Dot, line, network: helping individuals make sense of "New data"

• Authors: Emilie W. Gould
• Venue: DUXU'13 Proceedings of the Second international conference on Design, User Experience, and Usability: web, mobile, and product design - Volume Part IV
• Year: 2013

Ubiquitous computing has led to an ever-increasing cascade of information about us, our friends, our societies, and the planet. Lima and others view this "new data" as an opportunity for individuals to develop network thinking; once people understand the whole, they can better control their contribution to global social issues like climate change. However, at present, such data is difficult to interpret by anyone, let alone by non-specialist users. I believe that a variety of issues stand in the way of individuals understanding complex data sets. I will begin by discussing cognitive style (deductive and inductive logic). Then, after considering existing graphic principles for dealing with "visual complexity," I suggest interfaces need to provide indications of place, date, validity, probability, and privacy. Finally, I briefly discuss some of the boundaries that exist between my networks of data and yours due to the hidden algorithms of search engines and the challenge of creating common ground when visualizations are increasingly personalized.