A new peer-reviewed article by Associate Professor Yvette Shen sheds light on how hands-on, community-centered interactions with data can deepen shared understanding in an increasingly data-driven society. Published in Information Design Journal, Shen’s study—“Designing participatory data physicalization as cultural connectors for a Quantified Us”—investigates how turning data into tangible, collaborative experiences can shift attention away from individual self-tracking and toward collective meaning-making.

The research draws from a series of public, wellness-focused installations created in Shen’s Information Design courses with undergraduate Visual Communication Design students. Installed across visible campus locations, these interactive works invited passersby to contribute personal information or respond to existing data through simple tactile gestures—placing objects, moving markers, or adding physical elements to evolving data displays.

As participants engaged with these installations, they encountered not only their own contributions but those of others, prompting moments of comparison, empathy, and reflection. Shen’s findings demonstrate that when people physically co-create and manipulate data together, they begin to understand it as a shared, culturally situated resource rather than a private metric.

By emphasizing materiality, openness, and public participation, the study highlights how embodied interactions can reveal the social dimensions of data. In these shared spaces, meaning emerges not from numbers alone, but through the relationships, conversations, and communal authorship that surround them.

Shen’s work adds to growing scholarship in information design and data visualization that explores how design can foster connection and community in an era dominated by digital dashboards and personal analytics. Her research offers a compelling model for how designers can create more inclusive, reflective, and socially engaged data experiences—ones that help us understand not just me, but us.