Look at “Big Data in a Human Context”

What story does your data narrate?

While most B2B organizations look at data visualization in the sense of infographics, there are innovative iterations of how we can visualize and draw stories from data. Here’s an interesting ‘did you know’ moment:

In the 9/11 Memorial, the names are inscribed not alphabetically or in a grid, they are streamed in what the architect, Michael Arad envisioned as “meaningful adjacencies”. The names were placed “according to where people were and who they were with when they died”. Jer Thorp (the artistic designer of the 9/11 Memorial Algorithm on for the placement of names) said it is a, “meaningful framework; one which allows the names of family and friends to exist together”.

With the question of “Is Big Data, the New Oil?”,  visualization can prove to be a great tool in engaging with characters in your data. Data visualization from Jer’s perspective is not about the result or outcome, it is about the process. By breaking down the process into 'sketches’, distinct characteristics can drive specific solutions, to make engagement efforts more relevant.

Data visualization should be considered more than an image, graphic, or substitution for a sentence. By putting pieces of ‘data in a human context’, you not only understand customer histories you build empathy for people in the system. And this in turn, as Jer says is, “it builds fundamental respect, which is missing in a large part of technology. And we start to deal with issues like privacy. They carry weight”

While we may not be ‘there’ yet, our process of drawing narratives through data visualization has only just begun. What about you?

Jer Thorp is a ‘Data Artist-in-Residence’ at The New York Times. Take some time out and watch how he puts data in a human context.