https://nkdefector.cargo.site/
Title
North Korean Defector, The Journey to Freedom
Brief Description
This project is a website domain that contains text that telling the audience about the situation the North Korean people and photographs showcasing North Korea and then interactive data visualization charts about the demographics of North Korea, aiming to provide a comprehensive perspective on the North Korean defector issues especially for people who don’t really know about this topic. By exploring the demographics, this visualization seeks to tell the story of the North Korean Defectors to more people which would eventually force a stronger connection and international attention.
Motivation
I am personally always interested in the human rights issues in the globe and specifically passionate about anything that I could do for those unheard voices from the minorities. I have been researching on the North Korean Defector issues since last year and emotionally touched when reading those stories or seeing the interviews / documentaries about the North Korean Defectors.
Data Resources
https://www.unikorea.go.kr/eng_unikorea/relations/statistics/defectors/#n
This is a data resource I collected from the South Korean Ministry of Unification, which is the main provider on data for North Korean defectors and have the most granularity due to its nature of unification attempt. I tried to research more in other orgnizations who have been focusing on the defector issue as well such as Liberty in Korea, Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, and Our World in Data but there are not data specifically applicable for this project.
Methodology
As for the methodology part, I wanted to share my process of choosing which data vizzie format and how I did them eventually. At first, I was thinking of creating something similar to What It Takes To Go To Space, which in the context of my project would be showcasing What It Takes to Get Out of North Korea, using alluvial diagram to showcase what is the main demographics to defect from there (for example, age, region of residence, educational background, gender, professional background, etc.) and then we can use this insights to better research on the sociological patterns of the defectors. However, I realized that the data I collected from the South Korean Ministry of Unification is not capable for me to do that, since each data is not collected from a single person, for example, it is not XXX, age, job, region of residence, etc., so directly connecting which group has the most representation in each categories would lead to data biases.
As a result, I decided to focus on visualizing each different category individually with a chart type that suits. I used Excel to do data cleaning first and then used Flourish to create the interactive visualization and embedded them onto the website.
What I learned:
From this project, I learned about the whole logic or logistic of doing a data visualization. For example, the process of curiosity to questions, to researches to data collection, cleaning, and then choosing the right visualization tool to visualize. Most importantly, as a beginner in data visualization, after taking this class it gives me a totally new different way to look at and reflect on data, and I realized how specifically for some more emotional data for example deaths from war or disasters we would like to make people feel the scope of it, make the numbers into something human can relate and be touched.
Questions Remaining
How can I improve the data visualization experience, make it more engaging and artistic expressions, what are the ways or mediums I could use (VR/AR/Interactive Installations)?
Next Steps