# Sheldon.studio

> Sheldon.studio is an Italian design studio specializing in data visualization, data storytelling, scientific dissemination, interactive reports, dashboards, data gamification and participatory data physicalization.

We work with NGOs, public administration, statistical offices, research institutions, journalists, and cultural organizations from our studio in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.

Contact: write@sheldon.studio
Website: https://sheldon.studio/

## Core pages

- [Home](https://sheldon.studio/): Studio overview, portfolio highlights, training, and contact
- [About](https://sheldon.studio/about): Team, location, and working methods
- [Works](https://sheldon.studio/works): Full project portfolio
- [Training](https://sheldon.studio/training): Professional courses on data storytelling, scientific communication, and scientific dissemination
- [Manifesto](https://sheldon.studio/manifesto): Studio values and approach
- [FAQ](https://sheldon.studio/faq): What data visualization, participatory data physicalization, data gamification, data storytelling, dashboards, scientific dissemination, co-design and data literacy are, with papers and linked projects

## FAQ: key concepts

Short definitions from our FAQ. Each heading links to its own answer.

### [What is data visualization?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#data-visualization)

Showing data so that it is understandable and useful for an audience, letting patterns and insights emerge that would otherwise stay hidden in the numbers. It is a top-down process: our clients give us the data, we visualize it, the audience experiences it. See [our works](https://sheldon.studio/works).

### [What is Participatory Data Physicalization (PDP)?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#participatory-data-physicalization)

The opposite of data visualization: a bottom-up process. We design a frame, and the audience brings it to life with their own data, bodies, objects and spaces, building a visualization of themselves. It is a great way to collect a community’s data and let it reflect on itself, as if looking in a mirror. See [Sete Festival](https://sheldon.studio/works/sete-festival), [BlurM3Not](https://sheldon.studio/works/blurm3not), [Cortili in Azione](https://sheldon.studio/works/cortili-in-azione) and our [training on data and participation](https://sheldon.studio/training/data-participation). Further reading: [Moretti & Mattozzi, 2020](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41018-6_86) and the [list of physical visualizations](http://dataphys.org/list/).

### [What is data gamification?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#data-gamification)

It combines previous approaches. People guess a figure that is initially hidden: each guess is new data about the audience and how they perceive the phenomenon, so information first flows bottom up. Guessing positions participants towards the phenomenon and sparks their curiosity: they want the answer and ask for the real data, which then flows top down. See [Sete Festival](https://sheldon.studio/works/sete-festival), [BlurM3Not](https://sheldon.studio/works/blurm3not) and [Barriera Mentale](https://sheldon.studio/works/barriera-mentale). Further reading: [Mattozzi & Moretti, 2025](https://pgjournal.aiap.it/index.php/pgj/en/article/view/2025.22.41.09).

### [Data storytelling, visual journalism, interactive report: what’s the difference?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#data-storytelling)

Data storytelling is the method: a narrative built around data. Visual journalism applies it to news and investigations ([Mapping Diversity](https://sheldon.studio/works/mapping-diversity), [Glocal Climate Change](https://sheldon.studio/works/glocal-climate-change)). An interactive report is the format: an institution’s report turned into an explorable web experience ([Statistica Veneta](https://sheldon.studio/works/statistica-veneta), [StopHateSpeech](https://sheldon.studio/works/stophatespeech)). Classic reference: [Segel & Heer, 2010](https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2010.179).

### [What do you mean by scientific dissemination?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#scientific-dissemination)

Visual communication of research to people outside the field: graphical abstracts, explorable visualizations, exhibitions. Accuracy stays, jargon goes. See [Seed 360](https://sheldon.studio/works/seed-360), [Cortili in Azione](https://sheldon.studio/works/cortili-in-azione) and our [graphical abstract training](https://sheldon.studio/training/graphical-abstract-design).

### [Dashboards and open data portals: when do they make sense?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#dashboards)

When people need to monitor data that changes over time, or find and reuse public datasets. We design them around real questions rather than every available chart. See [Covidash](https://sheldon.studio/works/covidash), [Matera Open Data Platform](https://sheldon.studio/works/matera-open-data-platform), [Paesaggi Futuri](https://sheldon.studio/works/paesaggi-futuri) and [Osservatorio Sociale Regionale](https://sheldon.studio/works/osservatorio). Further reading: [Sarikaya et al., 2019](https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2018.2864903).

### [What is co-design?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#co-design)

Co-design is our mantra: designing with our clients and with the people the project is for. They are the domain experts: they know their needs, competitors, challenges, hopes and fears. We bring the know-how on how to get there. It is mutual empowerment towards a shared goal, a path of growth on both sides that makes projects stronger, shared and more aware. See [Cortili in Azione](https://sheldon.studio/works/cortili-in-azione), designed with children, parents and teachers. Further reading: [Sanders & Stappers, 2008](https://doi.org/10.1080/15710880701875068).

### [What is data literacy?](https://sheldon.studio/faq#data-literacy)

The ability to read, question and use data critically, including who collected it and who is missing from it. We teach it in our [data literacy and storytelling training](https://sheldon.studio/training/data-literacy); see also [Disabled Data](https://sheldon.studio/works/disabled-data). Further reading: [Data Feminism](https://data-feminism.mitpress.mit.edu/).

