The Human Experience in Data
"Human-centered data experiences" and why it is important– Given how data can be easily manipulated to be extractive. How can we reimagine, reframe data less abstract purely as metrics, perceived as optimization targets, productized as mindless engagement funnels but as stories, decisions for human agency that truly impact the people at various touch points of the design experience.
It is more crucial than ever to better understand the invisible layer of the so-called "intelligence" of AI and what we think it can do. Is there a connection between the human experience and the role of data in AI? The consumption and production of data, how it is mechanized and scaled, and how it influences the ecosystem and its impact beyond our imagination and shaping generations to come. We need deeper consideration: who creates the data, who is affected by it, who interprets it, and how it shapes lives.
The purpose/idea of this journal piece is to help people "see data in a new light," a kind of illumination—bringing clarity, context, and care to something that can often feel cold or abstract. More importantly, it is to bridge understanding of how we use data in AI that contextualizes data in human experience so we better name and architect both structured and unstructured data in a balanced way, generating more awareness of the products and services we build in the world.
There is a huge opportunity to explore, visualize, and interpret data in an experiential way to express it as a narrative that generates meaning and acts towards an effectual goal by envisioning a data strategic framework based on the identifying clear goals and objectives understood by the organization as a whole, exercised through its service/product platform in the context of implication within particular geo-political-socio industry population to result gained understanding to effect change.
Given how AI is developing at an unprecedented speed, operating at a facetious/irresponsible level with little consideration for the human experience. It is necessary to apply data with an understanding of how it connects, reflects, and amplifies real-world experiences. Data abstracted as functionality blindly as a means to an end without tracing its origin and connecting to its intended goal lacks wisdom and the responsibility of how we think, design, use/apply data.
Data becomes alive and actionable when understood meaningfully, derived experientially, and understood by those involved and those whose lives it impacts. The feasibility of leveraging data in such a way requires a strategy and prototype of a product that informs new learning that eventually creates self-organization to create a policy that manages the organization toward a new vision forward. It is essential to reimagine how people interact with data, including how it guides teams and institutions on how to build more empathetically/ethically.
It is also important to collaborate with expertise that complements so that we can prototype, create applicable frameworks, and potentially a toolkit, resulting in an immersive demo— that invites others into the shift we wish to create.
Open Thought for Exploration:
A reflective narrative: Our own evolution in working with data, what you've observed across industries, and the tension between scale and humanity.
A conceptual framework: Defining what "human-centered data experience" means—and contrasting it with status quo approaches.
A call to action: Encouraging community from designers, analysts, leaders to reimagine their relationship with data.