Friendshipments
A data-driven project highlights and embraces the similarities between people and looks beyond one's physical appearance.
My Role
Data Curation
Data Visualisation
Experience Design
Type
Student work
Year
2020
Background
The year 2020 was strenuous. People witnessed various unfortunate events, from the Australian wildfire to the US president's impeachment and the Pandemic to the Black Lives Matter protest. The global outrage affected me in a way I had never felt before. I was confused about what causes people to see differences between one another that result in injustice. I realized that humans tend to look at the differences first rather than bonding over essential things like humanity. We always find reasons to set each other apart. It made me wonder why people only notice the differences first. We have far more similarities than differences.
"The color of our skin is not a weapon."
"Color is NOT a crime"
Task
I wanted to create a system that doesn't focus on differences but instead draws people's attention to similarities. When focusing on external factors, we miss out on the connections we share and the things that unite us. I hoped we could embrace the disparity by focusing on similarities in one another, sparking a connection between the people.
Intending to build connections and spark conversation between people, I decided to use people's data, such as their preferences, fun facts, and choices that make them themselves.
Task was to spark the true connection between people
Action
Data Collection
I collected data through a small survey using Google Forms. This survey was conducted on people I share my virtual and physical space with, including my Facebook, and Instagram followers, roommates, and classmates. It gave me a wide range of people who did not know each other.
Click on the image to see the Google Form
"Survey included various evocative questions to bring out a person's belief and preferences."
Survey included questions such as: "I would describe myself the best as?", "I define home as?", "I am most hopeful about?", "My workspace is?", "I believe the future is?". These questions had about two - eight options to choose from.
Using the answers to these questions, my goal was to create a personalized visual identity that belonged to my subjects but was not based on the specific data points of race, color, and gender.
Data Visualization
My goal was to create a personalized visual identity that belonged to my subjects but was not based on the specific data points of race, color, and gender. I developed a system that turned each answer into particular shapes, colors, and symbols.
Design explorations for visualizations
I made variations using different colors, shapes, positions, and rotations, indicating a different response. The most critical part missing from these visualizations was ‘me.’ however, I was very displeased by the outcome; I took a step back to see where I was going wrong and observed that I was trying to be someone else. I decided to start fresh and decided to make visualizations in the form of Mandalas.
Mandala means circle in Sanskrit. It is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the universe. The circular design symbolizes the idea that life is never-ending and everything is connected. These forms have always been so captivating for me. I love the essence of integrity they express. The correlation between a Mandala's meaning and a person's representation made much sense.
Legend explaining how to read data Mandala
With the help of various drawing exercises, such as drawing emotions through simple shapes, drawing different rhythms in my body, and drawing line and shape variations, I got into the flow of creating simple yet captivating design elements for my visualization.
Following the same strategy, I made each Mandala ring customized; for example, for the question ‘What I am most hopeful about?’ all the answers were a visualization of my emotion towards those options, such as ‘personal finances’ was anxiety, whereas ‘gender equality' was anger and ‘greener planet’ was uncertainty.
User's Mandala
The Mandala symbolizes the beauty of one’s identity and how we are different yet the same in many indiscernible ways. Due to the repetition of colors, and other elements in each ring, they all appeared similar yet different. The most beautiful part about looking at all these Mandala together was the blend of distinction and resemblance in them. That’s exactly how we humans are. Our differences and similarities are what makes us beautiful!
Result
To try the idea and see if this system works, I conducted three interactions with three different personality types, i.e., Extrovert + Extrovert, Extrovert + Introvert, and Introvert + Introvert. I thought it was essential to consider the personality types to observe how comfortably the interactions can occur.
The conversation between Extrovert + Extrovert, Extrovert + Introvert was free-flowing, where people bonded over things like art, the pandemic, and, most importantly, their cultures. I witnessed a budding amicable relationship between people.
“When I took part in the meeting and saw your work, I realized this is such a cool way to connect with someone in such a platonic way. Whereas with apps like Bumble and Tinder, etc., there is always a sexual undertone to it. But this is such a nice way to connect with some whom you might otherwise never meet your whole life. I had such a great time discussing different perspectives and having an open conversation. It was incredible!”
– A participant from the Zoom interaction.
Zoom Interactions according to personality types
Looking at everyone’s happy faces, my subject’s feedback, and their willingness to interact more, I think the Zoom interactions were quite a success. They not only made new friends sitting in 2 different corners of the world but also embraced the fact of looking beyond the external differences. I witnessed so much positivity and lightness in the Zoom room. I realized that we all want love and happiness; it’s what connects us because every human being desires this on some level. I was glad to play a small part in making people from different corners of the world meet and unite.
Survey credits - Pentagram (What counts and Data Portraits)
