Workshop: Prototyping Datasets

Background

As part of the previous week’s homework, you’ve collected a dataset for inspirational purposes. In this exercise, you will analyze the images your group has collected and take a first stab at ordering them in various ways. This is sometimes called “material exploration.” If we consider data a design material, we should explore its properties to know what we can and cannot expect.

Learning Objectives

After completing this assignment, you can explore and analyze image datasets in a designerly way.

Instructions

  • Upload the individual sets of images to a new corner on your board.
  • Look at the pictures together and discuss what they show.
  • Select a sample from all photos, and create a collection of 3–5 groups of about eight pictures each.
    • Write a theme on a note for the collection that states what the dataset would be used for.
    • Write a descriptive label on a note on top of each group—a candidate class for a classifier.
  • Repeat this step twice for a total of three collections, each around a particular theme (a prototype dataset).
  • Fill out and attach a minimal datasheet to each prototype dataset.

Product

The outcome of this exercise is three prototype datasets, each consisting of 3-5 labeled groups, an overall theme, and a minimal datasheet captured on your group’s board.

Follow-up

We will discuss the workshop’s outcomes in the plenary after the workshop.

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