José Duarte: Data Literacy Through Playfulness

🙂 About José Duarte

José Duarte is a Colombian designer and the director of Easydataviz. His work explores the relationship between data and citizenship through playful and participatory interventions in public spaces. These interventions aim to spark meaningful conversations, close information gaps, and activate communities.

His approach is not about producing flawless charts worthy of The New York Times, but about inviting communities to engage in something far more powerful: critical thinking as a catalyst for change.

Over the past 16 years, he has designed more than 200 participatory data-driven interventions in cities such as Mexico City, Barcelona, Paris, Santiago, Lima, Brussels, and Berlin. These projects have opened up civic conversations around topics as diverse as peace, the environment, public health, armed conflict, the future, mobility, and safety.

He is also a speaker on data literacy and public communication, bringing a participatory spirit to his talks by interacting with the audience using physical objects like balloons and pie charts. Because data can be fun, too! : )

Six principles guide his work

Inclusivity lies at the heart of José Duarte’s work. He believes that data should be accessible to everyone—not just to those with technical skills or digital access. To make this possible, he has spent over a decade developing analog, low-cost, and participatory tools that empower anyone to create, interpret, and discuss data.

His approach is guided by six key principles:

1. In a world full of digital divides, our approach to data is analog.

2. In a world of invisible data, we bring it to the streets.

3. In a world with low data literacy, we build playful data narratives.

4. In a non-inclusive world, we create participatory data.

5. In an apathetic world, we spark critical thinking through data.

6. In a world where relationships matter, we make data a driver of dialogue.
   

Over a decade exploring analog data visualization, public space interventions, and participatory data practices from Latin America

This timeline illustrates the evolution of José Duarte’s work—from the creation of the Handmade Visualization Toolkit and its various iterations, to his exploration of analog data visualization, public space interventions, data collection devices, and data-driven installations. It also traces his journey as an educator, fostering spaces for experimentation and community-based work around data.

A visualization kit that started it all

This project is a cornerstone of José Duarte’s work—not only because it brought international recognition to his practice, but because the spirit of the kit—its tools and methodologies—has been replicated and adapted in hundreds of workshops around the world, influencing the data visualization community for over a decade.

José and the Easydataviz team have facilitated more than 200 workshops in over 30 cities, including Bogotá, Lima, Mexico City, Madrid, Paris, Leuven, Berlin, Košice, Brussels, and Stuttgart, among many others.

Activating communities in Latin America through data

In an effort to explore the potential of data visualization within the Latin American context, José Duarte has developed a series of public space data interventions aimed at sparking conversations among citizens, helping them better understand their environment, and supporting more informed decision-making.

Latin America is a region marked by significant gaps in access to information: many people lack internet access, robust literacy systems, or digital infrastructure. Information often flows through social and community networks. This is precisely the setting where José Duarte’s work takes place—bringing data closer to communities so they can drive the transformations they need through access to information.

The topics he addresses through his interventions range from peace, climate change, and mobility to health, gender, and other deeply social issues. To this end, he has collaborated with organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and Save the Children, among others, working on subjects as diverse as armed conflict, peacebuilding, sexual and reproductive health, the future, mental health, water, and the environment.

An approach that inspires the data visualization community

José Duarte’s work has been featured in numerous articles, books, and academic papers. Here is a selection of four books that highlight his community-centered approach to working with data:

He has also presented his work at global venues such as TEDxBarranquilla, TEDxJaveriana, TEDxExternado, and Creative Mornings Bogotá, as well as at specialized events including Open Data Vienna, the Data Literacy Conference (2017), InfoPlus (2023), and 2CO (2024).

This is one of his TEDx talks, focusing on how to use data in public space interventions:

Training the next generation of data visualizers

José Duarte’s approach has sparked the interest of organizations, individuals, and institutions around the world. As a result, he has been invited to speak, teach, and collaborate on projects that embrace his distinctive way of working with data.

He currently teaches in the Master in Data Design at ELISAVA (Spain), the Master in Communication Design at FH Salzburg (Austria), the Master in Data Visualization at CENTRO (Mexico), and serves as a mentor in the Master Design for Play at Kolding School (Denmark).