Abstract
This paper explores how slow design and care can inform reflective data physicalization practices. Physicalization has been recognized to widen participation in data exploration, but how can it serve communities with varied relationships to power, access, and exclusion? We explored this question through a case study that aimed at supporting a long-term community project through physicalization activities. We found that language around data and representation created barriers to participation, even when demonstrated through established physicalization activities. Centering design processes around participants’ reservations we arrived at Build & Connect, a constructive, participatory physicalization activity and toolkit which, based on the analogy of jigsaw puzzles, invites situated reflection on community-based qualitative data. Reflecting on our design process and the community’s use of Build & Connect, we argue for physicalization processes that embrace participatory, inclusive and situated practices from the stage of data construction and familiar slow forms of making for collective reflection.
Keywords
Participatory Data Physicalization, Feminist visualization, Community Driven Research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.840
Citation
Long, J., Gausden, C., Capel, T., and Hinrichs, U. (2026) Build & Connect: Designing a constructive, participatory physicalization activity & toolkit for community reflection, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.840
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Build & Connect: Designing a constructive, participatory physicalization activity & toolkit for community reflection
This paper explores how slow design and care can inform reflective data physicalization practices. Physicalization has been recognized to widen participation in data exploration, but how can it serve communities with varied relationships to power, access, and exclusion? We explored this question through a case study that aimed at supporting a long-term community project through physicalization activities. We found that language around data and representation created barriers to participation, even when demonstrated through established physicalization activities. Centering design processes around participants’ reservations we arrived at Build & Connect, a constructive, participatory physicalization activity and toolkit which, based on the analogy of jigsaw puzzles, invites situated reflection on community-based qualitative data. Reflecting on our design process and the community’s use of Build & Connect, we argue for physicalization processes that embrace participatory, inclusive and situated practices from the stage of data construction and familiar slow forms of making for collective reflection.