Bringing Data to Life: Physical Data Projects at Urban

In today’s Data at Urban blog post, I detail my ongoing Data Physicalization at Urban (what I call “DPAU”) project with my colleagues at the Urban Institute. This page provides updated descriptions and photos from the weekly project series.

If you would like to learn more about creating your own data physicalization project, please reach out and let me know how I can help. I’ve also created this Amazon list of tools and materials you might need for your own projects.

DPAU Week-by-Week

1. Sankey diagram of french fry consumption. For the first DPAU project, I wanted to create a Sankey diagram (or a parallel coordinates plot) to show preferences around french fry consumption. I attached hooks to a wall in four columns: favorite french fry (crinkle cut, curly, standard, steak, waffle), favorite sauce (BBQ, ketchup, mayo, ranch), whether you drizzle or dip your fries (dip, drizzle), and whether you share your fries (yes, no). Participants tied twine to connect each hook across the wall.
2. Skittles strip chart. I thought I could let people guess for how many Skittles were in a jar along a single horizontal line. Using little arrow Post-it notes along a line of painter’s tape, we created a strip chart of guesses. (After it was over, I opened the jar—the Skittles went quickly.)
3. Mood meter scatterplot. I forgot to plan for the third week and needed to do something quickly, so a mood meter fit the bill. There are many ways to create mood meters, but one that creates an x-y space of pleasantness versus energy provides a place for participants to record their current feelings. I also incorporated the color of the Post-it notes to encode the number of days people come into the office, on average.
4. Isotype chart of commuting methods. Although not everyone is coming into the office, I wanted to know how those who do are getting to work. I created a set of icons for people to color in with their origin (DC, Maryland, Virginia, and other), which they could tape on the wall. I grabbed icons from the NounProject and inserted them into 8.5” x 11” PowerPoint slides, which I printed and cut. I stacked the icons, a bag of crayons, and a roll of tape next to the wall. 
5. Draw a map of the world. I learned about this data visualization exercise from designer and illustrator Valentia D’Efilippo years ago and have used it in various workshops and training courses. It’s a simple exercise: draw a map of the world. The results are especially interesting in groups with people from around the world because they center their image of the world based on their personal experience. I didn’t want participants to be biased from previous entries, so I created a little gift-wrapped box for people to insert their drawings and later shared them as an animated gif.
6. Heatmap of podcast listening. I was really excited about this one. I wanted to build a heatmap, but how could I use color and color saturation in a physical environment? The answer is cellophane paper—transparent paper that when layered, looks darker and darker. I bought and took apart a cheap jewelry box with 24 square boxes (six columns and four rows). Columns were labeled with podcast listening speeds (0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, and 2x), and rows were labeled with the number of podcast episodes listened to each week (1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7+). I also added a separate box (built with Legos) for people who don’t listen to podcasts.
7. Bubble plot of project excitement. Thus far, the projects were about personal habits, preferences, and experiences. I hadn’t tried anything specific to our work, but this week’s project tried to look at just that. In building the bubbleplot, I asked people to put stickers of different sizes (team members) and color (research center) in an x–y space that showed average annual grant size (in dollars) and excitement for the project. Turns out there wasn’t much interest in this one—my guess is that most people don’t have a good sense of the total budget of the projects they work on—but the chart type is certainly one I’ll try again.
8. Shoe contour map. I don’t need or use 3D in my data visualizations and, frankly, I think it looks dated. But in the real world, 3D can be fun and can be used to encode multiple variables. I got back to the core spirit of the project this week, returning to people’s nonwork lives and experiences. So I focused on shoes. Having lunch with my son at a diner inspired this one—using cellophane-wrapped toothpicks and Styrofoam offered the opportunity to combine multiple variables in a single plot. Like the bubble plot, this project had four variables: the x-axis showed the number of pairs of shoes of different types, the y-axis showed the average price of those shoes, the foil color showed shoe type (sneakers, dress shoes, flip flops/sandals, boots), and the height showed the price. I definitely overestimated how many pairs of shoes people own, but I’ll likely try a similar visualization in the future.
9. Tile grid map where you grew up. I may have missed the mark in the previous two weeks, so I decided to make this week’s project easier. I bought wooden disks (1” diameter) and laid out a tile grid map of US states on a big piece of poster board with Post-it notes (which I cut down from standard 3” x 3” Post-it notes to get the whole thing to fit). I also added full-size purple Post-it notes for countries outside the US. In my announcement, I noted that participants could include more than one disk if they grew up in different areas or states.
10. Chernoff faces. It’s a somewhat strange data visualization type, which is why there aren’t a lot of Chernoff face graphs out there. Basically, each part of the face—eyes, nose, mouth, hair, shape—becomes a variable. For this DPAU, I printed four shapes onto separate 3” x 5” index cards and provided stickers for people to create their own Chernoff faces consisting of four variables: favorite season (four seasons as the shape on the card); favorite book genre (six categories for the left eye); favorite movie genre (six categories for the right eye); favorite meal (three categories for the nose); and favorite music genre (seven categories for the mouth). I also created a digital version of this one in a Tableau dashboard.
11. House Map. For this week, I provided colleagues with a piece of tracing paper taped to a piece of regular white paper. On the white paper, they were asked draw a map of one floor in their house or apartment. They could then pull the tracing paper down, and then draw some data–it could be circles to denote where they spend the most time; icons of where their family/roommates spend their time; lines to show paths around the house…..whatever they like. I used this exercise when working with elementary school students before the pandemic. Not many people participated this week, which might be the task or the location, which was slightly harder to find in the building.
