Finding the Story
Welcome back to Communicating with Data! It's been a busy few weeks.
Here is Sanjana Sunder to tell us what we've been up to.
Over the past few weeks, we have delved into storyboarding practices to create and tell narratives using data. The storyboarding process comes from the movie world to outline the plot. Each graph has a story, and they can be woven together to tell a broader one. A narrative lab had us assess and analyze charts to weave a story on technology adaptation. Storyboard labs had us find a story in plots about flight delays and the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
We have also been learning about peer feedback. The art of giving feedback is as nuanced as is the art required to receive it. With input from our peers, we analyzed our first Dear Data visualization and found ways to improve the next one.
Weather-themed Dear Data student work curated by Jack Brandano
Mood Board student work curated by Kristina Ngema
Maegan Osmond: "I never thought of data being presented besides the basics such as line graphs or pie charts. I also never thought about how much information can be recorded and visualized. In my 'mood board' I have put together charts that tell interesting stories and tell those stories in interesting, perhaps non-traditional ways."
Kristina Ngema: "I was definitely going for charts that invited me to interact further with the data, or at least spend more time in exploring the implications of the shown results. While the selection has a diverse range of designs, I liked them for their user-friendly design, interactive approach, and relying on efficiency rather than complexity (plotting too many variables)."
Anonymous: theme of temperature and time
Interested in using the mood board project in your class? Instructions Rubric
Here is Emma Kornberg to tell us where we are heading.
As we head into the next few weeks of class, we will start looking at art in context and transition to an introduction to physical and accessible graphs and design principles. We are looking forward to more virtual visits from Charlene at the Smith College Museum of Art to view their online exhibit Then\Now\Next and learn about the importance of context in art, and to a visit with the Design Thinking Initiative about design principles! I'm also excited to begin a tool exploration as we complete an assignment that helps us better familiarize ourselves with screen readers and alternative text.
We are continuing our Dear Data projects, collecting data for the next, and providing peer feedback for the last. Our next theme is emotions, so I guess I'll have to add "excited" to mine as we move into new spaces and try out new things in class. Lastly, as we have been working on storyboarding and learning to see what stories various data visualizations tell us, we will also be embarking on a storyboarding pair project. Keep an eye out for that!
*This newsletter was edited by Jacqueline Beaule.