Reflection – Week 5

This week, we learned how to transform data into understandable narratives through visualization. While reading related literature, I noticed that images, colors, interaction methods, and the sequence of information presentation all affect the reader's emotions and comprehension path. Data itself is not visible, but the way the creator visualizes the data can influence how readers understand the information and even guide them to draw specific conclusions. Therefore, data visualization also involves certain narrative choices and ideological work.

As a creator, we need to be aware that the design itself may bring bias and remain vigilant during the production process. Our group collected data the week4 around the usage habits of postgraduate students with generative AI. I tried to visualize them in Tableau based on this data. I found that our questionnaire setup could be more detailed to increase the contrast and content that can be placed in the data presentation.

Then, I learned the visualization tutorial for Spotify music trends. The tutorial showed how to start with Spotify Top 200 data, analyze the listening volumes of different countries, songs, and artists using Tableau, and integrate them into an interactive dashboard. I found that an important step in visualization is to select the most critical dimensions (such as song popularity, regional differences, and time trends) to guide readers in understanding the data. This is used to introduce content, such as: Who has the true global influence? Which songs' sudden popularity has a cyclical pattern? How do the auditory aesthetics of different countries differ?

In this example, using geographic visualization to show the regional differences in music listening, the chart participated in constructing the narrative of cultural differences, which impressed me. Therefore, a good data story requires structure, hierarchy, and narrative rhythm. In future chart production, I will prioritize thinking: What do I want the audience to understand? What relationships, differences, or changes do I want them to see in the chart? Secondly, find a balance between clear expression, design aesthetics, and ethical reflection.