Last week, we were fortunate to host Bo Rodda at the Chicago City Data Users Group. This group has members with a broad and varying set of interests around how to effectively use government data in their various endeavors and areas of expertise. So it makes perfect sense that we hear from someone who is uniquely qualified to talk about an aspect of the use of government data (and any data, for that matter) that is sometimes taken for granted: design.
The title of Bo’s talk was The Intersection of Art, Design, and Data. This could also be the title of Bo’s biography. He has an ample art side of his brain. He teaches architecture and design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in fact some of his students were in attendance. Bo is also co-owner of a think tank/design studio where you can see such exhibits as the UnFolding Chair and the Boolean Lamp.
To leverage the data side of his brain, he is a research fellow at the University of Chicago’s Urban Center for Computation and Data. And for the last four years or so, he has been a Building Intelligence and Energy Efficiency Specialist at Argonne National Laboratory. In his spare time, he worked on the City of Big Data exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Foundation (do not miss this if you are in Chicago).
To bring his two brain-halves together, he is involved in projects like the Data Visualization Collaborative course. This is where the power of art, design, and data come together. It takes faculty from Northwestern University’s Engineering department, brings them together with a cohort of School of Art Institute of Chicago faculty (artists, architects, performance artists), and has them work on collaborative project. The project culminates in an art show.
Given that background, it is natural that he was able to inspire a group of data-focused folks to start thinking about design. He gave examples of classic design objects, interesting problem sets where data can be applied (including energy usage at Argonne National Labs), and lots and lots of very cool data visualizations.
But I locked in on something that he said, almost in passing. Bo notes in his talk (which you can see here) that “the interesting thing about data is that it doesn’t mean anything to anybody until you show them what is going on”. I may be reading some of Bo’s personality and background into this statement, but this speaks to more than just interesting data visualizations. It speaks to design. Design matters.
I have heard it said that “good design” equals “easy to use and understand”; Poor design” = “a difficult experience”. I now understand that this is an over simplification. Design, the way Bo spoke of it, takes into account all of the potential users, and the way that those users are likely to use whatever it is that you are building[i] .
Think back to that UnFolding chair. The thing is made in solid bronze and must weigh 100 lbs. It can’t be folded, and it can’t be stacked on top of other chairs. It sells for $4,800, not $19. What is the value of that?
To answer that question, you have to think of all of the users, and all of the potential uses. Bo jokingly remarked that it is great to save a space to park your car that you have shoveled out of the snow. And he is right. That is one user. Another user would be someone interested in it as sculptural art. Another user might want it to lean on. Etc.
Data visualization and design can be thought of in the same way. The subtext that I took away from Bo was that to assign meaning to data means connecting with the user. To connect with the user means to understand who the user is and how that user might potentially leverage the data. Once you can identify the users and the uses, then you can “show them what’s going on”. This is where art, design, and data intersect.
[i] For more on this topic, check out this great article in Civic Quarterly: https://www.civicquarterly.com/article/paper-cut-the-bleeding-edge-of-government-forms/
