Welcome to the community review for Data by Design, and thank you for your generosity and time. The review period for this draft will close on June 14th, 2024, although the ability to leave comments will still be available after that point.
We chose to invite community feedback on this draft for several reasons. First, Lauren's prior experience with open community review while she and Catherine were drafting Data Feminism was among the most meaningful sources of feedback that they received while writing and revising the book. Readers were overwhelmingly generous with their comments-and their tough critiques–in ways that neither of us could have anticipated. This feedback greatly enriched the revision process and made the book so much better as a result.
Second, this project takes on some difficult topics-some that certain members of our project team have studied, and others that certain members have directly experienced, but in no cases do we claim perfect knowledge or understanding about. In both our words and our design choices, we have almost certainly made mistakes. As a team, we have always sought to be reflexive and accountable-both to each other and to you, our readers, who we include in our community as well. We hope to learn from you about places where we've gotten things wrong, and about how we can do better.
Finally, this is a project that aspires to speak to multiple audiences. These include visualization designers and researchers, data journalists and data scientists, and activists, organizers, and others who work with data and visualization as part of their jobs. Additional audiences include students and scholars from a range of academic fields, including digital humanities, literary and cultural studies, women's and gender studies, critical race studies, Indigenous studies, media studies, information science/studies, STS, and HCI, among others. We welcome your help in pointing out any places that may require additional explanation, that are missing crucial context, or where theoretical concepts are not clearly explained.
One of the mantras of this project team is that direct and critical words are a generous act. We interpret them as a vote of confidence in our ability to hear them and be transformed by them.
Please email Lauren at lauren.klein@emory.edu with any comments that can't be registered via Hypothesis, or that you would rather not publicly disclose.
Thank you, once again,
Lauren Klein, on behalf of the Data by Design project team
Tanvi Sharma, Jay Varner, Shiyao Li, Margy Adams, Nick Yang, Dan Jutan, Jianing Fu, Anna Mola, Zhou Fang, Yang Li, and Silas Munro
May 1, 2024
L. Klein, T. Sharma, J. Varner, S. Li, M. Adams, N. Yang, D. Jutan, J. Fu, A. Mola, Z. Fang, Y. Li, and S. Munro. Data by Design. 2024 public beta.
Code
https://github.com/EmoryDHLab/data-by-design
Data by Design, a project of the Emory Digital Humanities Lab, was created by an interdisciplinary team of faculty, staff, students, and professionals, collaborating across two continents, three states, and four institutions.
Lauren Klein (Emory, Departments of Quantitative Theory & Methods and English) is the director of the project and conducted the historical and archival research for the project. She also wrote all of the words that appear on the site.
Tanvi Sharma (NYU, MS ‘23, Interactive Design and Media) is the lead designer on the project. She designed the project website, including both site-wide and page-specific interactions, as well as the custom visualizations and other illustrations that appear on the site.
Jay Varner (Emory, Center for Digital Scholarship) is the lead developer on the project. He implemented most of the project website, including the final versions of all of the interactive components that appear throughout the site.
Shiyao Li (Emory, PhD ‘26, Computer Science) prototyped the visualizations of the Voyages data for the "Description of a Slave Ship" chapter, and the project team's data for the chapter about the making of the site.
Margy Adams (Emory, PhD ‘25, English) wrote the alt-text for the project site, and contributed research and ideas to the "Description of a Slave Ship" chapter.
Nicholas Yang (NYU, BA ‘22, Computer Science) is a developer on the project and former lead developer on the project. He implemented the "Introduction" and led the migration from Vue to React.
Dan Jutan (Georgia Tech, BS ‘24, Computer Science) was the first lead developer on the project. He built the project prototype and alpha version of the site, including most interactive components.
Jianing Fu (Georgia Tech, BS ‘21, Computer Science, Univ. of California, Berkeley, MEng ‘22, Computer Science) was a developer on the project. She built the components on the project’s front page, including the interactive timeline, for the project prototype and alpha versions of the site.
