Data Visualization
Theoretical Anchors
data humanism, observational research methods
Studio Project
Students choose a physical activity or experience (commuting, retail checkout, food-service flow, library use, public events) and conduct systematic field observation across multiple sessions. They log measurable data, contextual details, and behavioral patterns, then design a visualization that reveals patterns, pain points, and opportunities for design intervention. Each student includes a short note disclosing AI tools used and any ethical or bias issues encountered in their data.
Pedagogical Approach
The assignment teaches data visualization as evidence-based practice rather than aesthetic exercise. Students must collect their own data before they can visualize it, which shifts the discipline from making something look like data to understanding what data is and where it comes from.
Insights
Students consistently underestimate how much patience observation requires. The strongest projects emerge when students sit with their dataset long enough to see what it does not contain. The assignment also makes ethical questions concrete: who is being observed, what counts as data, what is being left out. These questions are easier to discuss when the student has spent four hours watching a checkout line than when they appear as abstract principles in a lecture.
STUDENT WORK EXAMPLES
1
Code-Switches
Shalini's visualization analyzes the code-switches she made throughout a single conversation with her father, as we both speak Tamil and English. The design is inspired by kolams, a traditional art form originating from Tamil Nadu, India.
She designed her poster to be an interactive paper fold out, the final form revealing the entire pattern while each page visualizes one conversation.
Divine Data
2
Visualize the emotional impact and accuracy of tarot pulls. I did so by recording card orientation, suit, accuracy to my day, and my mood before and after readings to show how tarot influences my emotions and reveals patterns within my tarot-based self-reflection.
3
Distant Communications
Visualize connection in my long-distance relationship. Recording missed/connected calls, our mood, and context, to show how these factors impact our connection.
Set in Jetbrains
Created in Framer
© Anjana Padmakumar