HCID 2012 - Graham Dove

Centre for HCI Design

Centre for Creativity

Visualising Data Narratives

Graham Dove

e: [email protected]

t: @grahamdove



Overview

• Why Visualise?

• Minard’s Map

• Mark Lombardi

• Personal Informatics

• Data Journalism

• Social Data Analysis

• My Own Research

• Discussion & Questions



Why Visualise?

• Increasing amounts of data collected

• Data increasingly valuable

• Store cards, credit cards, oyster cards, mobile apps

and social media, smart energy meters

• Google multi-billion dollar company whose only real

product is our personal data



Why Visualise?

• Open data movement encourages government to

release data publicly

• UK midata initiative aims to get companies to give

customers their personal data

• Innovative applications and services

• Proactive consumers



Why Visualise?

• Not sufficient to simply collect and release data

• Tools should aid understanding

• Visualisation aids exploration and insight

• Algorithmic paternalism

• Google and Facebook personalisation

• US stock market flash crash May 2010



Minard’s Map

Charles Minard tells the story of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia



Mark Lombardi

George W Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens



Personal Informatics

• Quantified Self

• Nike+ New York

• openpaths.cc



Narrative Visualization

The Guardian’s visualisation of UK budget deficit

New York Times

Republican Primary

Voting Patterns



Design Choices



Gapminder & Storytelling



Social Data Analysis

Many Eyes Tableau Public



Social Data Journalism

The Guardian’s interactive spending review app

The combination of interactive

application and comment space

encourages users to find and

share insights



My Research

• Data visualization in design workshops

• Collaborative exploration to share perspectives and

domain knowledge



My Research

• Insights are shared through sharing the experience

of gaining insight

• Recreating the Eureka or Aha moment



My Research

• Case study with energy company investigating

attitudes to adopting smart home technology

• Industry notorious for a lack of trust and skepticism

of customers

• Workshops with representatives of the provider and

their customers

• Sharing perspectives using interactive visualization

tools



Conclusion

• More data than ever is being collected and shared

• Visualization can help understanding and insight

• Effective tools can help us share our stories, see

things from others’ perspectives and design better

products and services



Discussion & Questions

Graham Dove

e: [email protected]

t: @grahamdove

Education

HCID 2012 - Graham Dove