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Trained as a computer scientist and visual artist, I use design to create artifacts that empower marginalized individuals and communities while advancing scholarly conversations about the technical and ethical aspects of building interactive systems.

Accessible Data Visualization

A figure of accessible structures generated from three example visualizations: a faceted dot plot, a choropleth, and a stacked bar chart.

I partner with blind collaborators and study participants to co-design novel interfaces for non-visual data exploration. These interfaces support the autonomy and agency of blind users to conduct self-guided data analysis and help them establish common ground with sighted users with shared spatial data metaphors.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

2022. Rich Screen Reader Experiences for Accessible Data Visualization. Jonathan Zong*, Crystal Lee*, Alan Lundgard*, JiWoong Jang, Daniel Hajas, Arvind Satyanarayan. Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis). Best Paper Honorable Mention

Workshops, Conferences, Posters, and Demos

2022. Olli: An Extensible Visualization Library for Screen Reader Accessibility. Matt Blanco, Jonathan Zong, Arvind Satyanarayan. IEEE VIS Posters.

Talks & Presentations

Invited Talks

2022. Designing Data Representations for Embodiment and Refusal. Information Science Seminar, Cornell University.
2022. Rich Screen Reader Experiences for Accessible Data Visualization
HackNY Fellowship Speaker Series
Design for Assistive Technology, MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute
DiverseAbilities Employee Resource Group, New York Department of Transportation

Interactive Visualization Tools and Abstractions

A screenshot of Lyra 2, a graphical interface for creating interactive visualizations using direct manipulation interactions. The screenshot shows a user creating an interactive multi-view plot with a scatterplot and bar chart depicting weather in Seattle.

I design languages and interfaces that allow users to move between static, interactive, and animated data representations, and engage in real-time collaboration. These tools help users rapidly conduct data exploration using a broad set of spatial and temporal visualization techniques.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

2022. Animated Vega-Lite: Unifying Animation with a Grammar of Interactive Graphics. Jonathan Zong*, Josh Pollock*, Dylan Wootton, Arvind Satyanarayan. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (IEEE VIS).
2020. Representing Real-Time Multi-User Collaboration in Visualizations. Rupayan Neogy, Jonathan Zong, Arvind Satyanarayan. IEEE Visualization Conference (VIS).
2020. Lyra 2: Designing Interactive Visualizations by Demonstration. Jonathan Zong, Dhiraj Barnwal, Rupayan Neogy, Arvind Satyanarayan. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (IEEE VIS).

Workshops, Conferences, Posters, and Demos

2021. Design Spaces of Domain-Specific Languages: Comparing and Contrasting Approaches in PL and HCI. Jonathan Zong*, Josh Pollock*, Dylan Wootton, Arvind Satyanarayan. PLATEAU Workshop on the Intersection of HCI and PL.
2020. Lyra: An Interface for Designing Interactive Visualizations. Jonathan Zong, Dhiraj Barnwal, Rupayan Neogy, Arvind Satyanarayan. Computation + Journalism Symposium.

Talks & Presentations

Invited Talks

2020. Layered Abstractions for Interactive Visualization Design. Digital Structures Group, MIT Department of Architecture.

Systems and Frameworks for Data Consent and Refusal

A screenshot of Bartleby's interface showing information about a Cornell study on Promoting Inclusion and Participation on r/feminism. There is a button to log in with reddit. A pop-out window shows a checkbox allowing users to opt out of data collection.

I design software that protects the autonomy of research participants online, and develop frameworks to support designers and activists in refusing large-scale data collection by powerful actors. Bringing together methods from design, empirical social science, and feminist moral philosophy, I develop ideas about consent and refusal by putting theory in conversation with practices that matter to people’s lives.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

2022. Bartleby: Procedural and Substantive Ethics in the Design of Research Ethics Systems. Jonathan Zong, J. Nathan Matias. Social Media + Society.

Magazine Articles

2020. From Individual Consent to Collective Refusal. Jonathan Zong. ACM XRDS (Crossroads).

Workshops, Conferences, Posters, and Demos

2020. Collective Refusal and the Limits of Informed Consent for Data Protection. Jonathan Zong, J. Nathan Matias. Data & Society Contested Data Workshop.
2018. Automated Debriefing: Interface for Large-Scale Research Ethics. Jonathan Zong, J. Nathan Matias. Companion of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. Best Demo Award

Theses

2018. Empirically Studying Research Ethics with Interface Designs for Debriefing Online Field Experiments. B.S.E. Thesis, Princeton University.

Talks & Presentations

Invited Talks

2022. Designing Research Ethics Systems. Accountable Algorithms Reading Group, Northeastern University.
2018. Public Accountability in Research Ethics. CivilServant Research Summit, MIT Media Lab.

Conference Talks

2022. Consent: A Research and Design Lens for Human-Computer Interaction (Panel). CSCW 2022.
2019. In Our Own Image: The Autonomy of Artificial Bodies in Synthetic Porn. Panel: Internet Connection · Theorizing the Web.

Public Scholarship

Op-Eds

2019. The Struggle to Democratize MIT. Rodrigo Ochigame, Alan Lundgard, Alonso Espinosa Dominguez, Jonathan Zong, Gabrielle Ballard, Sally Haslanger, Edmund Bertschinger, Mani Mengiste, Ruth Perry. The Tech (MIT).
2019. Consent Is Not an Ethical Rubber Stamp. Crystal Lee*, Jonathan Zong*. Slate.
2018. Researching the Researchers: Ethics and Privacy in Institutional Research. Jonathan Zong. Nassau Weekly.

Visual Art on Algorithm Visibility and Embodiment

Rolls of tangled receipt paper on the ground. The text on the paper is rendered in Biometric Sans, which is a typeface that stretches the letters horizontally based on typing speed. The text is printed along the receipt paper in one infinite line.

As a visual artist and critical computing scholar-practitioner, I explore the possibility of combining art and computation to open up space for contingency, embodied knowledge, and speculation as a mode of intervention. My work often starts from the body as a contested site of control, exploring the way people are asked to conform their bodies to oppressive systems.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

2019. Unruly Cyborgs: The Relational Set Designs of Isamu Noguchi. Jonathan Zong. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies.

Workshops, Conferences, Posters, and Demos

2021. Pointing, Mutual Intelligibility, and the Seeing Subject in HCI. Jonathan Zong. Computer Mouse Conference.

Talks & Presentations

Invited Talks

2022. Art, Concepts, Visualizations. Interact Fellowship Symposium.

Conference Talks

2020. Public Display and Biometric Sans: Embodied Writing in the Age of Data. Before and Beyond Typography, Stanford University Department of History.

Public Scholarship

Conversations

2022. CAPSULE No. 1. Cammie Lee, Megan Pai.
2021. Form, Content, Data, Bodies: Jonathan Zong and Beth Semel on Biometric Sans. Jonathan Zong, Beth Semel. Somatosphere.
2021. Holly Herndon in conversation with Tabea Nixdorff and Jonathan Zong. Version Space.
2018. w-t-f: a conversation with Eric Li and Jonathan Zong. Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University.