12. What Made Me board. This week’s DPAU project was inspired by Dora Grabkowska’s “What Made Me” project. There are 80 pegs, each with its own word. To participate, users choose one or more colored threads and answer the questions by connecting words together. Through this visual language, participants can share their feelings, influences, thoughts, and inspirations, which make them the person they are today.
13. Halloween Candy Bar Chart. We celebrated Halloween in this DPAU project by creating a fairly straightforward column chart. Participants could drop a spooky Halloween bouncy ball in the bin that corresponds to their favorite candy type. Then, tally or write-in your specific favorite candy on the sheets next to the bins.
14. Family Size 3D Chart. In this week’s DPAU project, we looked at our families and played around with 3D data representations. I placed a foam board with a scatterplot drawn out, 36 bamboo skewers, and a tupperware full of Froot Loops. The x-axis plotted out the number of kids (0 to 6+) and plotted the number of siblings (0-6+). The colors of the Froot Loops correspond to the number of people living in the person’s current household (including yourself). As an example, I have one brother and two kids, so, along with my wife, there are four of us living in our house–I therefore put a green Froot Loop on the stick at the intersection of x=2 and y=1.
15. Initials Buddy Venn Diagram. What is an initials buddy, you ask? Well, it’s someone(s) who share your initials! To visualize your initials buddy, we created a 2-, 3-, or (gasp!) a 4-set Venn Diagram. For people who couldn’t find their initials buddy, they could place an incomplete diagram on the wall–like a Help Wanted ad. I also provided digital PowerPoint templates for people who wanted to participate virtually, which you can also download if you’d like to give it a shot.
16. Thanksgiving Pie Charts. We celebrated Thanksgiving by making our very own own favorite Thanksgiving Pie. I provided paper wedges in 1/8- and 1/2- increments (which I cut from circle paper purchased from Amazon). Participants used Scotch tape to tape the slices to the white paper circles to create their favorite and taped it to the wall using blue painter’s tape.
17. What Made Me board-Urban edition. I thought I’d try this one again, but this time using words folks at Urban see everyday–things like the tools we use (e.g., Excel, R, Slack, Jamis [our timecard system], Salesforce); rooms in the building (e.g., Brookland); work we do (e.g., Equity, Social Impact, Food Insecurity); and things we publish (e.g., Urban Wire [blog], research report).
18. Snowflake Scatterplot. This one took a bit more work to pull together. I built a 6′ wooden cube out of furring strips (wood used to separate a surface, such as attaching drywall to stone) and connected string along the top of which to form a grid. Along one axis is number of inches of snow a person think’s the DMV [DC, Maryland, Virginia] area will receive this winter. Along the other axis is the number of inches of snow a person hope’s the DMV area will receive this winter. Estimates of both are encoded by hanging a paper snowflake in the grid. With enough guesses, people will be able to walk through the visualization to “experience” the snowfall.
19. Dot Density Map. I downshifted this week to create a dot density map. I purchased a world map and small (1/4″) stickers. I posted the map to a wall and participants could place a blue sticker on their your favorite place (or places) to visit and a red sticker on the place or places they would like to visit.
20. Beverage Pie Charts. Back to custom-made visualizations. This week, participants made pie charts of their beverage habits. I created custom pie charts from index cards and brass pins. Participants would take a paper pie chart and show the distribution of their average beverage consumption across four types: water, coffee/tea, soda/seltzer, and alcohol. They were posted to a wall to create a set of small multiples.
21. Jamis Histogram. Jamis is the timecard system we use to track our time. In this project, we made a histogram of how the average number of Jamis codes you use every week. Participants drop a dry lima bean (yuck) into one of the glass test tubes. (Thanks to a buddy who has a workshop I used to build the test tube rack.)
22. Valentine’s Day Subtractive Bar Chart. In this project, participants find eight different Valentine’s Day messages–half are sweet, half are funny–hung on nails. Participants remove one (or more) messages (to keep or give to whomever), and we’ll see which ones are more and least popular by which messages are left.
23. Obliteration Room. or this week’s project, we created an Obliteration Room, an art project originally conceived by artist Yayoi Kusama. The Obliteration Room begins as a white space which you are invited to cover with stickers. Over the course of time, the room is transformed from a blank canvas into an explosion of color. Obviously, the Urban Obliteration Room is jankier the original—paper taped to walls rather than a full room of painted furniture and floors.
24. Map Connections. Hosted by a colleague, this week’s project explores our different (or potentially same?) life paths. Participants find yarns of three different colors, each representing a different path. Participants use the string to connect different points across the map to reflect their journey: pink yarn reflects professional journey paths (use the yarn to connect the different locations that have played a role in shaping your professional experiences (conferences, career milestones, etc.)); blue yarn reflects your travel exploration paths (use the yarn to identify each state or location that have been part of your travel adventures); and green yarn reflects your previous living paths (use the yarn yarn to reflect on the states or locations you have called home in the past).
25. Streaming Services. We collect data on which streaming services we subscribe to and how frequently we use each one. Participants can add as many stickers as they like to each column on the paper where the vertical dimension records how frequently they use that particular service.
26. Sleeping Dot Plot. We make dot plots by placing a sticker at the time the participants’ alarm is set in the morning and when they actually get out of bed.
27. Years at Urban. Kind of a 3D strip plot, participants use toothpicks and styrofoam to share how long they’ve been working at Urban and where they worked directly prior.

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