The Answer Was Never Us — with Leilani Battle
Leilani Battle studies how software quietly shapes what we see and believe. The University of Washington professor and co-director of the UW Interactive Data Lab talks with Michael, Hadley, and Wes about an experiment that manipulated people using nothing but loading speed, and why AI models don't seem to recommend charts the way the community that studies charts actually does. Other highlights: rationality's blind spots and a thorough disc golf origin story. |
Episode notes
Leilani Battle, professor and co-director of the UW Interactive Data Lab, joins The Test Set to talk visualization research, responsible data science, and an experiment that used loading speed alone to manipulate what people found in a data set. We dive into Tableau's academic roots and where rational decisions quietly turn unethical.
- Loading spinners that quietly change what people find
- AI models that don't recommend charts like humans do
- The blurry line between databases and human factors
- A behavior-change experiment for building fairer models
- Rationality's role in producing unethical outcomes
- Disc golf origin story
- A vegan pancake recipe
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