David Mora

Hi, I'm David.

I'm a visual storyteller & data visualization software engineer.

My passion for data visualization has led me to visualizing & presenting economic data for US Government officials, uncover the visual formula of one of the internet's most influential video journalists, & help spearhead a cutting-edge data analytics platform from inception to the startup's eventual acquisition.

Oh, right! I do...

After the better part of a decade at the bleeding edge of data analytics, I'm convinced my field is yet to realize its potential for positive impact.

We in Silicon Valley claimed that the age of "Big Data" would deliver deep insights for making the world a better place. In practice, it has largely focused us on symptoms, short-term control, & reinforcing our existing beliefs. At worst, it's been a tool for widening systemic inequity.

But this shouldn't surprise us: the media we use & the mindsets we apply to data focus us on symptoms, not underlying causes. Our tools let us watch trend lines go up & down. Our paradigms tell us to try to control the lines.

In response, I'm on a mission to create new digital media that bring into focus the complex systems at the heart of humanity's biggest challenges -- rather than the symptoms they create. I want to help shift the paradigm of how we use data from trying to control outcomes to creating the conditions for flourishing.

I'm still early on this journey, but if the vision interests you, checkout this manifesto on the need for systems-oriented media, or this short talk I gave at EYEO Festival on moving from "dataviz" to "systemviz".

Check out some of my work below!

An interactive, data-driven story about COVID & Rural economics

How did the onset of COVID impact Rural economics?

As the lead software engineer & designer at the Center on Rural Innovation, I've wrote, designed, & coded up this interactive story.

It combines 3D maps, images, & data visualization.

A row of five TikTok videos, showing maps, a man, and a pyramid of red Solo cups

I Launched the most popular dataviz TikTok account

I coded, animated, & edited The Pudding's first 5 TikTok videos -- taking the dataviz firm from 0 to over 120,000 views in a few weeks. I used a custom-built 3D map animation tool -- and several hundred red Solo cups.

A 3D view of the united states shows protruding bar charts in gray and cream colors

Upgrading Periscopic's 3D Mapping capabilities

As a contractor, I added the ability to create & animate 3D maps to the reknowned dataviz firm's core data platform.

My engineering work now powers advanced geo-spatial interactives like the one linked here.

A grid of movie posters, with a visualization of episode ratings.

Visualizing movie ratings & algorithmic turning points

When should I stop watching a TV series?

As a fun project within our larger engineering work, my team & I build a tool exploring when TV series rise & fall in quality.

The tool helped drive customers to our product, & I had a blast building responsive, custom charts with engaging interactions & animations.

A mapping and data storytelling platform

How do you deliver economic insights and opportunities to those who need it most?

As the lead software engineer at the Center on Rural Innovation, I've helped create a first-of-its-kind data and mapping platform to help democratize rural economic data.

With a focus on enabling data-driven storytelling, I use code and human-centered design to iterate our product: from font-end architecture, to interactive datavis, to conducting user research and testing.

I've had the chance to help present our platform at the National Governor's Association conference, for the US Department of Health & Human Services, and at Mastercard's Global Summit for Inclusive Growth.

Stanford Daily Data Visualizations

As a founding member of the newspaper's datavis team, I helped lead an investigative article into Stanford's sexual assault judicial process.

We interviewed and gathered info from local law enforcement, university administrators, and students. As we worked, I iteratively prototyped numerous visualizations: from guided walk-throughs to timelines to flow-charts.

Click to see some of a final report of the data & findings.

Psychological Research Tool

The field of Positive Psychology has produced astounding insights into mental health, wellness, and happiness, but its diverse methods and focuses make it difficult to understand holistically.

I worked with mental health professionals, researchers, and educators to create a tool which allows practitioners to understand the growth and connection between the 19 most influential researchers in Positive Psychology.

I used web-scraping, SemanticScholar's API, and D3 to create this early prototype. I'm currently collaborating with psychologists at Dartmouth to expand the tool to millions of scientific papers using neo4j.

Click to see the in-progress prototype.

School To Prison Pipeline Research

I'm collaborated with an NGO and diving deep into academic papers, books, interviews, and data to create an interactive piece exploring inequity and delinquency across the USA's 96,000 public schools. Click to see my most recent data analysis.

Full Stack Developer at Polymer

What tools and production insights might small, ethically-minded businesses need to expand their reach?

As a core engineer at a small startup, I built and iterated on web and mobile platforms for exactly these sorts of businesses, coding heavily in SQL, Django, React, and React-Native.

I got to conduct interviews, build APIs from scratch, and analyze messy data -- whatever it took to bring features from idea to deployment on factory floors.

D3 Dynamic Graph Module

After conducting social-network analysis research at Stanford, I was curious: How can we better understand and communicate change in dynamic networks?

For example, how might a person's social network change over time? Or, how do new academic fields emerge?

Somewhat surprisingly, coding this in the industry-standard D3.js is really challenging, requiring hundreds of lines of code.

I addressed this by creating an npm package which abstracts away the complex code, allowing you to visualize dynamic networks with a single line of code.

Educational Tool

As passionate educator, I'm eager to help learners place new knowledge within its larger context.

As an exploration of that, I curated instructional dance videos into an interactive, hierarchical layout ballroom dance students could use place learning within the bigger story.