| Self Revealing |
|
One of our current research directions at DBIS, my research group at the Goethe University Frankfurt, is called "Self Revealing". I call the user's "self revealing" process, a process by which a person allows traits of his self or presumed self, to appear, be visible and be traceable through his background and present experiences, both in real situations and in a digital context. I call background experiences any learning-oriented situations a person has experienced, which have happened before a given point in time. Background experiences are very relevant when we consider the user behavior and the user decision process. The fact that, now days, a part of the person’s background experiences occur in a digital world, allows their digital tracebility. I call this digital traces. Combined with what I call the foreground experience, that is the current context in which a decision process occurs, such experiences do influence the local choice. When part of the background experiences occur in a digital world, digital traces are left and can be stored permanently in a digitalized format. They can then be seen, analyzed, processed and interpreted. The digital traces the user allows to leave, characterize a part of his real self or presumed self. Digital traces are characterized by a number of factors related to the experiences the users had in the digital world. For example the actions the user has performed on a given web site, the time spent on specific web pages, the links to other pages or web sites the user has followed. The internet is full of such digital traces. When a person is making a decision, we can look at the digital traces he has left in his digital background experiences, and at the information we might have of his real background experiences and relate them together into a user profile. The user profile can be enhanced by the user interaction with his context, be the context real and or digital. Any interaction the user is willing to have with his context reveals traits of his self or presumed self. Sharing photos with selected friends, in a web social networks, is one example of such interactions. It is therefore possible to use the digital traces left by a user as a result of background experiences and present interactions, for a number of purposes. The interesting thing is that digital background experiences merge with real background experiences to form a coherent set of information related to a user, for a given period of time. Present user interactions, alters these background information to form a new set of background experiences. The process repeats itself over time, and reveals traits of the user’s self. Therefore the name Self Revealing process.
Self Revealing and the Future of Retail. I will show how this Self Revealing process, when properly handled, can be used as the base for a different shopping experience for the customers. I will also consider the opportunities and challenges for both the owner of a retail business (chains, department stores and Internet retail firms), and the customers. A recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and TNS Retail Forward examines major changes that could hit the retail industry between now and 2015. The aging of the Baby Boom generation and coming of age of Generation Y will cause a change in consumer demand and spending habits, the report says. Retail stores that are able to adapt to the new consumer demographics will thrive while those unable to adjust will fail. The report says: "Retailing will become an industry that realizes, more and more, that it must tailor its offerings to select customers, as opposed to the mass appeal approach of the 1980s, in order to win over customers and foster greater customer loyalty". Better understanding of the consumers therefore, become imperative. Watch a video of Prof. Dott. Ing. Roberto V. Zicari on (Digital) Self Revealing (English), 29.04.2011, |