Human Centred Analytics

Human centred Data Analytics & AI is about developing technologies that lead to a better world. It requires that we consider the ethical implications of the work we engage in to decide whether, on balance, it will improve things for an environment or community.  It is about putting, or recognizing, the “humans in the loop”. That is, never forgetting that there are human beings represented in the data we are working with, and potentially affected by the actions our solutions enable.

It is about considering the humans at every stage of the project, from deciding whether it’s a good idea in the first place, to thinking about how you will deal with unintended consequences (the ones you weren’t able to anticipate and mitigate).

It is also about good hygiene and getting the basics (privacy, informed consent, usability and trustworthiness) right.  In two words it’s about being ethical and purposeful in the way we bring new products into the world.

You may be surprised by how achievable these goals are in most organizations. There are technologies that can help improve certain capabilities such as data privacy risk management, but this is predominately about raising awareness and changing of perspectives, requiring process refresh and skills development to embed new ways of approaching and governing data science projects.

We work with a network of like minded practitioners in research and industry that bring different experience, tools and perspectives. If you’re working with data and interested in learning more, or have been working in this space for a while and would like to exchange ideas, get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

Resources

Human centered analytics is a widely researched subject with growing industry adoption. This small selection of links will help get you on the learning path if you’re new to the subject. If you have a resource that you think should be here we’d love to hear from you.