DVS Workshop: Visualizing Qualitative Data

So many of the tools that have been developed for data visualization focus on data that are in spreadsheet format, especially data that are number-heavy. For qualitative research, numerical data may not be the primary focus, or the numerical data may be difficult to visualize for other reasons. This workshop will explore some of the complications of trying to visualize qualitative data, walking through examples of different types of qualitative data projects and the visualizations that have been produced from those projects. Exercises will help attendees work through the process of developing visualizations for sample qualitative projects. The workshop will include recommendations for tools that may be useful, but we will focus more on the process of identifying possible visual elements within a qualitative data project than on a specific software application.