Reflection eggs

In this project I tried to answer the question: How can we review and reflect on our personal data more mindfully? We leave a lot of data behind. Most of it is not very valuable but some of our data says alot about our lives and who we are as people. They are traces of valuable everyday experiences you have with e.g. friends and family or by practicing your hobby. Too bad that this data doesn't leave much of a physical trace to look back at, nothing to display like a personal and ever-developing piece of art. I wanted to create a way to make people more aware of the valuable everyday life data that builds up, help them review it in a more mindful way and reflect on it. I came up with a concept for 'reflection eggs' that collect and give back data to people about their experiences in an abstract and playful way.

Before deciding on a set of eggs to display multiple types of data I sketched some concepts for displaying very specific types of data (like your bicycle travel behavior, your physical health and what happens at the dinner table) onto the object where the data was created. The concepts are all very visual in order to have data leave a 'physical trace on the world' to reflect on.

Because abstract visualizations of data can be very subjective I interviewed people that were interested in reflecting on their personal data and asked them what data they found the most valuable to visualize. I gave them cards with prompts about types of data to talk about. During the interviews the participants also were able to use cards with different types of visuals to express how they would personally visualize data. From these interviews some basic guidelines were discovered for data visualizations that most participants agreed on.

I combined a few of the most interesting types of data that most people could relate to and made a concept to visualize them in a set of eggs that can be displayed anywhere inside the home. I made each egg shape represent a type of experience data and created a unique look and interaction with it to serve as a metaphor for the real life data (e.g. a fluffy egg with a heartbeat that needs warmth represents health of a living being) to create a more mindful and active way to receive and review data.

The eggs were displayed at a small exhibition at my university where they received positive reactions. Visitors found the eggs very engaging and especially related to the 'health' egg. They commented that this type of reflection tool would be beneficial for people on the autism spectrum.