Envisioning Transportation: A Visual Literacy Workshop for Professionals

Join us in person for a fun and interactive workshop where we'll dive into the world of visual literacy tailored for mobility professionals.

Expand your visual toolbox, make better decisions about what and how to visualize, and develop the judgment to evaluate and improve data communication. One day, hands-on scenarios, tackling real problems that you bring with you.

The workshop will run with a minimum of eight participants. You will know the final status two weeks before the event.

Upon completing this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the major categories of transportation visualizations.
2. Apply visualization and communication principles to match visual complexity and nuance to audience and storytelling needs.
3. Evaluate visualizations critically using established design principles
4. Choose visualization approaches for different transportation data scenarios (e.g. internal operations, public engagement, planning, equity analysis)
5. Justify visualization choices based on trade-offs (clarity vs nuance, speed vs comprehensiveness)
6. Diagnose problems in existing visualizations and propose improvements
7. Communicate visual choices and defend them to stakeholders

• The visual toolbox: A survey of visualization types for transportation data, including maps, charts, diagrams, and dashboards, and when to use what.
• Design principles: Fundamentals of good data visualization applied to mobility: Data-ink ratios, colour theory, visual heirarchy, honest communication, and storytelling.
• Critical evaluation: Analyzing real examples to learn what works, what doesn't and why. Developing your eye for effective visualization.
• Decision-making scenarios: Working through realistic challenges such as presenting to council, diagnosing operationg problems, and communicating equity impacts.
• Real-world case studies: Dive into major data visualization projects and learn about the constraints, choices, and trade-offs in actual practice.
• Workshop time: Bring your own visualization challenge and collaborate to problem-solve and improve your real work, past or present.

Dr. Willem Klumpenhouwer bridges academic research and applied practice in transportation data analysis and equity. An award-winning instructor and cartographer, he has taught graduate-level transportation analytics at the University of Toronto and received recognition for teaching excellence. His consulting work focuses on translating complex transportation data into clear, actionable insights for decision-makers.

His work spans from analyzing data from as far away as Mars to developing the award-winning TransitCenter Equity Dashboard for seven U.S. cities, conducting equity analysis for Metrolinx's 2051 Regional Transportation Plan, and advising transit agencies across Canada. Whether the data comes from space or from your local bus network, the principles of effective visualization and analysis remain the same. His work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals, the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, and CBC News.

PhD, Civil Engineering - University of Calgary

NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow - University of Toronto

Principal - Klumpentown Consulting

Info: Meet your fellow participants and dive into the day's framing by exploring how ladders of abstraction can help you make better visual decision choices. Take a tour of visualization types and learn the theory of clean, effective data visualization through critique and examples.

Info: Work through various scenario-based decision making processes and apply the tools you have learned to choose, design, and evaluate different visualizations and their fit for purpose. Then follow along on a deep dive into a complex visualization case study showing real decisions.

Info: Bring your existing problems or past visualizations for collaborative troubleshooting and improvement.

Also check out other Workshops in Calgary, Contests in Calgary.