This week I  will present an invited seminar as a part of the Data Analytics and Visualisation (DAV) Graduate Program at University of York in Toronto.

The CREATE DAV Graduate Training Program in Data Analytics & Visualization provides interdisciplinary training in both computational analytics and perceptual design methodologies for deriving value from big data for a broad range of industrial applications.

The program is a multi-institution, multi-sector collaboration between York University (the lead institution), OCAD University, Concordia University and the University of Toronto, together with a number of leading Canadian high-tech companies in Toronto and Montreal focused on applications in cloud computing, digital cultures, health technology and smart cities.

My presentation titled Perceptual Design and Big Data aims to introduce and explore sonification, haptics and 3D printing as ways to understand digital datasets.

Abstract :
A well understood dataset can be analysed automatically. When the data is not well understood we turn to a data visualisation to gain a visual impression. In his seminal book the Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems, J.J. Gibson describes how we seek information from the environment through active multimodal exploration. This raises the possibility that multimodal interfaces may be more effective for seeking out information in datasets than a visualisation alone. Donald Norman extended the theory of ecological perception to design, and proposed that emotions also have a crucial role in our understanding of the world, and learning new things. This raises the possibility that emotional design could also have a crucial role for understanding and learning about digital datasets. In this talk I will present practice-lead research and experiments that apply theories of ecological perception and emotional design to big data, and what has been learnt in the process.