Communicating Consequences: Visual Narratives, Abstraction, and Polysemy in Rural Bangladesh

Sharifa Sultana, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Jeffrey M. Rzeszotarski

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Information communication and visualization practices reflect two centuries of developments of conventions and best practices which may not be reflective of global audiences' methods for conveying information. Contrasting between rural traditional visual culture and contemporary HCI and data-visualization, we argue that an understanding of traditional practices for information visualization is required for building rich data-narratives and making data-driven systems more accessible and culturally situated. Our ten-month ethnographic study investigates how rural Bangladeshi communities construct narratives through visual media. 1 Our observation, interviews, and FGDs (n=54) expose how participants convey risk management, decision-making, and monetary management practices to their peers. We find that villagers used a rich network of polysemic symbols and abstractions to manifest subjectivity, factuality, consequence, situatedness, and uncertainty; varied visual attributes for constructing narratives; and emphasized material relations among components in visuals. These findings inform the design of future systems for decision support in a culturally situated manner.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450394215
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 19 2023
Externally publishedYes
Event2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023 - Hamburg, Germany
Duration: Apr 23 2023Apr 28 2023

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityHamburg
Period4/23/234/28/23

Keywords

  • Abstraction
  • Bangladesh
  • Consequences
  • Information Visualization
  • Polysemy
  • Visual Narratives

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Software

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