Dear Dublin, by Rudi O'Reilly Meehan

in 2023, Dublin City Council surveyed over 1,000 Dubliners to understand how tourism affects their day-to-day lives. They wanted to bring this survey data to life for the public in a unique way and commissioned me to design and build a data visualisation that would do that.

What struck me about this data was that it represented real stories and perspectives from Dubliners. This is where the idea of "Dear Dublin,” - a data story about the city, showing the survey findings as digital postcards from Dubliners - originated.

"Dear Dublin," begins with an empty table top. As you scroll through the piece, postcards start to stack on the table, building a picture around how Dubliners are experiencing tourism. The postcards combine data visualisations and text, including quotes and stories from Dubliners.

The piece was created by analysing the survey data in Python, using a mixture of statistical methods for the closed text answers and GenAI to categorise open-text responses around "best spots" or "my vision for tourism Dublin". The scrollytelling website itself was created using SvelteKit, using the GSAP and D3 libraries.