Subjectivity in Personal Storytelling with Visualization

Alice Thudt (1) , Charles Perin (2) , Wesley Willett (1) , Sheelagh Carpendale (1)

1 University of Calgary
2 City University London

We explore visualization for personal storytelling and investigate techniques for communicating subjective experiences in personal visual narratives. Personal stories are often subjective and storytellers omit, invent, or embellish details to craft engaging stories or to communicate a perspective. As growing personal data collections allow individuals to leverage visualizations, we explore how personal visual narratives can express subjectivity. From an analysis of personal visualizations created by data enthusiasts, designers, and artists, we collect techniques for deliberately expressing subjectivity during data collection, processing, visual encoding, and presentation. Our results prompt a discussion about the role and potential of subjectivity in personal visual storytelling.

Keywords: Visualization; Personal Visualization; Storytelling; Personal Narratives; Subjectivity

Domains: Human-Computer Interaction [cs.HC]

Alice Thudt, Charles Perin, Wesley Willett, Sheelagh Carpendale. Subjectivity in Personal Storytelling with Visualization. Information Design Journal, 2017, 23 (1), pp.48 - 64. ⟨10.1075/idj.23.1.07thu⟩. ⟨hal-01618656⟩