## Services by audience

- [journalist](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/journalist)
- [public administration](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/public%20administration)
- [statistical offices](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/statistical%20offices)
- [festivals](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/festivals)
- [municipalities](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/municipalities)
- [research institutions](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/research%20institutions)
- [ngos](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/ngos)
- [others](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/others)
- [interactive report](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/interactive%20report)
- [printed report](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/printed%20report)
- [data storytelling](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/data%20storytelling)
- [data gamification](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/data%20gamification)
- [informative motions](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/informative%20motions)
- [visual journalism](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/visual%20journalism)
- [dashboards](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/dashboards)
- [scientific dissemination](https://sheldon.studio/find-out/scientific%20dissemination)

## Training modules

- [data-participation](https://sheldon.studio/training/data-participation)
- [data-literacy](https://sheldon.studio/training/data-literacy)
- [graphical-abstract-design](https://sheldon.studio/training/graphical-abstract-design)
- [designing-with-qualitative-data](https://sheldon.studio/training/designing-with-qualitative-data)

## Selected projects

- [Barriera Mentale: Turning curiosity into knowledge through data](https://sheldon.studio/works/barriera-mentale) (for Graphic Days®, 2026): A data gamification for Graphic Days® 2026 in Turin: visitors guess facts about the Barriera di Milano neighbourhood, then compare their perception with real data and with everyone else’s answers.
- [BlurM3Not: Gamifying data on teen internet’s dark side](https://sheldon.studio/works/blurm3not) (for Internet Festival, 2025): A data gamification installation for Internet Festival in Pisa: nine glowing QR codes lead teenagers to questionnaires on online challenges, cyberbullying and hikikomori, answered through behaviours instead of clicks.
- [Cortili in Azione: School well-being starts with data](https://sheldon.studio/works/cortili-in-azione) (for Architettura Senza Frontiere Piemonte, 2022): How participatory design and participatory data physicalization turned the wishes, emotions and memories of more than 500 people into qualitative data to imagine, transform and care for school courtyards in Nichelino.
- [Covidash, the first COVID mobile dashboard](https://sheldon.studio/works/covidash) (2020): When the pandemic hit Italy, COVID-19 dashboards were unusable on smartphones. Covidash is the mobile-first dashboard we designed pro bono during the first lockdown, with CAST Type and FBK.
- [Disabled Data: If we are not counted, how do we count?](https://sheldon.studio/works/disabled-data) (for Fight The Stroke, 2023): An accessible dashboard for Fight The Stroke and onData that brings fragmented Italian disability statistics together in one click, with downloadable charts and automatic text descriptions for screen readers.
- [Glocal Climate Change: Turning climate data into a digital common](https://sheldon.studio/works/glocal-climate-change) (for European Data Journalism Network, 2022): A scrollytelling project for the European Data Journalism Network showing 40 years of climate change in more than 100,000 European municipalities, with automated narration and shareable local thumbnails.
- [Mapping Diversity: Minding the (diversity) gap in street names](https://sheldon.studio/works/mapping-diversity) (for European Data Journalism Network, 2022): A data storytelling project for the European Data Journalism Network analysing 145,933 streets in 30 European cities across 17 countries, revealing how few women and how little diversity street names honour.
- [Matera Open Data Platform: Reinventing open-data portals](https://sheldon.studio/works/matera-open-data-platform) (for Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation, 2019): The open data portal of Matera European Capital of Culture 2019: a story-first platform that narrates the year through data visualization and micro-stories before offering the open datasets for reuse.
- [Osservatorio Sociale Regionale: Making public data truly accessible](https://sheldon.studio/works/osservatorio) (for Regione Toscana, 2022): Four years with Regione Toscana: from Data Monitor, the Osservatorio Sociale Regionale platform for social and healthcare indicators, to an LLM-powered search agent that turns natural-language questions into structured queries.
- [Paesaggi Futuri: The colourful side of complexity](https://sheldon.studio/works/paesaggi-futuri) (for Unione Comuni Garfagnana, 2026): A public investment dashboard for Unione Comuni Garfagnana in Tuscany: modular widgets, a map and data stories that let citizens and administrators explore projects, funding and places.
- [Progetto ALFa: Empowering migrant women through design](https://sheldon.studio/works/progetto-alfa) (for IRES Piemonte, 2020): A transmedia storytelling project for IRES Piemonte: participatory photography workshops, a scrollytelling website and an exhibition in Turin telling the lives of migrant women without stereotypes.
- [One year at Sheldon.studio in data](https://sheldon.studio/works/report) (2021): Sheldon.studio's first annual report: a self-commissioned interactive report that tells a year of data design through its own messy data, from code and emails to the vinyl we played, and shows how data can lie.
- [Seed 360: Making sense of global data through stories](https://sheldon.studio/works/seed-360) (for Seed 360 festival, 2024): The dataroom of Seed 360 festival: a modular dashboard and more than 30 data stories connecting climate, population, water, food and biodiversity data from over 200 countries across up to 90 years.
- [Sete Festival: Data gamification for local water awareness](https://sheldon.studio/works/sete-festival) (for Sete festival, 2024): A data gamification and participatory data physicalization for Sete Festival: polycarbonate panels filled with water by visitors to guess facts about the water crisis and reflect on their own consumption.
- [Statistica Veneta: Interactive report for Veneto regional data](https://sheldon.studio/works/statistica-veneta) (for Ufficio di Statistica della Regione del Veneto, 2022): The first interactive annual report of the Veneto Region's statistical office, co-designed with its team after 20 years of print: headlines that work as legends and filters, and a dashboard with municipal data since 2010.
- [StopHateSpeech: Stop body shaming! An interactive report](https://sheldon.studio/works/stophatespeech) (for Maghweb, 2025): A mobile-first interactive report on online body shaming among young people, built on survey data from seven European countries and designed as tap-through stories inspired by social media.

## Optional

- Full sitemap: https://sheldon.studio/sitemap.xml