’; only the latter contain the information it needs to raise the readiness to act.

The craft of action-triggering design is to know the stimuli and their impact, to dose and place them correctly to take the reader from stage to stage until they respond.

One indicator of good action-triggering design is the length of time the viewer stays: a high length of stay is a condition for success – not a sufficient one but a necessary one.”

Dr. Marc Rutschmann, 13 December 2015

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Studies on donor behaviour have shown that it only functions if the donor can expect not to be taken advantage of. Donations are therefore based on trust and this can be established through the representation and involvement of a cooperation partner, in this case the City of Zurich. Studies from Switzerland, among others by my cooperation partner Stiftung Risiko Dialog, have just shown that the state – also in the Corona pandemic – enjoys great trust. With the legal form of the cooperative as data owner, trust can be fostered through co-determination over the use of the data.

Based on further research and the study of psychological theories in the field of motivation, prosocial behaviour, psychological distance and abstraction, among others, I believe it is important to involve the population to avoid defensiveness and motivate them to act. To this purpose, a reciprocal relationship could be created between data users, i.e. the city of Zurich, and data donors, i.e. the population, so that the population gets in return something in the form of smaller projects that it finances and implements if needed.

In a participation process of the city of Zurich (2022), it has been shown that the population wants, among other things, co-decision rights and the promotion of citizen-initiated projects with regard to urban planning and climate change. This requires new decision-making processes and engagement.

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The app would give data donors the opportunity to support specific projects for a certain period of time in return for their data. One such project could be upgrading the neighborhood with better or new bike lanes, trees, playgrounds, parks, a bike repair/wash, bike racks, etc. The bigger the project would be, the more data would have to be donated over a longer period of time. This couldalso be used to motivate the population itself to donate data. There would also be smaller projects with a short donation period, which could then be implemented quickly. In this way, the results are visible more quickly, which increases the willingness of users to use data donation via the platform in the longer term.

It should also be possible to initiate projects oneself in order to let the population become part of the whole, thus increasing motivation and acceptance and reducing reactance.

An other aspect of benefit for the data donor is the visualisation of their own data, which can bring benefit through reflection. The app would not require behaviour change, but self-reflection can have a climate-positive effect by showing users how they are moving. A CO2 and calorie counter could encourage users to choose a sustainable form of mobility. This data could also be compared with others, e.g. by showing what the average citizen consumes in emissions or which mode of transport they use most.

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