Information Design Lab

About the lab

The Information Design Lab at IDC, IIT Bombay uses theory-based visual design and analytical methods to discover and validate insights from data, and translate them into systems, methods, and frameworks that help in mindfully created human-information interactions.

The advent of high technology information, imaging, networked & mobile devices and social media systems has fostered a modern renaissance in visualization. Just as the great artists of the European Renaissance were also designers, inventors, scientists & architects, we think the modern visualizers have an important role to play in decoding the increasingly complex world and make it fundamentally better for all humans.

We utilize graphic design, interactive computer graphics, data-processing algorithms, and emerging technologies to address challenging problems in data, design, & art. We work on projects with the objective of data-based understanding on a range of issues from urban living, to education in resource constrained schools, to transportation, to generative art.

We work in an interdisciplinary, collaborative atmosphere with partners from academia, government agencies and NGOs to conduct research integrated with education.

Research & Teaching

Projects

Visually Understanding Space and Time: An academic project by Jribh Shandilya. Dec 2021.
Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2021: An exploratory data story on the 2021 Assembly Elections.

Show all projects

Neurons: An interactive comparative digital neuroanatomy.
GE Explorer: An interactive visualization to explore results of India's general elections from 1999 to 2024.
A game called Possibilitics: An interactive story about the different political fronts participating in the 2019 General elections. The content was created by Times of India, visualization design by us, and published on their website
600 years of Ahom Kingdom, 2018.: Supriya Dutta's M.Des project is an interactive story narrative of the Ahom Kindgdom.
Information Graphics in English and Regional Language newspapers in India, 2018.: A study of production and consumption of information graphics in English and regional language newspapers in India.
Interactive Tactile Learning for Children with Visual Impairment, 2017.: Chandni's M.Des project and now a fledgling startup Tactopus is a finalist in the prestigious IxDA Interaction Awards 2018. You can find her entry in the 'EMPOWERING: Enabling people to go beyond their limits' category on the finalists page.
Shaking The Foundations Of An Empire, 2017: K R Abhijith's M.Des project An Interactive visualization of the Dandi Salt March. There are many accounts of the march. Most of them anchor their narrative as this seminal freedom movement and an inspired idea that evokes fervent nationalistic pride in us. Abhijith's attempt is to see if one could provoke the same sentiments, but just with dispassionate numbers.
Indian Satellites: An interactive visualization exploring various characteristics of satellites India has launched from 1975 till August 2017.
Exploring 2017 UP Assembly Election Results: An interactive visualization of past three Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections.
Accidents by un-natural causes in Indian States and Union Territories: An interactive visualization of ten years of accidental deaths due to un-natural causes.
Marriages in Singapore: An analysis and interactive visualization of the state of marriages in Singapore based on 30 years of data from the Singapore Government civil marriage registry.
Education Infrastructural Data Visualisation for Maharashtra: An interactive zoomable treemap visualisation for infrastructural facilities in Maharashtra across hierarchies of Division, District, Block, Cluster, Village and School.
Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2016: An exploratory data story on the recently concluded assembly elections.
Data Visualization for Mumbai: A tool to visualise Mumbai's spatial data by Akshay Kore.
Mumbai Heritage: This project attempts to create awareness of Mumbai's heritage sites and provides a visual exploration of them by Sitara Shah. Featured in Architectural Digest.
OSLA - Open School Learning Analytics: A Learning Analytics Platform for Resource Constrained Schools by Sanket Kulkarni.
Data Art (DRS) Projects: 50 years of Mumbai Weather by Baisampayan
Jayalalithaa Assets Case Timeline: A visual timeline of the case by Mansi Sood
Visualizing Mumbai Open Data: An ongoing exploration of open-data about Mumbai. Read more about the project.

Recent Papers

The Next Billion Users of Visualization: By Amit Jena, Matthew Butler, Tim Dwyer, Kirsten Ellis, Ulrich Engelke, Reuben Kirkham, Kim Marriott, Cecile Paris, Venkatesh Rajamanickam
Published in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 8-16, March-April 2021. DOI: 10.1109/MCG.2020.3044071

KeySlide: Using Directional Gestures on Keyboard for Cursor Positioning: By Arihant Parsoya, Venkatesh Rajamanickam
Published in Proceedings of the 10th Indian Conference on Human Computer Interaction, IndiaHCI’19, pages 8:1–8:11, New York, NY, USA, 2019. ACM. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3364183.3364186

