Article written by Otávio Burin, André Leme Fleury and Daniela Osvald Ramos for the Design Studies Magazine.
Abstract
Digital information spaces can shape people’s perceptions and their political and social discourses. One way to create interfaces between information and individuals is through information visualizations (infovis), which, beyond technical aspects, can also be considered cultural artifacts. However, infovis designers often lack data analysis techniques and a critical perspective to understand how biases and structures that reinforce inequality may be present in databases and during the dialogical process of the design activity. Thus, this research, through an analytical lens formed by fields such as intersectionality, critical data literature, and ethnography of databases, aims to structure a theoretical reference model, developed through a literature review, capable of serving as a critical reflection perspective for conducting infovis projects. The proposed model is divided into two parts, with the first part focusing on the data reflection process and how information is visually represented. In turn, the second part presents approaches from database ethnography as tools to be used in the inquiry of the databases.
Keywords: Information Visualization; Database; Intersectionality; Critical Data Visualization; Database Ethnography.