HERE worked closely with CLEVER°FRANKE, a design agency with a focus on creating data-driven tools, products and services, to deliver an interactive demo that would shed light on data ownership in a clear, visually stimulating way. We spoke with Thomas Clever, co-founder of CLEVER°FRANKE, who worked on the project.
“CLEVER°FRANKE became involved in the project having completed a project for the city of Chicago, visualising mobility and infrastructure data.” Thomas adds, “We used HERE data for the project and, soon after, we began working with the company on this demonstration, where we wanted to address the issue of data privacy in car navigation and what it means.”
“We wanted to ask things like, where is that data stored and how is it shared with an OEM? What is done with that data? What we learned through the course of the demonstration is that HERE is a lot more conscious about the data than many other companies.”
How, though, do you demonstrate an issue as complex as privacy and data ownership? Thomas tells us more:
“The best, and hardest way of understanding complexity is to simplify it. Three of us – myself, a UI/UX designer and software developer - decided to approach this from a user-centric perspective and mapped out the scenario: you’re at home and you want to go to B, and your car is parked at destination A. Where does that journey start, where does it end, and what happens on the way?”
Charting a route and highlighting the data collected and used along the way, the demo highlights how HERE approaches data handling along said route compared with its close competitors. The demo then shows the scenario from the automakers’ point of view, highlighting how they receive relevant data from HERE.
The demonstration, created using HERE data and the data visualisation capabilities of CLEVER°FRANKE, took five months to create, according to Thomas:
“Using the HERE Maps app on my phone as a data point, we actually drove around using a vehicle with a head unit with two more applications running, capturing the data being used as it happened. We spent two days at the HERE office in Berlin mapping that first journey and driving around the city.”
The goal was to offer no chance to adjust the results: showing users what data was being used, and when, in real time.
The demonstration highlighted how the data HERE collects and offers is relevant, with privacy ensured: “As a consumer, I want to know what’s done with my data, and this was really interesting to experience. We were able to show people that there’s no need to take HERE at its word – its data privacy is proven.”
Thomas and the HERE team faced many challenges in creating the demo. He says, “Beyond the difficulty in simplifying such a complex issue, we had the issue of mapping a route and figuring out what happened to the data in each of the three systems [HERE and two competitors]. Once we were able to do this, and had the scenario figured out, it became more simple.”
“We also had to work with HERE to figure out how this information would be conveyed to people, and how HERE wanted to showcase the way it treats data privacy.”
When asked, from a design perspective, what Thomas hoped to achieve, he said, “Of course, we wanted to provide the people within HERE with a useful demo that they are proud of and that is useful to show, and helps them support their story and conversation with other parties.”
Thomas was keen to stress that this is merely scratching the surface of the complex data ownership debate, though the ability to plug in your phone and show how this data is collected is a powerful tool in illustrating the issue, and adds to the demo’s success.
He adds: “We wanted to create awareness around data privacy. It’s important to have a debate on this issue as it becomes more and more influential over the years, and seeing this conversation taking place is our measure of success.”
“We have also seen that HERE is operating at the forefront of data privacy, and wanted to promote this.”