Anna Mola (Emory, BA ‘22, Computer Science and Visual Arts) was a developer on the project. She built the components of the Playfair chapter for the project’s alpha version.
Zhou Fang (Emory BA ‘22, Quantitative Sciences) was a developer on the project. She built the image browser component of the Du Bois chapter for the project’s alpha version.
Yang Li (Emory, Center for Digital Scholarship) is a developer on the project. He built the chapter navigation component for the project site, and contributed to the visualizations in the Du Bois chapter.
Silas Munro (Polymode) created the initial design concept for the site.
Also at Polymode, Edgar Casarin and Brian Johnson contributed valuable ideas and feedback.
Project alpha (2021-2023)
Citation L. Klein, T. Sharma, D. Jutan, N. Yang, J. Fu, A. Mola, Z. Fang, and S. Monro. Data by Design. 2023 alpha.
Code
https://github.com/EmoryDHLab/2021-data-by-design
Project director: Lauren Klein
Designers:
Tanvi Sharma (NYU, MS Interactive Design and Media ‘23),Silas Monro (Polymode)
Developers:
Dan Jutan (Georgia Tech, BS Computer Science ‘24),
Nicholas Yang (NYU, BA Computer Science ‘22),
Jianing Fu (Georgia Tech, BS ‘21, Computer Science, Univ. of California, Berkeley, MEng ‘22, Computer Science),
Anna Mola (Emory BA ‘22, Computer Science and Visual Art),
Zhou Fang (Emory BA ‘22, Quantitative Sciences)
The alpha version of Data by Design was created between 2021 and 2023 by the faculty and students associated with the Emory Digital Humanities Lab (formerly the Georgia Tech Digital Humanities Lab), in collaboration with the design firm Polymode. Lauren Klein directed the project and conducted the historical and archival research for the project. She also wrote the text for the site. Tanvi Sharma was the lead designer on the project. She prototyped the project website, designing both site-wide and page-specific interactions, as well as the custom visualizations that appear on the site. Dan Jutan was the first lead developer on the project, between 2021 and 2022. He designed the site architecture, both frontend and backend, and implemented both site-wide and page-specific components, including those that appear on the Peabody chapter page. Nicholas Yang joined the team as developer and then lead developer on the project. He implemented the components that appear on the Du Bois chapter page, as well as several additional site-wide components. Jianing Fu built the components on the project’s front page, including the interactive timeline. Anna Mola built the components of the Playfair chapter. Zhou Fang built the image browser component of the Du Bois chapter. Silas Munro created the initial design concept for the site.
Project prototype (2018-2021)
Credits Citation
L. Klein, D. Jutan, J. Fu, Q. Tian, and A. Hayward. Data by Design. 2021 prototype.
Code
https://github.com/EmoryDHLab/2020-data-by-design
Project director:
Lauren Klein
Designer:
Qing Tian (Georgia Tech, MS Digital Media ‘19)
Developers:
Dan Jutan (Georgia Tech, BS Computer Science ‘24),
Jianing Fu (Georgia Tech, BS ‘21, Computer Science),
Adam Hayward (Georgia Tech, BS Computer Science ‘19)
The prototype for Data by Design was created between 2018 and 2021 by the faculty and students associated with the Georgia Tech Digital Humanities Lab. Lauren Klein directed the project and conducted the historical and archival research for the project. She also wrote the text for the site. Qing Tian was the lead designer on the project. She designed the front page as well as the custom page navigation for each of the chapter pages. Adam Hayward, was the first lead developer on the project between 2018 and 2019. He designed the initial site architecture and implemented the layout and visualizations for the Peabody chapter. Dan Jutan took over as lead developer between 2019 and 2021, expanding the site architecture, both frontend and backend, building a Google Docs-based authoring system, and implementing a range of site-wide and page-specific components. Jianing Fu built the components on the project’s front page, including the interactive timeline.