Humanities + Design a Research Lab at Stanford University

At Humanities + Design our mission is to produce, through the lens of humanistic inquiry, new modes of thinking in design and computer science to serve data-driven research in the humanities. We believe that humanistic inquiry, grounded in interpretation, has much to contribute to the development of technologies if they are to help us reveal ambiguity and paradox, allowing human-scale exploration of complex systems.

In the laboratory environment, theoretical and methodological discussions happen side-by-side with hands-on work with digital materials. Humanities scholars and students, designers, engineers, and computer scientists engage together in ongoing tool design as defined by the specific needs of participating humanities projects.

We build open source tools for research.

Data Pen

2017 – ongoing
Data Pen is an instrument for building data sets that draws from linked data sources.
App | Code

Breve

2015 – ongoing
Breve is a meta-visualization for tables with editing built in. Tabular data can be difficult to read. Breve reveals mis-matched values, datatypes, and missing values at a glance.
Demo | App | Code

Palladio

2014 – ongoing
A visualization platform currently under development (funded by NEH) with an emphasis on data refining and linking combines a map view, node-Link graph view, and multiple filters. Visit hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio-app/ to learn more about the project.
Demo | App | Code