Lifelogging is the practice of tracking personal data generated by our own behavioral activities in continuous digital streams. As it is slowly becoming mainstream, it raises a lot of intriguing questions and thoughts.
Lifelogging and self-tracking are altering the Futures of:
Memory,
Remembering,
Forgetting,
Storytelling,
Privacy,
Law enforcement,
Governance,
Bodies,
and our very Humanness.
This report explores these questions, thoughts and futures.
DevEX - reference for building teams, processes, and platforms
How Lifelogging Transforms Us All : Changing habits, memories, and selves.
1. How Lifelogging Transforms Us All
Changing habits, memories, and selves.
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2. What is Lifelogging?
Lifelogging is the practice of tracking personal data generated by our own behavioral activities in
continuous digital streams.
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3. MyLifeBits
Lifelogging is the brainchild of Microsoft researcher
Gordon Bell, who used his “MyLifeBits” project to
capture all personal data in digital form and create
software that allowed the ability to search and
review it.
The goal is to compile a lifelong digital archive or a
“portable, infallible, artificial memory,” that
contributes to job productivity, medical treatment,
school performance and more.
Source: Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell, “A Digital Life,” Scientific
American (2007)
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4. What is the Quantified Self?
The Quantified Self (QS) is a movement that uses instruments to record numerical data on all aspects of
our lives: inputs (food consumed, surrounding air-quality), states (mood, arousal, blood oxygen levels),
and performance (mental, physical).
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5. The concept was proposed by Gary Wolf and Kevin
Kelley of Wired magazine as “a collaboration of users
and tool makers who share an interest in self
knowledge through self-tracking.”
Data acquisition is through technological devices:
wearable sensors, mobile apps, and software
interfaces.
Stance is proactive: obtain and act on information via
self-diagnosis, self-experimentation etc.
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6. Lifeloggers and particularly QSers reject anonymous, generalized, one-size-fits-all
prescriptions.
Practitioners gather data that allows them to assert individuality and autonomy against
mass-market culture and the established authority of “experts,” “doctors,” and
professional researchers. As lifeloggers we aspire to become “experts of ourselves.”
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7. The central question is
What is right for me?
When is my optimal bedtime? What is my optimal
exercise routine?
What do my memories look like?
What diet (dairy, vegan, gluten-free, other) will
make me healthiest?
What activities and habits are correlated with
mood, productivity , bio-rhythms, and brain
function in my life?
What does my data say about me?
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8. The Evolution of Lifelogging
“Lifelogging is an inevitability”
- Kevin Kelly, Co-Founder, Quantified Self.
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9. “…many of our problems come from
simply lacking the instruments to
understand who we are. Our
memories are poor; we are subject to
a range of biases; we can focus our
attention on only one or two things
at a time. We don’t have a
pedometer in our feet, or a
breathalyzer in our lungs, or a
glucose monitor installed into our
veins. We lack both the physical and
the mental apparatus to take stock of
ourselves. We need help from
machines.”
Gary Wolf
“The Data Driven Life,” New York Times, 2010
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17. Gadgets and Sensors
Google Glass
records what you see
Autographer
automatically clicks pictures at
regular intervals.
Omsignal
Apparel that tracks biometrics.
Jawbone UP
tracks number of steps taken
Proteus
ingestible sensor for
tracking medication intake
Daytum
App to collect, categorize and
communicate everyday data
Apple & Nike
teamed up to connect iPods to shoes to
track physical activity
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CubeSensors
tracks environment that
we stay in.
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18. Gadgets and Sensors
Gadgets and Sensors
Google Glass
records what you see
Autographer
automatically clicks pictures at
regular intervals.
Omsignal
Apparel that tracks biometrics.
Jawbone UP
tracks number of steps taken
Proteus
ingestible sensor for
tracking medication intake
Daytum
App to collect, categorize and
communicate everyday data
Lifelogging devices are becoming ubiquitous and come in variety of form-factors. Many devices have
multiple capabilities, creating functional overlaps. Devices are also becoming smaller and less visible to
CubeSensors
prevent the awkwardness of wearing technology and facilitate seamless logging. tracks environment that
Apple & Nike
teamed up to connect iPods to shoes to
track physical activity
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we stay in.
