3 Questions about D2USP – project in the «DSI Infrastructures & Labs» series
DSI Infrastructures & Labs are shareable infrastructures or structural vessels for creating collaborative research environments related to digital transformation. Dr. André Meyer and Dr. Malte Doehne briefly introduce D2USP, one of the projects in this series.
What is the Digital Device Usage Self-Monitoring Platform (D2USP)?
Although people in Switzerland spend an average of almost six hours a day using digital devices, little is known about their usage, activities, and impact. D2USP provides an infrastructure for research projects that improve our understanding of digital device usage and its impact on society, individual well-being, and productivity.
What are the advantages of D2USP over existing solutions?
Existing software solutions for collecting digital behavioral data are often functional, but frequently lack data protection, customizability, and user-friendliness. D2USP addresses these shortcomings with a privacy-friendly, customizable platform that meets research needs and retains users in the long term through personalized insights.
How can researchers use D2USP for their projects?
Researchers can customize the self-monitoring software for their research in just a few steps. They determine which data is collected (e.g., app and web usage, aggregated mouse and keyboard inputs, document editing), whether experience sampling (short surveys) is enabled, whether participants receive personalized insights, and how the data is anonymized and shared with researchers.
All projects of the series «DSI Infrastructures & Labs» can be found here.
Dr. André Meyer is senior researcher at the Human Aspects of Software Engineering Lab (of the Department of Informatics). His research focuses on developing digital interventions for software developers and other knowledge workers to increase their awareness on or foster productivity, focus & flow, and well-being, through persuasive technologies such as self-monitoring, self-reflection and goal-setting.
Dr. Malte Doehne is senior researcher at the Department of Sociology (SUZ) of the University of Zurich. Among others, he specializes in empirical social research design and has extensive experience in advanced data analytics and interdisciplinary research. For the D2USP, he develops and supervises field studies on computer use across different societal contexts of knowledge production, centering around the identification of salient device use patterns and their impact on user well-being and efficacy.