Understanding the needs and desires of service users in the design and creation of meaningful physical data representations.

This paper draws on the experiences of a small team of researchers, led by Professor Gwilt, who have been exploring novel ways of translating data into physical formats through an investigation into the potential for data-driven objects to help in the communication and sharing of data. The paper draws on a selection of research projects undertaken within the context of healthcare and wellbeing wherein data-objects were designed to help a variety of service users engage with data. A number of different data-object making and development strategies are discussed, and considered in terms of their effectiveness as communication tools. This discussion includes reflections on; finding and creating data sources, engaging with service users, thinking about the use of visual language, metaphor and material choices, audience needs and experiences, contexts of use and deployment. Observations on the conceptual process of creating hybrid objects and the social-cultural value systems employed in reading these artefacts are also debated. A list of guiding principles for the creation of meaningful physical data representations has been developed by the authors and is presented in the context of the epistemology of the data-object and how we might implement these methods to ask questions around the pedagogy of the Physicalisation of data.