Process Book: Data Visualization

REFLECTION ON PRACTICE

DATA VISUALIZATION

FL2017

JEE KIM

RESEARCH

PROJECT* SUMMARY 03

The objective of the project was to investigate and analyze the provided data excerpt from the national 2016 Pew Research Center survey, “2016 Racial Attitudes in America 3,� and utilize a second data set (or sets) from For the Sake of All that explores related issues on the local level in St. Louis. The task entailed designing a large scale data visualization that explores the two data sets staking a claim, illuminating a narrative, and presenting a relationship between the national and localized data.

*This project was a response to a prompt in a course, Type 2, taught in Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

01 RESEARCH RESEARCH

As daunting as the unfamiliar realm of data visualization was, I relied heavily on looking at other successful examples of data visualization to get a sense of what I should even aspire to in undertaking this task. There were two parts to the research stage: the first concerning what I was visualizing, and the second concerning how I was going to visualize it.

In order to extract a narrative out of the provided data, I produced multiple bar graphs and pie charts to understand the relationship between the discrete data points. Breaking down the spreadsheet variable by variable allowed for an easier diagnosis of a what was going on among the relevant population. As I gained more insights from chart to chart, I found myself caught in an effort to pull all the observations together to create one overarching thesis. I soon learned that my job as a designer was to create a visual system that guides the viewer where and what to look, honing in on one focal point rather than a holistic picture. Depending on what I stratified, my subject matter and the narrative concerning the subject changed. For example, when I looked at the

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employment rate by gender within the St. Louis Black American population, I saw that females had a higher employment rate than the males. This evoked a question whether the number of female breadwinners was greater than that of male breadwinners in these communities, and, if so, whether these female breadwinners were being alleviated from their role as a mother in the house with sufficient support. Meanwhile, when I looked at the employment rate by race, comparing that of the white population and that of the Black American, the disproportion between the two put me in disbelief. I was then prompted to look at the income distribution among the two populations to see how such a stark contrast in unemployment rate would be reflected in the population’s average income. The order in which I went from one set of information to another to ultimately reach a conclusion helped me develop a system for how I could walk the viewer through the data.

RESEARCH ABOVE

OPPOSITE

Interpreting the data tables

Different narratives the data could tell depending on how they are processed

Unemployment proportion by race 90,000 80,000 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0

employed

unemployed white

black

Income city v. county 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 0

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5000 Less $15,000 $25,000 $35,000 $50,000 $75,000 $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 Than To To To To To To To Or More $10,000 $24,999 $34,999 $49,999 $74,999 $99,999 $149,999$199,999 Series1

City unemployment by race

25%

6%

94%

75%

Series2

RESEARCH

I wanted to get a sense of how I was going to visualize my data by looking at successful examples of data visualization.

There were two components to all of the examples that particularly resonated with me: 1) color palette limited to two or, at max, three, hues 2) a metaphorical visual language.

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Example data visualizations

02 DISCOVERY DISCOVERY

Initially, I struggled coming up with a visual system that could contain all the information as I thought that was the best way to draw as accurate and full of a picture. However, I soon realized that my job as a designer is to break down the information, flesh it out and rearrange it in such a way that the viewer does not have to do it themselves, not necessarily to dump everything on one page using pleasing graphics.

Instead, however I process and present a specific set of data, I was essentially curating a narrative for the viewer to see.

Given the disproportionately steep unemployment rate and lower income rate among the Black American populations, there seemed to be little room for the lower income population to escape their state of poverty. The idea that they seemed almost “stuck� guided me through the rest of the concept development.

After a number of formal explorations in representing the income data set, I arrived at a composition where the data points were arranged in concentric circles. This form sparked

At the same time, the real challenge lied in refining the visual language to faithfully represent the data points without compromising the clarity of the metaphor. For example, I struggled a lot with handling the perspective and scale of the “planets,” which each represented a particular data point. At one point in the process, I realized I was so caught up with the idea of foreshortening the distance from one data point to another in order to dramatize the perspective of being stuck on the furthest outer ring. This brought a lot of issues retaining the accuracy of the data. Only when I let go of this idea the elements of data started to read clear.

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an idea that the data points were like planets “stuck” in an orbit, in which they revolve endlessly without being able to escape. Once I landed on this metaphor of the dataset as a system in space, where each income level is represented by a ring in which a data point orbits as a planetary figure, it was easier to make other compositional decisions around this main narrative.

DISCOVERY ABOVE

OPPOSITE

Early visual concepting

Developing the “orbit of poverty”

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DISCOVERY Iterations

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03 REFINEMENT REFINEMENT

When I felt all of my compositional elements were in place, I made iterations using different color palettes. One of the common feedbacks during group critiques that the poster immediately read as a astronomical poster. As I found this first impression problematic, I explored options that strayed away from the local colors of the solar system. While I arrived at a combination of deep blue and yellow, I feel like I could have pushed the palette farther away from the local colors.

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Before & after color change

REFINEMENT

Final

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04 CRITICISM CRITCISM

As this was my first time dealing with data visualization, the learning curve was particularly steep. And yet, the project was meaningful that I got to wrestle through an unfamiliar design problem, and rewarding to see a unique solution unravel itself through the process. I do wish, however, I had time to do a more thorough color study finding a color palette that really pushes away from local colors, as I feel like my final choice of deep blue and yellow was hardly a departure from black and yellow.

REFLECTION ON PRACTICE

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NURSERY RHYME

JEE KIM

WORD & IMAGE 2