FIRE: A Human-Centered Framework for Digital Twin Design

Abstract

The integration of human perspectives into digital twin (DT) design for sociotechnical systems (STS) is essential for addressing the complex relationship between social and technical elements. Despite advances in DT technology, its application to STS demands a human-centered approach that considers usability, user experience, and contextual factors. This work introduces FIRE (Framework for representing Intrinsic, Reflexive, and Extrinsic dimensions of a digital twin), a framework designed to guide the development of human-centered DTs. FIRE assesses DTs across three dimensions: Intrinsic (system autonomy), Extrinsic (contextual integration), and Reflexive (self-awareness and adaptability). As a design guide, FIRE ensures that human and social perspectives are integrated during the design. As a descriptive tool, FIRE provides valuable insights into existing DTs from the literature.