Personal Digital Trails: toward a Convenient Design of Products and Services Employing Digital Data

The developments of digital technologies (IoTs) and of systems based on Artificial Intelligence data interpretation, open new domains for the design of interactive and responsive products and environments. The spreading of technologies for automation in domestic and work environments, and the evolution of the access modalities to digital information and services, allow the collection of data concerning the behaviors of individuals and communities. The developments of AI and technologies such as those concerning speech recognition, natural language processing, and gestural interaction, reduce the cognitive efforts of the interaction with digital products, so encouraging their ubiquitous use (Pavlovic et al., 1997), and increasing the continuous (conscious and unconscious) exchange of personal data with the internet. In the physical/digital world that we are building, we are constantly producing personal data that are collected and elaborated in the internet with several finalities. We produce data carrying a cell phone, driving a car, using most payment systems, exchanging digital messages, activating appliances, googling for information, accessing a care center for healing or performing several other activities. We argue that the correct management of personal data is a delicate and critical task, also requiring dedicated thinking, and the definition of convenient design principles about personal needs in terms of privacy, safety, security and freedom. This paper reports some results of a research investigating the criticalities and potentialities of personal data in interaction design. The paper reports a mapping of the main issues currently related to the treatment of personal data in design, based on the critical analysis of some selected case studies of interactive products and services. The document also discusses the role of storytelling and of literary Science Fiction in the design oriented discussion of technology based scenarios, and on the anticipation of the consequences of design choices in the project of innovative solutions. The final goal is the definition of design principles and methodology suggestions, orienting the development of desirable solutions, with respect to the user needs of awareness and control of the destiny of personal information.