The Shadow Pandemic

Data Visualization Project

University of Ottawa, 2022 Winter Design Day Winner

Lockdown and distancing rules during COVID led to an increase in domestic violence – in particular intimate partner violence against women (VAW). Data mining a collection of multi-continental research accumulated by the United Nation surrounding violence against women, a two-part data visualization campaign, titled The Shadow Pandemic, was produced; a world map website that easily encompasses the hard data collected according to the country and an explorative comic strip following the statistic narratives of victims of VAW. The purpose of these approaches is to allow users to visualize the hard data in a familiar yet explorative manner, and relate on a human level to the story that highlights the shocking facts binding the story.

The data collection portion was affirmingly led by me, and the completion of the comic book (entirely) and presentation (video and PowerPoint) was independently executed by myself.

The main takeaways from this analysis were that 42% of women who experienced physical violence at the hands of a partner in the preceding 12 months had only started to experience it after the start of the pandemic, representing an 80% increase in partner-based violence across contoured studied. Furthermore, among women, almost half report advising other women who are victims of violence to seek help from their families; yet, the primary source of violence against women is family members.

The conclusions deducted from our data analysis highlighted an immediate need for action. Having presented the final Shadow Pandemic campaign and winning its division of the University of Ottawa 2022 Winter Design Day, a showcase of University of Ottawa engineering design projects, this initiative has since been picked up by the Interval House of Ottawa and is being developed to run as a campaign.