Vidya Setlur and Bridget Cogley discuss their new book Functional Aesthetics

The PolicyViz Podcast

Vidya Setlur is the director of Tableau Research. She leads an interdisciplinary team of research scientists in areas including data visualization, multimodal interaction, statistics, applied ML, and NLP. She earned her doctorate in Computer Graphics in 2005 at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Tableau, she worked as a principal research scientist at the Nokia Research Center for seven years. Her personal research interests lie at the intersection of natural language processing and computer graphics to better understand data semantics and user intent to inform the meaningful visual depiction of data.

Interpreter turned analyst, Bridget Cogley brings an interdisciplinary approach to data analytics. As Chief Visualization Officer at Versalytix, her role uplifts data visualization within the org and helps shape the vision. Her dynamic, engaging presentation style is paired with thought-provoking content, including ethics and data visualization linguistics. She has a deep interest in the nuances of communication, having been an American Sign Language Interpreter for nine years. She is currently a Tableau Hall of Fame Visionary. Her work incorporates human-centric dashboard design, an anthropological take on design, ethics, and language. She extensively covers speech analytics and open text. Prior to consulting, Bridget managed an analytics department, which included vetting and selecting Tableau, creating views in the database, and building comprehensive reporting. She also has experience in training, HR, managing, and sales support.

Episode Notes

Functional Aesthetics for Data Visualization
Webinar about the book

Vidya | Tableau Research | Twitter
Bridget | Tableaufit | Twitter | The Logic of Dashboards presentation (YouTube)

Paper: Striking a Balance: Reader Takeaways and Preferences when Integrating Text and Charts by Chase Stokes, Vidya Setlur, Bridget Cogley, Arvind Satyanarayan, and Marti Hearst

Versalytix
Stroop Effect
Tableau User Groups
VisComm
Information is Beautiful Awards

Other recent books

• Jen Christiansen, Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science through Diagrams and Visualizations
• Nigel Holmes, Joyful Infographics: A Friendly, Human Approach to Data

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