Ethics in Data Visualization workshop

Introduction

This workshop (undergrad and grad level) provides an introduction to ethics in data visualization. Please feel free to use this workshop, repurpose and remix this content, add suggestions to this project, etc.!

An early version of this workshop is available as a recording.

This project was developed by the Visualizing the Future team and was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, RE-73-18-0059-18.

Contents

• Slides
  • PowerPoint
  • PDF for presenting
  • PDF with notes for instructors
• Activities
  • Mapping Census (ACS) Data
  • Redesigning Economist Charts

How to teach this course

We provide two starting points for teaching Ethics in Data Visualization:

1. A single, self-contained instructor slideshow

This slideshow includes everything you’ll need to lead the workshop. In addition to learner-facing slides, there are also hidden instructor slides, speaker notes, etc.

2. Directories with extra materials

We’ve included a variety of materials to make in-person instruction easier, and also to help you excerpt some of the activities and ideas here for use in another course. These include:

• Printable activity guides
• Extra resources for online instruction

The goals for this workshop

By the end of this sessions, learners will be able to:

• List the five steps in the data visualization creation process: select topic, problem, or question; acquire data; clean data; analyze data; create the visualization
• Understand how decisions in the steps up to data visualization can affect the final visualization
• Identify common sources of bias in the data visualization process
• Practice ethics-centered data visualization design

Proposed timeline

• Lecture: 15-20 min lecturing, including individual/small group reflection questions
• 1st Activity: Mapping Census (ACS) Data: 10-20 min full group, 15-30 min small group
• 2nd Activity: Redesigning Economist Charts: 15-30 full group, 30-50 min small group

Setup for online instruction

Create an online shareable document(s) or forum(s) for small group activities with links to the content or content embedded so groups can keep track of their discussions and have easy access to the images of the charts

Setup for in-person instruction

Print out enough copies of the charts for each small group for each activity.