The Digital Footprints Lab collaborated with We The Curious, which is a major science and educational centre in Bristol, and delivered the public event Shopping Trolley Secrets throughout the past summer. In total we delivered three events in the Anchor Square in Bristol City Centre and one at the event run by West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL) in the MShed. In total 188 people took part in the activities throughout four events.
A main goal of Shopping Trolley Secrets was to raise awareness of how transactional data is collected and utilised by various organisations, especially through long-term partnerships between research institutes and businesses. Guests were invited to imagine the types of shopping data that are available to retail chains and researchers, and to identify the how data donation can contribute to research in medical and economic sciences.
Guest at the event were invited to vote on the areas of data science research that they considered as important for the public, including research programmes on respiratory diseases, diet and nutrition, and alcohol consumption. They were also invited to describe — or, for our younger guests, to draw — the types of information they would like to see from they own shopping data, which provided valuable insights for our research development and public engagement strategies.
By Neo Poon