Data management case: Design of working/living environment

Disclaimer: The use case presented below is inspired by a real-world study, in which research teams faced specific data-related challenges from a storage/processing perspective, privacy and compliance with GDPR point of view, or ethical considerations and institutional ethical review.  We hope this case-study will provide you with insight into what may be required for your own work and trigger interesting discussions on such key aspects of research activities. However, the advice provided here should not be directly applied to any other research project. Please consult with relevant experts in your institutions.

Project background

Due to the 2019/2022 pandemic, more people started working from home. This project aims to identify key elements in a combined working/living environment (hybrid space) and to suggest customized designs for different user groups – based on the type of activities and hybrid space conditions. The research team will start by observing how people adjusted their “work-at-home” environment by gathering information that people shared on social media. This initial phase enables them to identify the most interesting criteria for achieving a balanced hybrid work environment. The team then recreates several 3D test environments using a virtual reality environment, allowing participants to “experience” their newly created hybrid space. The team iterates and improves the test designs through collaborative sessions with fellow researchers and students from their institutions, who partake in Virtual Reality (VR) test trials. Each participant is engaged in multiple discussions regarding the initial and enhanced iterations of the design. Once the team has identified several interesting hybrid space setups for remote work, they would like to get the opinion of the non-academic part of the population. To this end, they invite groups of people (5 to 10) to spend a few hours in their lab to test the environment using a VR headset and collect feedback from the group on each selected design.

Research data management considerations

Data collection and storage

The data collected during this experiment is summarized below:

• Images obtained from social media platforms (Instagram and similar), the provenance of each image will be noted to facilitate the identification of associated licenses and copyright notices in the future.
• The interviews to refine the designs and the focus group feedback will be recorded, including audio and/or video recording.
• The VR environments are also part of the data produced during the project.

Once the study is completed, the research team intends to make all supporting data available. This includes reports on the design refinement process (interviews), the assessment by people (focus groups) and the virtual environment and its associated public source of inspiration (images from social media). Finally, the research team wants to show how the environment’s testing took place using pictures of the sessions. Therefore, the research group will have to ensure:

• The preservation of proof of consent from all participants who agreed to use their image as part of publication (in pictures/videos).
• The safekeeping of the list of participants, as the team needs to keep track of who reviewed which design.

In facilitating data sharing regarding participants’ input on the designs, the research team will summarize the discussions during the interviews and focus groups, focusing only on the appreciation of the hybrid workspaces. The summaries will be sent to the relevant participants for review before publication. It is decided that it will not be publicly available if the relevant participant does not explicitly approve the summary.

The team will also acquire video and image editing tools to blur and hide participant’s face in videos and pictures. This will increase the amount of material they can share without jeopardizing the participant’s anonymity.

At the end of the experiment, the team intends to share the “optimal” hybrid workspace design publicly. These designs are “unusual” research data, requiring more information from the copyright/legal support team to copyright/licensing on such output.

Additionally, the team would like to share the designs found on social media to provide information on how those designs came to be and used as an inspiration for the new designs. This amounts to a public display of designs obtained from a third party.

Key considerations on data collection and storage:

• For this project, any institutionally approved storage for personal data is sufficient. No specific additional security measures are required. The principal investigator may follow the general rules and regulations of their institution.
• Two types of personal data should be clearly distinguished in both the DMP (Data Management Plan) and the storage solution itself:
• The personal administrative data collected to organize the experiments (participant lists, consent forms…).
• The personal research data that they wish to use in analysis and to produce publications (demographic information: age range, domain of activity, audio recording, transcriptions)
• The project is handled by a single research group, limiting the need for data sharing during the project. The research team must ensure that only relevant project members have access to the project data.
• Data sharing will occur during archival when the results are publicly available through a research data repository and publications.
• The research team will have to keep track of the provenance of images collected on social media to ensure that their usage for the project does not violate licenses or copyright laws.

Ethics

While information is being collected from human participants, the need for personal information is limited (age range, work habits at home/ the office, education level, opinion about the designs). The use of personal information for administrative uses includes organising focus group sessions and tracking participation in the V.R. part of the experiment.

However, VR experiments are known to create discomfort for some people (nausea, vertigo, dizziness), and participants must be warned. Additionally, participating in a VR experiment may require participants to come on-site, which in pandemic times requires specific attention.

In general, research with human participation requires ethics review, but additionally, for some institutions, the use of 3rd party material from social networks can be subject to an ethical review as well – because we are indirectly interacting with people through their online contributions.  In any case, the usage of pictures or other material collected on the Internet is subject to specific copyrights, which will have to be followed.

Key Considerations on Ethics

• Virtual Reality experiment exposes participants to specific risks. Check existing consent forms regarding V.R. experiments, as discomfort with such tools is frequent.
• Anonymous summaries/reports of interactions can be sent to the participants to ensure that they are aware of what will be reported about their activities. The research team will keep track of the initial consent (to participate in the experiment) and the consent to publish the anonymous summary of their participation in the interview/focus group.
• This study is performed at a time when COVID-19 is still active. Participating in activities related to VR headsets implies on-site presence. Participation must then be voluntary, and participants who feel discomfort must be allowed to leave. Additionally, the research team must abide by current safety regulations (ventilation/space and such).

Privacy and legal aspects

Specific attention must be given to audio recordings of interviews and focus groups and the storage of signed informed consent forms, which contain personally identifiable information about the participants. Publication of images of participants in V.R. gear in combination with audio recordings could make the participants identifiable.

To ensure that designs and research data do not pose copyright or licensing issues, researchers are recommended to keep track of the provenance (website, URLs…) of the data (images, user comments, ratings, and so on they collect online to facilitate license retrieval. The team should keep track of the URL of the data and the URL of the associated copyright and privacy notice. This will ease the work of the IP/Copyright support team. Additionally, researchers must ensure that they abide by the licenses under which the 3rd party material used in this research was made available for public use.

Key considerations on privacy and legal aspects:

• As always, the researchers should check the institutional privacy guidelines.
• It is advised to seek legal advice to guarantee that data collected from social media can be used for research publication. Unless the research team is familiar with such processes, advice from the institution’s privacy/legal team is required.
• To ensure proper reuse of existing content and legal protection for the created content, advice from the copyright team is required here.
• Should the research team want to use images of participants using the VR headset to support publications or in presentation, the research team must ensure that they have the appropriate proof of consent from the participant.
  
  

Acknowledgement: this use case was written jointly by data stewards from TU Eindhoven, University of Twente, and TU Delft. We would like to thank the data stewards of these universities who contributed to the use case.