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19. Gadgets and Sensors
Lifelogging devices capture a variety of data
Pictures, Videos and Audio
Google Glass, Momento, Autographer, Samsung’s new smart watch. These devices either
capture visual and audio content automatically or through a trigger like blink of an eye, voice
command etc.
Physical Activity
Fitbit, Jawbone UP, Nike shoes etc. are devices that track the number of steps taken,
distance covered, calories burnt and much more.
Sleep Patterns
UP by Jawbone and Zeo Personal sleep coach are two examples of devices that track sleep
patterns
Diets
Hapilabs, a fork that tracks eating behaviors or MyFitnessPal, an app that tracks nutrition
and diet
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20. Gadgets and Sensors
Lifelogging devices capture a variety of data
Mood
Multiple smartphone apps like Happiness, MoodJam, Mercury App, MoodScope or
sophisticated devices like a W/me by Phyode track our moods.
Key Vital Signs
Cardiio uses the iPhone camera to measure heart rate, Adidas miCoach makes the training
shirt into a heart rate sensor and multiple other devices record our vital signs.
Brain Activity
Muse is a brain sensing headband that senses brain activities. Muse incorporates 7 EEG
sensors to detect and measure this.
Miscellaneous
Cube sensors to record our environment compositions, IFTTT* to collect all our virtual world
activities, Daytum to collect our every day data - there is a device and app to collect and
collate everything around us in both, the real and the virtual world.
* IFTTT is a service that lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement: ‘if
this then that’
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21. Mobile Apps
Sleep Trackers
- Average Sleep
- Sleep Genius
- Sleep Time
Photos and Videos
- Lifelapse
- Rseven
- Everyday
- Heyday
- One Second Everyday
Health & Fitness
- Bodywise
- Digifit
- Endomondo
Mood
- In Flow
- Lume Personal Tracker
- Moodpanda
- Zen Log
Heart Monitors
- Cardiio
- Instant Heart Rate
- Stress Check
Location
- Foursqaure
- MapMyRun
Meals
- Mealsnap
Dreams
- Shadow
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22. Web Services
Beeminder
Create goals and then aggregate
data from multiple activity trackers
and services to track progress
Bedpost
A service to track and
provide insight into your
sex life
HonestBaby
Web app to allow for child
development tracking
Traqs.me
Aggregate activity across
multiple devices and
access via visual
dashboard and reports
Microsoft HealthVault
Organize, store, and share
health information online
Sen.se
Track daily activities with your
own metric definition. Many
other filters and apps for the
data available as well.
Moodscope
Track your mood daily and
gain insight
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23. Data Aggregation Services
Matchup.io
Allows you to compete with friends
using different activity trackers
currently supporting Fitbit, Jawbone
Up, Nike Fuelband, and Withings
Pulse.
ThinkUp
Import and backup data across
your social networks and draw
insights from the data
ProjectAddapp
Connect multiple services
and data to create IFTTT
types of data analysis
Zenobase
Data storage, aggregation and
visualization for personal timeseries data.
Tictrac
Provides various tools to
lose weight, manage your
time or watch your baby
grow up.
Joymetrics
Tool to be more productive, to
make better decisions
and to learn to live happier.
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24. Meet-ups and Forums
MeetUp
A platform to create meetings and forums in physical
locations. QSers and Lifeloggers use this platform dominantly
to meet like-minded people and discuss ideas.
IndieWebCamp
A gathering of creators to
further open web technologies
for personal data.
Personal Digital Archives
PDA 2014 explores the intersections between
individuals, public institutions, and private
companies engaged in the creation,
preservation, and ongoing use of the digital
records of our daily lives.
Quantified Self
A community of users collectively
sharing and learning more about
self-tracking / Lifelogging.
Living by Numbers
Conference put on by Wired to learn
how better data can lead us to better
health.
Open You
Provides news and
resources about open
source app for health
devices.
Strata Conference
Not specific to Lifelogging but
a conference about data that
can crossover in several areas,
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25. Smart Journals
Diaro
Designed to record activities, experiences, thoughts
and ideas throughout your day and browse diary
notes from the past in an easy way. Uses Dropbox to
sync between app and web browser.
Day One
An iPhone app to easily enter your
thoughts and memories and have them
synced and backed up in the cloud using
iCloud or Dropbox.
Momento
A beautiful interface coupled with
powerful tagging, makes it quick and
easy to write about your day and
browse moments from your past.