Show all papers

Designing Data Collection Methods for Applying Learning Analytics in Resource Constrained Schools: By Sanket Kulkarni, Venkatesh Rajamanickam
Published in Proceedings of the 8th Indian Conference on Human Computer Interaction (IHCI '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 44-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3014362.3014366
Visualization of election data: Using interaction design and visual discovery for communicating complex insights: By Kuhu Gupta, Shailaja Sampat, Manas Sharma, Venkatesh Rajamanickam
Published in Vol 8, No 2 (2016) Special Issue "Open and Visual Access to Information" of JeDEM journal (ISSN: 2075-9517)
Download paper in PDF format or view the interactive visualization
Using Interactive Data Visualization to Explore Non-Linear Movie Narratives: By Rasagy Sharma, Venkatesh Rajamanickam
Published in Volume VII, Issue 1 of Parsons Journal for Information Mapping
Download paper in PDF format or view the interactive visualization
Suitability of Form for Data: An Analysis of Data Visualization Projects: By Deepika Sahai, Lalit Chaudhari, Sindhu MS, & Sindhu S Rao
Published in Volume VII, Issue 2 of Parsons Journal for Information Mapping
Download paper in PDF format

Courses

DE705 Interactive Data Visualization & DE303 Information Graphics and Visualization (Autumn 2026)
ID413 Information Graphics and Data Visualization (Spring 2025)
Interaction Design (B.Des), IIT Hyderabad (Spring 2019)

Show all courses

DE705 Interactive Data Visualization (M.Des) (Autumn 2019)
DE303 Information Graphics and Visualization (B.Des) (Autumn 2019)
ID668 Instructional Design (M.Des) (Spring 2018)
DE705 Interactive Data Visualization (M.Des) (Autumn 2018)
DE303 Information Graphics and Visualization (B.Des) (Autumn 2018)
CS405 Data Visualization, CS Elective at Ashoka University (Autumn 2018)
DE705 Interactive Data Visualization (M.Des) (Autumn 2017)
IN653 Instructional Design (Autumn 2016)
ID413 Information Graphics and Data Visualization (Spring 2016)
Instructional Design (Autumn 2015)
Human Computer Interaction (Spring 2015)
Visual Design for Interactive Systems (Autumn 2014)
Trends in Interaction Technology (Autumn 2014)
Information Visualization - II at NID, Bangalore (Fall 2013, Fall 2014)
Information Visualization - I at NID, Bangalore (Spring 2013)

Workshops & Talks

Workshop: Using AI to Design held at IIT Bombay on 13^th September, 2025.
Workshop: Digital Fabrication Workshop held at IDC School of Design and Maker's Asylum from 15^th - 21^st February, 2020.
Course: Enhancing User Experience through Effective Transitions at India HCI 2018 held at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology on 18^th December, 2018.

Show all workshops & talks

Summer School: Trivedi Centre for Political Data at Ashoka University, July 9 -13, 2018.
Workshop: Microinteractions Toolkit for UI/UX Designers at India HCI 2016 held at IIT Bombay on 7^th December, 2016.
Digital Media and Design workshop at IIIT Delhi on 30^th July, 2016.
Design Innovation Centre concept development workshop at School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal on 15^th May, 2016.
HCI Workshop at IIITDM Kancheepuram on 4^th & 5^th March, 2016.
Keynote Lecture: Interaction Design without Interafces at the HCI workshop
Held at NITK Surathkal 25^th – 27^th June, 2015
Talk: Fun with charts, graphs and maps at the 34^th Mathematics Olympiad 2015 held at IIT Bombayon 1^st Feb, 2015
Workshop: Professional Ethics for UI/UX Designers
Held at IIT Delhi on 7^th Dec, 2014 for IndiaHCI 2014

Internships

The lab is open to a small number of internships year round to both IIT Bombay and external students. If you would like to work with us, write with comprehensive information about who you are, why you want to do your internship with us, and the period of internship. A short resume and links to samples of your work if any would be nice. Mass emails with generic requests will not be entertained.

There is some IITB administrative information on internships to external students here.

People

Faculty

Prof. Venkatesh Rajamanickam (@venkatrajam)

Research Associate Students

Arihant Parsoya

Alumni Research Associates

Rasagy Sharma
Ruchi Ookalkar

Alumni Students

Udayan Vidyanta
Manas Sharma
Prastut Kumar
Kuhu Gupta
Shailaja Sampat
Manas Sharma
Akshay Kore
Sylvan Lobo
Sanket Kulkarni
Baisampayan Saha
Debasish Biswas
Riken Patel
Mansi Sood

Contact

Reach out to Prof. Venkatesh Rajamanickam for details about projects, future collaboration and internships.

venkatra@iitb.ac.in

Link to Github Org