About

We study how data communication profoundly affects people’s lives, from everyday decisions about housing and healthcare to broader policies on climate change and pandemics. Our lab envisions a future of data communication that is accessible and equitable to all, regardless of culture, educational background, or ability to afford technology. We draw on information visualization tools and techniques to help diverse communities trust, create, and engage with data in meaningful ways.

What we focus on

We take an ecological approach to data visualization. Our work studies the larger social, technical, and cultural contexts that shape how people engage with data visualizations. We think about the website data appears, the community that shares it, the assumptions built into it, and the consequences it has for real people. We used a variety of methods to accomplish these goals - from behavioral studies on the web to targeted interviews to design work.

Our impact

We also care deeply about impact beyond academia. Our goal is not only to publish strong research, but to create public-facing artifacts, tools, and guidelines that can actually be used by communities, practitioners, and organizations. Long-term, we believe it would be a failure if we could not identify specific communities that our work has supported and improved.

Our context

Our home in CU Boulder’s Information Science Department gives us unusual strengths for this kind of work. We benefit from a community that thinks seriously about online communities, identity and culture, nonprofit contexts, community-based design, and the social impacts of technology. We see that as a real advantage. It lets us approach visualization not as an isolated technical problem, but as part of a broader human and societal ecosystem.

Our community

Just as importantly, we prioritize community within the lab itself. We keep an open-lab philosophy, which means that anyone from the CU Boulder community is welcome to join our meetings, learn what we’re working on, and find ways to contribute. We want this to be a place where people can learning from one another and building something meaningful together.

If that sounds like the kind of work you want to be part of, we’d love to have you join us.