Step
An iPhone app that collects all of
your life moments and manages
them using quantified and visualized
dashboard.
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Everyday.me
A smart timeline journal
smartphone app to capture all your
life moments, including your
activities across the web.
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26. The Data Journey
Illustrated using the example of Fitbit
Fitbit is a physical activity tracker designed to help you become more
active, eat a more well-rounded diet, sleep better, and turn you into a
healthier human being.
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27. Lifelogging devices capture raw data through accelerometers and other sensors. Specialized
algorithms process this data to convert it into valuable & usable information.
Fitbit records activities through the day…
FitBit logs a range of data about your activities, including the
number of steps you take, distance traversed and calories
burned. It's also sensitive enough to detect just how vigorous
your movements are, differentiates a slow stroll from a jog that
consumes far more calories
…and sleep patterns at night.
At night, you slip the FitBit into a
wristband so it monitors your sleep
quality. It knows when you go to bed,
how frequently you awaken and how
long you lie prostrate, staring at the
ceiling, pondering unmet deadlines.
Fitbit’s specialized algorithms work hard in the
background.
FitBit's software relies on special algorithms to convert raw
accelerometer data into usable information. Those
algorithms are the secret sauce that the company has
worked diligently to tweak and improve, by experimenting
and comparing FitBit's accuracy with other test machines.
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28. The usable information is then pushed back as feedback to users through the same
lifelogging devices, smartphones, or web applications. Data visualization makes for better
readability and response.
Feedback to us via the OLED on the Fitbit device
Fitbit has a built-in OLED (organic light-emitting diode) that
scrolls current activity data. So if it's late in the day and you still
have 8,000 steps to get to your goal of 15,000, you know it's
time to get going, and fast. A little flower avatar "grows" as you
become active; it gets shorter if laziness takes hold.
Uploads the data on FitBit’s servers
Every time you pass within 15 feet of Fitbit’s
wireless base station, FitBit automatically offloads
a cornucopia of numbers. From there, your
statistics go to your online profile, where you can
peruse details and monitor your progress.
Fitbit App allows updates via Smartphones.
Fitbit app is also available on select smartphones. It
automatically syncs your stats to smartphones wirelessly.
You can also use the FitBit app to record workouts, as well as
your food intake.
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29. Gamification of data helps build momentum and compels users to act on the data as
well. Users also reflect on the progress with respect to their goals and competitions.
Fitbit online profile shows the data visualized.
The data visualizations can help you view your
progress and historical records. You can track daily
goals, share progress with friends, and compare
against your historic averages. You can also create
and monitor a food plan that helps you make
better eating choices.
Gamification features introduce competition with self and
others.
As you achieve specific goals, you'll unlock virtual badges that
reward your positive behavior. These tokens recognize your
achievements and push you to aim for higher goals.
Data needs more data to work efficiently!
In order for all of this to work properly for a population that differs greatly in terms
of physical characteristics, FitBit needs more information. Using your Web-based
account, you enter personal information regarding age, weight, height and sex. You
can also click to log your meals so that FitBit knows how many bacon triple
cheeseburgers you need to work off.
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30. More devices and interfaces make for a more adventurous journey…
1
Victor captures his
life using a variety of
Lifelogging devices
7
He attends one of the
QS meetups to share
results and insights
with other QSers
6
He reads the
narratives of
other QSers
8
2
He syncs the data
on his smart phone
and laptop
He learns about Tictrac:
an aggregation that
analyzes information
from different sources
and presents them
visually
5
He defines goals
and objectives for
himself
12
He invests in bigger
and better cloud
storage facilities as
well
11
He searches for
advanced tracking
devices that will
dive even deeper
into his physiology
3
Victor stores the
data on a cloud as
well, so he knows he
always has a backup
10
4
Victor
experiments with
data analysis and
visualization
9
He starts competing
with people he met at
MeetUps
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He observes
improvement in his
sleep patterns and
productivity
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31. The Data Journey - Summarized
Stored data becomes
archived memory.
Lifelogging device
collects
information..
..which is processed by
a Smartphone / tablet
App
Data visualization tools/
services aid in combining
multiple data streams
Data is stored
on personal
devices..
