Cross-cultural Data Visualization

Cross-cultural Data Visualisation is an educational project on data visualization and cultural design & collaboration. Students with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds from around the globe will work together and exchange data, using their cultural variety as a lens to learn from these differences.  

The project is carried out and hosted by the Communication and Multimedia Design (CMD) school at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). It offers different types of collaboration with international partners, both online and offline. Please look at the paragraph on collaboration if you’re interested in working together and joining the program. 

Data-humanism

We want to create data stories from a human perspective. This means designing data visualizations representing the real lives of people and their behavior. Students will learn how to empathize and reflect on differences and similarities and develop more culturally robust and inclusive data visualizations for social impact. 

International team

The teachers and coaches of this project will experience how data literacy can be taught in an innovative way. We work together with teachers and coaches from different countries and cultures with the intention to learn from each other. We think learning is a lifelong experience, not only for students but for teachers alike.

Learning goals

After joining the project, students will be able to:

  • Set up a methodology for collecting data, by doing fieldwork as well as by doing
    ‘open data’ desk research
  • Find angles for data stories in datasets
  • Identify ethical issues
  • Understand the SGDs and work on related data challenges in a culturally sensitive way
  • Empathize and reflect on differences and similarities and use these as a design strategy to develop more culturally sensitive (design) solutions.
  • Plan, organize, and engage in constructive (online) conversations about data with people from another culture in support of the joint design purpose