Hi #SmartCommunity friends, in this episode of the Smart Community podcast I have a brilliant discussion with Dr. Nina Valkanova. Nina is a design strategist with 20 years experience in digital innovation across consultancies, labs and applied research.
In this episode Nina tells us about her research on civic data visualisations in public spaces and how they can shift urban technologies from purely efficiency-driven environments to participation and reflection-based learning settings. Nina and I discuss the different approaches needed for diverse audiences – from passive public audiences to commercial stakeholders to students in educational settings.
We talk about the role of aesthetics and emotion in creating curiosity and engagement, the ethical implications of displaying public data, and the challenges of balancing meaning with aesthetic appeal. We finish our chat discussing Nina’s advice about embracing data storytelling for interpretation rather than just comprehension and the importance of making the unspoken visible. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.
What we cover in this episode:
- Nina Valkanova’s background spanning 20 years in strategic design, research, digital innovation, arts, user experience and foresight
- Her academic research on public visualisations of citizen data in social embedded environments for civic discourse and participation
- Current work as design director using visualisation tools like journey maps, site architectures, and future state visualisations to align teams
- The difference between audiences – passive diverse public audiences, commercial stakeholders, and students in educational settings
- How civic data visualisations in public spaces can create shared understanding, social comparison and group reflection
- The importance of aesthetics, ambient atmosphere and intuitive design for engaging diverse public audiences with varying literacy levels
- Examples of interactive public installations sensing movement, visualising water source usage and displaying energy consumption data
- The role of emotion and curiosity in data visualisation design, particularly for creating serendipitous discovery in public spaces
- Ethical challenges when displaying public data – unintended consequences like social judgment of energy consumption patterns across neighbourhoods
- Using storytelling and future scenarios in commercial settings to surface cultural context, emotional nuance, and blind spots
- The balance between data precision and aesthetic engagement, particularly in public versus professional settings
- Challenges of designing for complexity without overwhelming audiences while maintaining actionability
- An energy transition project using future data artefacts and consumption behaviour narratives to explore resource scarcity scenarios
- The goal of designing for organisational conversation and complexity awareness rather than specific product outcomes
- Key design challenges across contexts: balancing clarity with openness for interpretation, meaning versus aesthetics and avoiding surveillance concerns
Quotes:
“It’s not about my opinion, it’s .. what kind of picture is it painting together? And also what happens when we experience it in a group?”
“ It’s important also to balance the narrative flow, think about how accessible it is cognitively and not overload the audience.”
“ We don’t want to design for specific outcomes here. We want to actually design for conversation within the organisation. It was not about us designing specific product ideas or services that could not be implemented now, but it was about [talking] about the future of our customer in a richer complexity environment. So servicing that complexity was the actual mandate we had and kind of being able to visualise it in a way that would help the organisation embrace the complexity.”
“Embracing data storytelling can be really meaningful both for work [contexts], but also in sort of everyday settings because actually it’s not just about comprehension, it allows for interpretation and I think that is really powerful.”
“Making the unspoken visible… is a great goal that one might have when designing data storytelling.”
Links:
Check out Nina’s latest projects Design in Flux
Connect:
Connect with Nina Valkanova on LinkedIn
Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community
Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn and watch on YouTube
Podcast Production by Perk Digital
This podcast is recorded on the land of the Kabi Kabi peoples and edited on Gaibal country. I pay my respects to traditional owners of country and their elders past and present. I also extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today. Here on the Smart Community Podcast, we talk about data, technology, communities and the future. First Nations peoples have been sharing knowledge, caring for country, and telling stories for tens of thousands of years. I honour that deep connection of storytelling and community connection as we continue our conversation together here today.
Disclaimer
The views, opinions, and perspectives expressed by guests on The Smart Community Podcast are solely those of the individual speakers. They do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of the host, Zoe Eather, or of The Smart Community Podcast as a whole.
Any discussion of ideas, products, organisations, or services by podcast guests does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the host or the podcast. Listeners are encouraged to form their own opinions and seek professional advice where appropriate.
