Concreate: A data physicalisation toolkit and workshop

The challenge

While the advantages of data-enabled design are undeniable, organisations seem to struggle with using data as creative material to inspire the design process. Designers are mostly experienced with using data for evaluative purposes, but implementing quantitative data throughout all the stages of the design process proves to be more challenging. This is caused by different perspectives of designers and data scientist and a lack of clarity on data literacy and skills that may be relevant to designers. The problem is magnified by the overwhelming volume of (big) data, often gathered without a clear vision for its use.

The solution

Concreate is a collaborative data physicalisation toolkit and workshop designed to lead to more creative insights from data. It stimulates creative thinking by encouraging intense, tangible interaction with data which results in increased reflection-in-action and a deeper understanding of data. The complete toolkit includes physical tokens to represent data along with a mapping board and a set of reflection cards. During the workshop, participants are invited to interact with a data set of their choice by physically building it out and reflecting on the created physicalisation through a series of exercises using the toolkit.

Mission

Making quantitative data more accessible, understandable and enjoyable for non-data experts.