Understanding User Data Storage in Apps
When users interact with apps they create data. This is the data apps often need to save or access in order to function properly and provide the best user experience. This includes personal settings and media as well as other documents. This information can be used to track clicks and purchases within the app. There are several methods to collect this data by asking the user for it, determining it from the behavior of users on the site or purchasing it from a third party. It is ideal that customer data is centrally located and saved in an industry standard format to facilitate integration and ease of exchange between applications. There are currently forming customer data profile standards by industry sector to aid in defining the data model to use for this purpose.
There are a myriad of ways for storing data. The data storage system in an app will determine the way that the user interface is presented. File storage is the most common, where data is stored in folders and files that are organized in a hierarchical way. This is the way used by hard disk drives and cloud-based storage such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Block storage is a different method, where data is divided into blocks and stored anywhere in the storage infrastructure. They are identified using identifiers that make them easy to locate and act upon.
The first systems had built-in tools that provided comprehensive information about the properties of storage media in textual format. Modern systems, like Android, offer visualizations to aid in these functions, particularly capacity/usage and longevity. Capacity/usage visualizations are usually presented in horizontal bar charts, while lifespan is displayed using a circular pie chart or variants such as doughnut charts.