EDUCATORS’ GUIDE

The Secret Language of Maps

Desktop Data! Experience the power of maps using
The Secret Language of Maps, copyright © 2022
items from your backpack.
by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford
Junior University on behalf of Hasso Plattner Data surrounds us, and building basic data visualization skills is a critical competency for every
Institute of Design. Published in the United States student. By mapping data with a range of frameworks, we can discover hidden relationships,
by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House, a
division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
articulate ideas, and spot patterns and opportunities. Maps are important tools for telling stories.
Understanding how they work, and how to use them for yourself will enhance your skills of
analysis, synthesis, spatial reasoning, and storytelling.

Data is the information used to construct a map. It’s your raw material. It’s the information that
is sought, molded, stretched, and reconstituted into what becomes the map or data visualization.
Data can be quantitative, qualitative, or somewhere in between. How data is collected, how it’s
selected, and how it’s organized— all of these are critical decisions. The data included in a map is
as important as the data that’s left out.

This activity, based on concepts from The Secret Language of Maps by Carissa Carter walks you
through how to take data from your backpack, purse, desktop, or kitchen cabinet and use different
frameworks to sort it and find new relationships and possibilities. It has been adapted for use in
The Secret Language of Maps | Page 1/6 both K12 and higher education classrooms.
 Activity: Desktop Data Shuffle
LEARNING GOAL To help learners understand how to organize information and look at data through multiple
lenses. To help them develop critical thinking, observation, sensemaking, and creative problem-
solving skills.

WHERE TO USE THIS ACTIVITY Classrooms | Virtual learning sessions (Zoom, etc.) | Workshops

MATERIALS Paper | Writing instrument | Five items from a backpack, purse, kitchen cabinet, desk, or
somewhere else readily accessible. These should be selected on the spot and not pre-planned.

INSTRUCTIONS 1. Gather a “desktop” data set. This data set should come from somewhere readily available to
the student. It’s best not to pre-warn them that these items will become their data. Instead, just
ask them to pull out five items from their backpack, or similar. They should be sized such that they
fit on a desk.
2. Find a continuum in this desktop data. Draw a line with two arrows on your paper. Then
arrange your desktop data in some sort of continuum. You might arrange your items from oldest to
youngest, most loved to most disliked, cleanest to dirtiest, etc. Anything goes. Label the continuum
and give it a title.
3. Make a new continuum with the same data. What new relationship can you find? Label this
one as well.
4. Share around a classroom. What are all the different types of continua you see? Are they
quantitative, qualitative? Mixed? Are they humorous or serious? What makes them so? Does the
act of making a second continuum cause you to think differently? What does a continuum help
you realize?
5. Now draw a Venn diagram. Two circles that overlap. Place one of your items in one circle, and
a second in the other circle. Given those two circles, what might you label the overlap? Label and
title. Repeat with two new pieces of data.
6. Discuss differences between continua and Venns. What does one do that the other doesn’t?
The Secret Language of Maps | Page 2/6 Which feels simpler or trickier to you? How else might you use these two simple frameworks?
 7. As desired, and as time and experience allows, experiment with other base frameworks: nested
systems, metaphor maps, and 2×2s. Use them to find interesting variables, relationships, and
insights in your desk data. This is where things get really fun. It’s also tricky and takes practice.
Each of these types of frameworks will help illuminate your data in different ways.

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 Base Frameworks
A base framework is the way that data is organized. Use them to explore your data as well as
explain the phenomena you notice. Not all of these frameworks will work for you, but they’re a
great place to start.

Continua
Continua are the most versatile type of map. In every data set, quantitative and qualitative,
there is at least one continuum—and often many. If you identify the most interesting ones
in your data, you can leverage them into myriad maps. Draw a nice large continuum—really
just a line with points or arrows on each end—on a piece of paper, label the endpoints,

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 and move your data around to see how it lands. If you’re unsure where to begin with your
endpoints, start by trying to find a timeline, a tension, and a transition in your data. Start with
simple endpoints that may even seem too obvious. Don’t try to be clever.

Venn Diagrams
Venn diagrams are good for forcing yourself to find relationships between things that might
seem unrelated. Draw two circle that overlap. Start by labeling or putting pieces of your data
in the big circles, then focus on figuring out what they have in common. Some will be obvious,
and in others the “aha!” will be in the overlaps. Remember, don’t try to think and then write. Just
place a data point in each circle then figure out how they are related.

The Nested System

Nests are good for expanding your current ideas about the boundaries of your data set. Draw
a series of concentric circles and place one piece of data in one of the layers. Then force your
thinking outward— what is a larger container for that kind of data? Force it inward— what
is a subset of it? Use as many layers as you need. There are many ways you can expand and
contract. Be creative and try a few.

The Metaphor Map

Metaphor maps help highlight relationships within and among your data. Use them as arbitrary
frameworks that you can force data into, seeking an insight. Let’s say your data is a solar
system: What part of it is the sun? Who orbits whom? Say your data is a river: What is the
main fast flow? What are the banks? If your data is a convenience store: What are the different
aisles? What’s near the cash register?

2x2
Use a 2×2 to overlay variables and make insights pop. The 2×2 is the continuum’s cousin.
Overlay a couple of your continuum ideas and determine what data would fall in each
quadrant. Consider what each quadrant represents. Sometimes empty quadrants are the
exciting ones. As you fill in the 2×2, you are processing your data. You are making sense of the
information you have. A new insight or a story might emerge.
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 WE’D LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK!
This educators’ guide is a prototype (hooray!). We’re hoping to understand what types of
materials are useful to educators and learners in K12 and higher education classrooms. If
you used this, please share your feedback with us in this four-question survey.

WANT TO READ MORE? Check out The Secret Language of Maps! The book offers even more ways to nurture an inquisitive mind and
the ability to act with intention.

Learn about all of our d.school books at dschool.stanford.edu/books.

To request a complimentary examination copy to review for use in your classroom, contact Penguin Random
House Education at k12education@penguinrandomhouse.com for PreK–12 Education or highereducation@
penguinrandomhouse.com for Higher Education.

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