Numbers that Matter
Numbers that Matter explored wellbeing and people’s understanding of data by co-designing a wearable open-data device.
1 Commercial Partner
5 Academic Researchers
Data is too incomprehensible to care about. As such data wrangling has formed an elite. Numbers that Matter's intention was to make individual community participants aware of the data footprint that is constantly generated and to establish what data ('numbers') matter to them.
There is lots of Data ‘about’ individuals not ‘for’ individuals. Numbers that Matter participant workshops allowed the individual to define meaning in data while at the same time increasing awareness around civic or societal issues.
The aim of the project was to develop insights around civic interests that have a bespoke individual and meaningful resonance, with the intention to inform and potential to influence behaviour through the creation and use of a bespoke wearable device.
This was done by making use of the vast store of open data and linking to diverse sources to enrich and distilling this as a simple but meaningful number. The project aimed to make OpenData personal and relevant (serving the individual rather than civic-level participant) and included a hack/make day, with the challenge to embody this meaningful data into a wearable or portable device, making the digital physical.
Manchester Digital Laboratory were involved with the early stages of this project.
