Abstract
Data visualizations and data physicalizations have become popular methods of making big data accessible to non-specialists and uncovering hidden rationales. This pictorial suggests how the acts of data drawing and data tinkering can engage young people in understanding their own data. We asked graduate design students to track their water consumption and waste recycling through drawing and prototyping. We analysed 32 data drawings and 30 data tinkerings using Gestalt Principles and the Theory of Affordance. Through our analysis, we generate a set of ‘data-gestalt’ nouns and ‘data-affordance’ adjectives, which help explain how our collaborators are able to ‘engage’ experientially with data; how abstract data is given intelligible form. By listening to how they talk, we realise that these concrete ways of engaging provide ownership of ‘data work’ and enhance awareness of (un)sustainable consumption behaviours. We argue that data drawing and data tinkering may have a potential to influence consumption habits.
Keywords
Consumption behaviour; Data Engagement; Hand-drawing; Prototyping; Affordance
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2023.101
Citation
Ağça, A.,and Buur, J.(2023) Data Drawing and Data Tinkering, in Silvia Ferraris, Valentina Rognoli, Nithikul Nimkulrat (eds.), EKSIG 2023: From Abstractness to Concreteness – experiential knowledge and the role of prototypes in design research, 19–20 June 2023, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2023.101
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Data Drawing and Data Tinkering
Data visualizations and data physicalizations have become popular methods of making big data accessible to non-specialists and uncovering hidden rationales. This pictorial suggests how the acts of data drawing and data tinkering can engage young people in understanding their own data. We asked graduate design students to track their water consumption and waste recycling through drawing and prototyping. We analysed 32 data drawings and 30 data tinkerings using Gestalt Principles and the Theory of Affordance. Through our analysis, we generate a set of ‘data-gestalt’ nouns and ‘data-affordance’ adjectives, which help explain how our collaborators are able to ‘engage’ experientially with data; how abstract data is given intelligible form. By listening to how they talk, we realise that these concrete ways of engaging provide ownership of ‘data work’ and enhance awareness of (un)sustainable consumption behaviours. We argue that data drawing and data tinkering may have a potential to influence consumption habits.