Deconstructing Data Visualization
By: Louna Karameh
Tags: Data Visualization

This data visualization represents how many women in West Bengal faced how many incidents of violence and by whom. The women involved are sex workers. First, let’s talk about how the data is shown. In the middle of the visualization, a woman crying is portrayed; she looks completely normal, and around her, the perpetrators of the acts of violence are shown. Through the size of tears and the number written on them, we see how much the perpetrators actually hurt them. This way of visualizing shows a more companionate approach rather than a detached one. In addition, the only sentences we read in this visualization emphasizes that even more. The word “Victimizes” as well as the word “women” add a more humane approach to it all. Many people could have a bad image of sex workers and forget that they are women and if faced with violence, they are victims. This visualization is pretty clear and we understand directly what is shown. The sources are viable ones: Calcutta-based Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) (a forum of 65,000 sex workers campaigning for the rights of sex workers), and the Women’s Network for Unity (WNU) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Through the DMSC, data was collected for the visualization from sex workers between 2010 and 2012, which makes the information more personal yet less reliable to be completely correct. One thing that is omitted from this visualization is the types of violence these women faced. What is considered as an act of violence? Does it include verbal and physical violence? We see some bruises on the woman in the middle, yet we can’t really see them at first glance. That is one problematic aspect of this visualization.

This visualization represents how many buildings in Egypt collapsed between July 2012 and June 2013, how many deaths, injured, and homeless family resulted from the incidents. As well as the causes of the collapses. It also can show a visualization of each governorates. The data was collected by Shadow Ministry of Housing, an Egyptian blog, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), through newspapers and interviews on the matter, this might add some biases to the visualization since newspapers are not completely objective. The visualization is an interactive one, which makes us feel more involved and makes the whole process easier to understand. This visualization is very interesting, it makes the topic and context very clear. What also adds to our involvement is the sound of building collapsing when it is playing as well as the violent image of the collapsed building in the background. This adds to the violence of the situation. What makes the visualization very clear is the combination of geometrical shape that grow larger and have more dots around them when the number grows, with the bar chart that represent the causes of the collapses. This visualization has a perspective though, it is showing how the government is the cause of all of these collapses. Even in the section “collapses due to bad planning” it is also related to the lack of government concern. This could either lead to hating the government or wanting a change and could influence what we think about the government in general. Yet, all in all, this visualization teaches us what is happening in Egypt.

This visualization is a chart that depicts the pay gap between men and women in the 446 major U.S. occupations. The data was collected from the Census Bureau which is a viable source. This visualization clearly shows the gaps between the two genders through the graph the used and the fact that it is interactive shows it more. One great aspect of it is that we can actually search for the profession we are currently working in and this adds a personal aspect to the visualization, yet it is the only personal aspect of it. The view on this chart is detached, and it just shows facts. Yet, this detached view is effective since we can view the information easily, and there is no need to add a more attached perspective. The colors used in the chart though are very gendered in a sense. Using blue for men and pink for women emphasizes on gender norms and might blur the lines and the message the chart is trying to say. This could add some sort of bias to it and make it seem like the message is not what we think it is. Even if those colors are accepted as the norm, it could’ve been better to use other colors to portray men and women.