I spent the semester investigating not only the relationship between data technologies and cultural institutions, but also the use of data visualization pose some challenges and limitations for institutions for my Fundation of Information research. My final assignment topic created an overview of data visualization’s role in museums and assessed the effectiveness of its use in several institutions in New York City. I discussed the three parts of data visualization involving the cultural heritage and their application toward increasing museum engagement. The three parts of data visualization are:

1. Communication with audiences;
2. Interaction with audiences;
3. The analysis of data created by the audience.

I researched how data visualization could be a positive addition to the museum technology sector and how museums use data visualization to engage wider audiences. Data visualization also has obstacles due to location or environment, lack of human resources, and the timeline of projects.
I selected three data visualization case studies in the different institutions: the British Museum, Google Art and Culture, and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), to demonstrate how these three museums used data visualization to analyze audiences’ journey with the museum and collection and what part of technology can be improved.