Race and the Outdoors
By: Charisse Serrano
Tags: Data Visualization, Outdoors, Infographic Design, Anti Racism

For my final project, I wanted to put together a shareable visual report introducing race-related issues of access to nature and outdoor recreation within the U.S. This visualization was related to my research project for another class, which required a process of literature review, research design, and data collection through a survey and by conducting interviews.

My interest in this topic stems from observations, conversations, and written accounts that allude to ongoing cultural barriers for People of Color (POC) and the predominance of whiteness in outdoor recreation. This includes hiking and camping, as well as other activities that require gear and a level of skill such as climbing and rowing.

I was also interested in how much of this goes back to the philosophical foundations of environmental land conservation and government-regulated parks in the US, which further instills the Western framework of pure, pristine nature as separate from polluting, exploitative human activity. This of course involved and still involves dispossession of land from the First Nations, and also involved the historical legacy of segregation.

Underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minority groups visiting National Parks in the United States is well-documented and established in data and corresponding research conducted by the National Parks Service (NPS) and related entities. Despite National Parks being branded as ‘America’s Best Idea’ (Duncan and Burns, 2009), upholding democratic values as sites of wilderness to be enjoyed by everyone, the numbers prevail exhibiting that people of color visit national parks far less than whites.

Methodology:

I initially thought I would present my findings and results from the survey and interviews I conducted, however, my sample was small and skewed towards a specific demographic that did not fit the purpose of my visualization. I decided to stick with various sources of information from the literature I found on the topic, emphasizing numbers, or statistical findings which I thought to be compelling in putting together my narrative. (See references)

Design:

Besides writing and summarizing information through written text, I primarily focused on the aesthetic feel and flow.

My design inspiration was this interactive infographic on systemic racism by designer Alexandra Davis. I found her satirical twist on the Game of Life compelling and clever in presenting a body of statistical research.

For my visual encoding, I also sought to make my board an interactive read, where the flow of information follows a red hiking trail as indicated on the title page. For the text, I chose two primary fonts. One for titles and to present the headline statistic, and another simple serif font for the paragraphs.

The choices of color and text, along with the film grain effect on the title page, gave my visualization a retro or vintage feel, evoking American road trip or travel nostalgia.

Implementation:

I used Adobe Illustrator to create my board and presented it to the class on Miro, to allow for zooming and navigability. I was interested in whether I would be able to animate the movement from one section to another but ultimately decided against it. I encountered some issues with exporting the document to the clearest and highest resolution.

Discussion:

My visual design and encoding were quite simple and one-dimensional, as I did not include any accompanying graphics or pictures to visualize the contents of the text.

Throughout project development and the prototyping phase, I received positive feedback on the topic I chose, and how I envisioned it as being similar to my design inspiration. However, there were points of confusion in exactly what my sources of data would be as I was trying to incorporate my own original research.

All in all, I was happy with the visual concept I shared. Although for the data itself, This work could definitely be further extended to truly incorporate some more complex graphical elements and dimensions.