Design principles

DTPR was shaped by research with residents in 2019: what people wanted to know about technology in public places, what confused them, and what helped them trust it. That research produced a set of design principles that still guide how DTPR is deployed, and that explain why its icons look the way they do. The reasoning behind the shapes and colours themselves is on the Shapes and colours page.

The seven principles

1. Keep it simple and clear. Whatever an icon or a sign conveys should be easy to grasp at a glance.
2. Make feedback prominent. Wherever DTPR appears in a public place, give people an obvious way to respond. Comfort with new technology varies from person to person, and feedback is how those differences get heard.
3. Pair icons with words. The iconography is still new to most people, so add a written explanation alongside the icons wherever it helps.
4. Offer more than one way in. Physical signs, QR codes and URLs should each lead to more information and to a way to give feedback.
5. Lead with purpose, not technology. People care more about why a technology is there than about what kind it is. Give the purpose the most prominent place on a sign or a page.
6. Always name who is responsible. Include the organizations that vet and govern the technology.
7. Always say whether people can be identified. Whether the data can identify an individual is the thing people most want to know, so it should always be included and given priority.

How the principles are used

DTPR is usually deployed through a digital channel and public signage that follow these principles together. The sign points to the digital channel, the channel carries the full datachain, and both offer a way to give feedback.

Finding resources

Icons for every element, in each of their variants, can be downloaded from the taxonomy explorer. Everything else that makes up the standard, including the schema itself, lives in the DTPR repository on GitHub.