Data is shared online,
at meetups or
conferences
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..or via web
and cloud
services
Data facilitates selfexperimentation
and bio-hacking
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33. Lifelogging and self-tracking
are altering the Futures of:
Memory,
Remembering,
Forgetting,
Storytelling,
Privacy,
Law enforcement,
Governance,
Bodies,
and our very Humanness.
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35. Lifelogging tools are designed to create comprehensive digital archives that can act as an extension
of human memory. The point is to capture not just the big moments in life, but the many trivial
moments in between—which are more easily forgotten.
Visual cues trigger memory and aid in recall. Logging cameras have been shown to help people with
Alzheimer’s; the applications for dementia and aging memory-loss are many.
Passively captured images also cause people to remember more than they would with actively taken
photos. Lifelogging cameras and apps act therefore as memory enhancers.
“Will being ‘always-on’ create a new generation of self-aware exhibitionists or daredevils? Or will it be so
seamless that we simply won’t notice? Or are we inching ever-closer to our experiences and
consciousnesses being down/uploadable into a Matrix/ Neuromancer-style network? To digital
immortality?”
--Linsey Fryatt, “Total recall” [http://venturevillage.eu/lifelogging]
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36. With Lifelogging tools we have…
Total Recall
• Your memory is as large as your archive
• Memory never fails!
• Trivial moments become the most important ones—what would it be like to have the first
photograph of the girl you will one day marry? Or one of your father before he died?
• Archive acts to counter the effects of everyday and ageing memory loss
Instant Replay
• Memory is searchable, accessible, available on-demand
• Memory accuracy improves
Freedom to Forget
• Memory, intelligence, and the human brain are external, portable, always on
• There is no compulsion to remember
• Freed from the burdens of memory, work-stresses reduce and we become more productive
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37. Lifelogging allows us to:
Write our autobiographies
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38. Apps write our Autobiographies
Diaries and journals are replaced by massive memory archives.
Now, we need to find ways to make sense of these.
Lifelogging apps step in to make sense of our multiple data
streams with the use of complex algorithms.
The meanings of objects are recorded by tags, flags, and emojis,
which categorize and classify our lives. Pictures speak more than
words do.
Our thoughts, emotions, biorhythms, images, and in short our
complete autobiographical selves become part of the Internet
of Things.
Our data supplies information to doctors, healthcare workers,
city planners, and government offices. With it, we can explore
hard-to-answer questions about health and civic well-being.
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39. App Autobiography helps us to…
Discover
• Autobiography is not so much about writing our own stories as discovering what these stories
are.
• The process of discovery is automated—moving from sensors to apps to stories.
• But there is still room to be playful with data, and to write new endings.
Visualize Collectives
• Devices and body sensors allow us to see as never seen before—both within our bodies, and how
we fit into bigger pictures. We become a part of Big Data.
• Data from multiple individuals creates intricate maps of our collective existence.
Reflection and Sense-making
• The goal is not so much broadcasting ourselves, but conducting self-experiments on how to
become better, stronger, faster, happier etc.
• The goal is no longer to become normal, but to identify what is optimal for each of us.
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41. What will happen to privacy? What about autonomy?
A Transparent Society
• Observation is no longer episodic, it is continuous
• Thanks to widespread use of wearable technologies, independent citizens have the capacity to watch
powerful institutions (police, government, corporations etc.) and monitor their excesses.
• Transparency and accountability increase as more data is recorded and made freely available.
• People alter the dynamics of social control.
Embedded Governance
• At the same time, governments, law-enforcement agencies, and companies also start tracking in new
ways—governance is embedded in identity documents and daily life.
• We enter an era of “Algorithmic regulation” and automated decision-making
• Individual autonomy is regulated and restricted. Governments “nudge” us to make “good decisions.”
The infrastructure of social control expands.
Living a ‘Sensored’ Life
• “The benefits of increased security, fairness, and efficiency will be weighed against the costs of
increased surveillance, reduced privacy, and less room for discretion.” [“Embedded governance,”
Institute for the Future]
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42. What sort of surveillance society will we become?
There are ever more trackers around. Department stores and companies hand out tracking devices
to improve customer experience while also passively collecting data about each of us. Disney’s
“Magic Bands” is an example.
We are all feeding information archives, even when we do the watching.
Will Sousveillance be a tool of democratization?
Or will we become a society of Little Brothers?
