About 3iap

3iap (“3 is a pattern”) is an equity-focused information design and research practice, founded by Eli Holder.

3iap specializes in psychologically safe, equitable, effective data visualization. Mission-oriented organizations partner with 3iap through design, research, and development projects, as well as through consulting, training, talks, and workshops.

Sample client projects include automated report design and design systems for an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) analytics firm, designing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reports for a workforce analytics startup, and design consulting for more equitable dashboards to present National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data about students from marginalized communities, for a major testing and assessment nonprofit.

Speaking and training engagements focus on equitable visualizations of social outcomes and health disparities, and have included organizations like the San Francisco Department of Health (SFDPH), the US Census Bureau, NASA, the Data Visualization Society, the AIDS Education and Training Center (Mountain West), and the Australian Evaluation Society.

3iap's original research into equity implications of data visualization, in collaboration with investigators at UMass Amherst and Northeastern University, was the first to empirically show how conventional visualizations of social inequality can reinforce harmful stereotypes and misattributions of racial health disparities.



Who is behind 3iap?

Eli Holder is 3iap's principal designer and researcher. Eli's research and writing focus on the intersection of psychology and visualization design, looking at the not-quite-rational ways that data can reflect and influence people's attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors (e.g., how visualizing social inequality can reinforce inequality).

Eli's work has been published or featured in IEEE VIS, the Data Visualization Society's Nightingale magazine, online publishers like Boing Boing, Data is Plural, and TechCrunch, as well as speaking and workshops for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the US Census Bureau, and DVS Outlier. Engagement with the visualization design community includes mentoring upcoming designers, regular contributions to the Data Visualization Society's Nightingale blog, various podcasts such as PolicyViz and WeAllCount, as well as Effect Affect, a newsletter covering the science and social impact of visualization design.

Before 3iap, Eli was a startup founder whose first company, Unblab, was acquired by AOL in 2010, and a product leader at companies like PwC, Noom, Chartbeat, and StreetLinx (acquired in 2022). Eli graduated with a B.S. in computer science from UNC Chapel Hill, where he studied board game AI and built 3D-visualizations for microscopes.

You can follow Eli on Bluesky, Medium, and LinkedIn.

a curious guinea pig

Would you like to be a guinea pig?

Join 3iap’s mailing list for early access to the latest dataviz research, writing, and experiments.

No guinea pigs (or humans) have been harmed in the course of 3iap’s research, writing, or experiments.