Equitable Dataviz Primer

Visualizing social outcomes requires understanding not just how people understand data, but also the ways people understand each other.

When visualizing groups of people, for example group demographics, clinical trial efficacy, sociological research, or public opinion surveys, conventional wisdom on effective data design can often backfire from their intended communication goals.

For example, 3iap's recent peer-reviewed studies, in collaboration with researchers at UMass Amherst’s HCI-VIS Lab and North­eastern's Data Visualization Lab, show that certain common types of data visualizations, meant to raise awareness of social disparities, may actually backfire and reinforce them by encouraging harmful stereotypes about the people being visualized.

By promoting misanthropic misbeliefs about the people being visualized, these charts contribute to other downstream harms such as undermining public support for helpful policies or social programs or encouraging counter-productive behavior change.

In this workshop, we’ll learn how to visualize social and civic outcomes while 1) avoiding unexpected backfire effects and 2) promoting positive social impact.

After this workshop, attendees will learn to:

1. Identify and articulate the hidden biases pervasive in charts and graphs covering social outcome disparities.

2. Develop an intuition for the surprising ways that social psychology can influence audiences’ interpretations of information.

3. Use alternative approaches for more effective, equitable dataviz that drives awareness and inspires change, while minimizing backfire effects for the people being visualized.

These workshops are for data, analyst, research, and communication teams invested in presenting social outcomes more effectively and equitably, in particular:

• Government agencies, NGOs and philanthropic institutions sharing population statistics, particularly about people from marginalized communities (eg. race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, etc)
• Advocacy groups using data for social impact
• Data journalists covering any aspects of inequality or systemic racism
• Program evaluators
• People analytics analysts

Material can be adapted based on your groups’ needs and interests, to cover various themes. Each session requires 60-90 minutes, including a presentation of the topics, supporting example redesigns, questions and discussion, and group exercises. Workshop case studies can also be customized to handle your specific data and use cases.

Recommended rates are as follows, however pricing can be flexible to meet your organization's needs.

Large Group Talk: To motivate the topic and introduce the concepts to the wider organization:

• 45-80 minute primer talk, plus two case studies and Q&A
• $2,000 per 50 attendees

Interactive Workshops: To support group discussion and explore more targeted topics in greater depth:

• Two to four deep dive sessions, including interactive group exercises and discussions
• $59 per participant per session, for 10–30 participants

Please get in touch to schedule a training.

• Email hi+workshops@3iap.com
  
• Book a time on 3iap's Calendly
• Or use the form below to send a message