“Sousveillance” is a term coined by Steve Mann as an inversion of surveillance. Instead of being
watched all the time (by security cameras, government agencies, Big Brother), our cameras also do
the watching. Instead of information being controlled and guarded, we disseminate it freely via the
internet.
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43. Watching the Watchers leads to…
“…the commercial interests of technology companies and the policy interests of government
agencies have converged: both are interested in the collection and rapid analysis of user data…
[Privacy] is not an end in itself. It’s a means of achieving a certain ideal of democratic politics, where
citizens are trusted to be more than just self-contented suppliers of information to all-seeing and all-
optimizing technocrats”
--Evgeny Morozov, “The Real Privacy Problem”
[http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/520426/the-real-privacy-problem/]
“Personal tech is just the shiny edge of a broader change. We are heading quickly toward an "Other
Knows Best" world, in which everything and everybody second-guesses you for your own good. That
may be a world of easier shopping and friction-free government, better health and safer lives (thank
you, surveillance cameras). It will certainly be a world of sharply reduced personal autonomy.”
--David Berreby, “Personal Autonomy is Evaporating. Should we care?”
http://bigthink.com/Mind-Matters/personal-autonomy-is-evaportating-should-we-care
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45. We become Transhumans as…
• Lifelogging devices proliferate and integrate with our bodies, our documents, our lived
environments.
• We place our faith in technology.
• We find all our solutions by leveraging devices, sensors, and apps.
• We become self-hackers, creatures who seek self-awareness through data-gathering and
algorithms by which we spot patterns and modify behaviors.
• We patch our human imperfections and extend our capabilities with the aid of devices, sensors,
and apps.
• Our existence is recorded by internal and external sensors as a collection of metric data streams.
• The lines between the data and the self are blurred.
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46. Becoming Transhuman
Cyborgs
• Data reigns supreme.
• Smartphone apps, monitoring devices, and sensors act as the new mediators and co-producers of
knowledge. We exist through these things.
Bio-hacking
• We extend DIY and hacker ethics into working on our own biological and neurological processes.
• In doing so, we position ourselves against the commercial exploitation of personal data—though
our data is still gathered in commercial nets.
• Data literacy, or data expertise at the individual level increases.
Digital immortality
• Research shows that it may soon be possible to use synthesized DNA to store data! 4 grams of
DNA can theoretically hold 1.8 zettabytes, or all the world’s data!!
• Expanding storage space, and quantum of data being logged together pave the way toward digital
immortalization.
• There will be enough information to create virtual doppelgängers, to keep the living alive longer,
and eventually to resurrect the dead.
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48. How will we forget in the future?
If all our memories are archived, we are both free to forget and forced never to forget.
Will data experiences overwhelm us?
How will we reminisce?
How will we know that more memories will bring more happiness?
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49. Will numbers be able to tell us everything?
What will metric storytelling leave out?
Will we eventually need to regulate the algorithms that regulate us?
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50. What problems are apps and self-tracking solving?
We can monitor issues like sugar intake with a device and solve problems at an individual level. But how
will we solve larger systemic problems of inequality, supply, and regulation?
Does lifelogging encourage us to focus on some problems at the expense of others?
How will lifelogging address the big questions that confront us—such as environmental crisis, hunger,
poverty, and social inequality?
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51. “The trend is unstoppable. Some of us will embrace lifelogging more quickly
and more openly than others, but ultimately we are all moving in a similar
direction. The gains to be had from these detailed records of our lives are
fascinating, but the threat to our privacy is very real. I for one, tend to
embrace inevitability rather than fight it, so I will continue to increase my
lifelogging as technology makes it easier and cheaper for me to do so.”
- Keith Kleiner, Singularity Hub.
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54. Thank You
This report has been prepared by:
Ankush Samant
ankush.s@humanfactors.com
Deepa Reddy
deepa.r@humanfactors.com
Kiran Patil
kiran.p@humanfactors.com
Radhika Ramadoss
radhika.r@humanfactors.com
Address:
+91 413 4210583 / 4 / 5
No.10, 2nd Floor, Saint Ange St.,
Puducherry 605001, India
Tel : +91 413 4210583/4/5
ice.humanfactors.com/
facebook.com/uxtrendspotting
@UXTrendspotting
Contact ice@humanfactors.com for any further queries and feedback.
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