DiaCyborg
commented
7 years ago 1st breakout session takeaways The following notes pertain to designing 3D-printed visualizations of open city health data from one or several neighborhoods in Chicago including the South Loop.
Design first prototypes using lo-fi materials rather than 3D printed parts. We conceived of using legos and other modular parts to experiment with and then 3D print designs later.
Concepts around health are usually aggregates of various data sets such as the hardship index and other assessments used for policy. We could personalize these metrics on tactile maps by breaking down each factor and assigning an image or component to it such as a colored shape and form. -thank you Anayansi for the collaborative thinking here!
Simplify forms from current prototypes.
Hardship is not absolute, your personal factors could place you way above or under the average risk/health/wellness for your area. This is why a public project that does not just tell people what their neighborhood's health factors are but also actively encourage conversation about the most important factors of health and wellness is important.
Open Questions: Is encouraging prevention around certain factors such as diabetes part of the project? How will someone learn to understand a tactile language or geography? How will someone who may be blind be able to learn how to use a tactile data representation? How will the context of the Harold Washington Chicago Public Library and its patrons effect the design of visualizations? How/will this context change the data being analyzed and presented?
Plan for next meeting: Deconstruct the way health/wellness are defined with a brief breakdown of various metrics such as the hardship index used in analyzing public health in Chicago.
Open time to discuss projects or health related data sets people may be working with who are interested making them more accessible.
Discuss what data sets are missing/not recorded related to health. (I.e. Identifying of health factors connected to those that are transgender, instance/risk for HIV across the city)
-more TBA (possibly brining some prototype materials)
https://data.cityofchicago.org/widgets/hhd4-uf7v
Other public health related data sets https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdph/provdrs/pol_plan_report/svcs/office_of_epidemiologydataanalysisrequests.html
Also aggregated and sporadically updated on http://www.chicagohealthatlas.org/ (thank you Derek! For all the initial work getting this going)
About the group
Open city data isn't accessible for those who, for a variety of reasons, cannot understand charts, graphs, and numbers or who may be blind or deaf.
The focus of Accessing Health with 3D-Printing is to demonstrate how open city data pertaining to health can be more accessible to those of many abilities through 3D printed design.
*Between November 2016 to January 2017 this work will be developed with the support of the Harold Washington Chicago Public Libary Maker Lab's- Maker in Resident program.
Goals 1) Identify challenges that those working with health-related open city data are having that visualization could impact .
2) Develop user stories for open city data that is visualized in a tactile form.
3) Create 3D printed visualizations of open city health data to identify: when, why, and in what form users best empathize with open city data information around health.
Previously I have worked taking blood sugar readings from people with diabetes (including my own) and transforming them it into customized 3D printed visualizations of health that represent the same data as graphs and charts in a visceral form. These translations are meant to make overwhelming data sets coming from continuous data accessible for those with chronic illnesses who do not have the health literacy or physical capability to interpret complicated graphs and charts.
Article on Diabetes Data Sculptures http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/850366
general info on tangible media. http://tangible.media.mit.edu/
Group leaders
Justus Harris - Artists, Researcher, Educator justusharris@gmail.com justusharris.com
Who we're looking for
People who are actively working to make open health data more accessible or who are considering it.
People who are experimenting with data visualizations and design for those across a spectrum of sensory capabilities.
People who can code using JAVA, Python, D3.js, Processing, are versed in mesh generation with 3D modeling software.
Anyone interested in the topic from coders and designers to policy makers and expert patients.
Tools
Open City Data Portal, Blender, 3D printing, Good old Excel, hopefully many more as time goes on.
Relevant Links
(will update with Chicago Public Library project page in the coming days)
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/850366
More detailed explanation of Diabetes Data Sculptures through visit to Livongo Health https://vimeo.com/143954404
Where we meet
TBA - Today(10/18/16) - ideally room with a projector for a brief presentation and ability for other people to show work.
Starting Tuesday, Nov 9th the Harold Washington Public Library Maker Lab will be devoted to this topic Wednesdays 6:30-8:00pm / and most Saturdays from 10:00am-1:00pm