Hi #SmartCommunity friends, in this special episode of the Smart Community podcast, I’m sharing an update on my first year of PhD research at the University of Technology Sydney’s Transdisciplinary School.
In this episode I tell you about my research focus shift from AI to persuasive data storytelling and how we can use data stories to engage communities in addressing complex, societal challenges.
As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.
What we cover in this episode:
- My PhD research title “Data Stories for Wicked Problems” and the focus on persuasive data storytelling to engage communities in addressing complex societal challenges
- The decision to move away from studying AI directly because it’s evolving too quickly, but strategically using AI as a tool throughout the research process
- My first year assessment and panel presentation showing progress and plans for the next two years of research
- Why understanding how people make decisions allows us to ethically influence and nudge people through data visualisation design choices
- The reality that we already use vast amounts of data every day to make decisions, from everyday activities to major policy changes about the climate crisis
- My fascination with data physicalization as a fascinating medium that lets people touch, feel, and sense data through physical objects
- Wicked problems and their interconnected nature where changing one thing can have unintended consequences, requiring us to deal with complexity differently
Quotes:
“My title now is called Data Stories for Wicked Problems. It’s about looking at how we can use persuasive data storytelling to engage the community in addressing complex societal challenges.”
“ By understanding how people make decisions, we can influence people or nudge people to make certain decisions, which sounds like manipulation, of course it can be used for bad…people are already using this: marketers, advertisers, that kind of thing… If we understand how people actually process information, then [we can design it so] they can get the most out of the data visual or data story.”
“We use data and vast amounts of data every single day to make decisions, and so we often rely on summaries of that information, and those summaries often come in data visualisation.”
“Wicked problems don’t have one solution. There’s an interconnected nature, so you change one thing, it can have unintended consequences. We need to somehow deal with this complexity.”
Connect:
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 traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi peoples and edited on the lands of the Gaibal peoples. 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.
