Open Questions about the Visualization of Sociodemographic Data

• Main Authors: Cabric, Florent, Bjarnadóttir, Margrét Vilborg, Cabouat, Anne-Flore, Isenberg, Petra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 23-08-2023
• Subjects: Computer Science - Human-Computer Interaction
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2308.11962

IEEE Workshop on Visualization for Social Good (VIS4Good), Oct
2023, Melbourne, Australia. pp.5 This paper collects a set of open research questions on how to visualize
sociodemographic data. Sociodemographic data is a common part of datasets
related to people, including institutional censuses, health data systems, and
human-resources fles. This data is sensitive, and its collection, sharing, and
analysis require careful consideration. For instance, the European Union,
through the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), protects the collection
and processing of any personal data, including sexual orientation, ethnicity,
and religion. Data visualization of sociodemographic data can reinforce
stereotypes, marginalize groups, and lead to biased decision-making. It is,
therefore, critical that these visualizations are created based on good,
equitable design principles. In this paper, we discuss and provide a set of
open research questions around the visualization of sociodemographic data. Our
work contributes to an ongoing refection on representing data about people and
highlights some important future research directions for the VIS community. A
version of this paper and its fgures are available online at osf.io/a2u9c.