Thesis focus
To create an interactive website that allows users to learn about an asylum seekers’ journey through the visualisation of data.
The project will be a big visualisation of data that includes datas such as an asylum seeker’s path to their host country, the number of people that made it through, the number of people that are still struggling on their way… and ultimately the stories behind these data. When the user dives deeper into the data, they’ll discover that they can listen to an asylum seeker’s story about their journey.
The goal of the project is to create empathy through the story sharing of asylum seekers, for people to better understand how asylum seekers and refugees go through the harsh conditions.
Personal goal
One of my most important personal goal is to create a good portfolio piece that showcase my strength and passion — illustration, graphic design, UX design… and to find an appropriate work field that integrates the different fields that I’m interested in.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats of project
Strength
- The opportunity — There are several websites/infographs that portray the journey of asylum seekers, but very little of them compiles them in a way to exaggerate the scale of this situation, or to tell the stories behind these data.
- Diversity — I am able to play with visualisation of data and also story telling, which I am both interested in. This project allows me to enjoy the process of creating graphics, designing the user interface, and to also focus on details such as symbolism.
Weaknesses
- The lack of data collection — This thesis project requires a ton of data collection that are accurate, this requires me to seek help from organisations such as the UN or other NGOs. I’ve sent a couple of emails out but never got a reply, and am wondering if there’s a way to continue with the project despite the lack of a big data collection/accuracy.
- Aesthetic — currently the design of the infographic contrasts too much with the data, the harsh and heavy data revealed behind the peaceful graphics creates an uneasy feeling of disconnection and even disrespect to the data.
- Technical work — I have no idea how to build an interactive website like that, or to make a close enough prototype.
Opportunity
- Educational tool kit
- Promotional tool for NGOs
Threats
- Skills needed to build the project
- The possibility to generate offensive implications — sometimes the representation of data can be subjective and hence create an offensive comment, despite that not being the intention. A lot of careful research and understanding would need to be done to prevent things like that to happen.
- Data collection — the project requires trusted and large source of data to collect from, often it is hard to get a hold of these data
Assistance needed
Some guidance towards how I can scale/change the project’s direction so that it is doable, or suggestions on prototyping tools. There are also some ideas that I had for this project that I’d like to discuss possibilities for, and wether or not it’s a good approach.
