Data Stories
In the post-truth society we live in, experts must find novel ways to bring data to citizens. Data must entertain as well as inform, and excite as well as educate. In Data Stories we explore how people engage with data. We work on solutions that help make data more relevant, interactive and easier to share.
Data Stories is a three-year grant funded by EPSRC. We are working on human data interaction frameworks and technologies, with a focus on the arts, games, and storytelling as means to encourage public engagement with facts and evidence, published, for instance, as open government datasets or charts. We are trying to determine the impact that varying levels of data localisation, topicalisation, participation and shareability have on engagement with data on social media or in other data experiences.
The Data Stories human data interaction framework is supported by models, algorithms, and guidelines that help individuals and groups in creating bespoke participatory content from data (for example, through art, games, and storytelling). The framework design is informed by practice-led research in three main areas:
- finding and enriching data;
- generating content from data; and
- sharing and engaging with data on social media.
We draw upon methods from several disciplines: data and content management; machine learning; human data interaction; game design and gamification; crowdsourcing; online communities; social and political sciences; creative writing; and visual arts, among others.
Summary of Findings
In November 2020 we organised the Data Stories Symposium, an online event bringing together researchers and practitioners in human data interaction, data journalism, and data storytelling. The event was recorded in a series of visual summaries, produced by JDK Films.
Our key results are discussed in the Data Stories slide deck.
Work that has informed Data Stories includes:
2020
- Laura Koesten, Kathleen Gregory, Paul Groth, Elena Simperl. “Talking datasets: Understanding data sensemaking behaviours”. Revision stage in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
- Laura Koesten, Pavlos Vougiouklis, Elena Simperl, Paul Groth. “Dataset Reuse: Translating Principles to Practice” Conditionally accepted at Patterns – Cell Press Journal
- Pavlos Vougiouklis, Leslie Carr, Elena Simperl. “Pie Chart or Pizza: Identifying Chart Types and Their Virality on Twitter” Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media
2019
- Koesten, Laura, Emilia Kacprzak, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Collaborative Practices with Structured Data: Do Tools Support What Users Need?.” In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. 100. ACM, 2019.
- Koesten, Laura, Elena Simperl, Emilia Kacprzak, Tom Blount, and Jeni Tennison. “Everything you always wanted to know about a dataset: studies in data summarisation.” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
2018
- Groth, Paul, Laura Koesten, Philipp Mayr, Maarten De Rijke, and Elena Simperl. “DATA: SEARCH’18–Searching Data on the Web.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.11883 (2018).
- Kacprzak, Emilia, José M. Giménez-García, Alessandro Piscopo, Laura Koesten, Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Making sense of numerical data-semantic labelling of web tables.” In European Knowledge Acquisition Workshop, pp. 163-178. Springer, Cham, 2018.
- Kacprzak, Emilia, Laura Koesten, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Characterising Dataset Search Queries.” In Companion of the The Web Conference 2018 on The Web Conference 2018, pp. 1485-1488. International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2018.
- Kacprzak, Emilia, Laura Koesten, Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Tom Blount, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Characterising dataset search—An analysis of search logs and data requests.” Journal of Web Semantics 55 (2019): 37-55.
- Koesten, Laura, Elena Demidova, Vadim Savenkov, John Breslin, Oscar Corcho, Stefan Dietze, and Elena Simperl. “PROFILES & DATA: SEARCH International Workshop on Profiling and Searching Data on the Web Chairs’ Welcome & Organization.” In Companion of the The Web Conference 2018 on The Web Conference 2018, pp. 1479-1480. International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2018.
Work that has informed Data Stories includes:
2020
- Laura Koesten, Kathleen Gregory, Paul Groth, Elena Simperl. “Talking datasets: Understanding data sensemaking behaviours”. Revision stage in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
- Laura Koesten, Pavlos Vougiouklis, Elena Simperl, Paul Groth. “Dataset Reuse: Translating Principles to Practice” Conditionally accepted at Patterns – Cell Press Journal
- Pavlos Vougiouklis, Leslie Carr, Elena Simperl. “Pie Chart or Pizza: Identifying Chart Types and Their Virality on Twitter” Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media
2019
- Koesten, Laura, Emilia Kacprzak, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Collaborative Practices with Structured Data: Do Tools Support What Users Need?.” In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. 100. ACM, 2019.
- Koesten, Laura, Elena Simperl, Emilia Kacprzak, Tom Blount, and Jeni Tennison. “Everything you always wanted to know about a dataset: studies in data summarisation.” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
2018
- Groth, Paul, Laura Koesten, Philipp Mayr, Maarten De Rijke, and Elena Simperl. “DATA: SEARCH’18–Searching Data on the Web.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.11883 (2018).
- Kacprzak, Emilia, José M. Giménez-García, Alessandro Piscopo, Laura Koesten, Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Making sense of numerical data-semantic labelling of web tables.” In European Knowledge Acquisition Workshop, pp. 163-178. Springer, Cham, 2018.
- Kacprzak, Emilia, Laura Koesten, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Characterising Dataset Search Queries.” In Companion of the The Web Conference 2018 on The Web Conference 2018, pp. 1485-1488. International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2018.
- Kacprzak, Emilia, Laura Koesten, Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Tom Blount, Jeni Tennison, and Elena Simperl. “Characterising dataset search—An analysis of search logs and data requests.” Journal of Web Semantics 55 (2019): 37-55.
- Koesten, Laura, Elena Demidova, Vadim Savenkov, John Breslin, Oscar Corcho, Stefan Dietze, and Elena Simperl. “PROFILES & DATA: SEARCH International Workshop on Profiling and Searching Data on the Web Chairs’ Welcome & Organization.” In Companion of the The Web Conference 2018 on The Web Conference 2018, pp. 1479-1480. International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2018.
Our Partners
University of Southampton

Birmingham Open Media
Principal Investigator
Elena Simperl
Professor of Computer Science
Investigator
Laura Koesten
Affiliate Researcher
Funding
Funding Body: The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Amount: £92,448.85
Period: February 2020 - January 2021