Kay Schröder

Professor Kay Schröder is currently with Hochschule Düsseldorf, researching the intersection of storytelling and datavisualization. Before he was professor and chair of the research center of datavisualization in the netherlands as well as visiting professor for UX/UI design of data-driven services at the Polytechnical University in St. Petersburg. He was founder and scientific lead of the Human Data Interaction group, founder and Managing Partner at Daily Interactive as well as co-founder of Syntody.

Kay Schröder has been working in the field of visualization and storytelling for more than a decade now. He worked several years for the Climate Program of the United Nations (IPCC) and developed the fundamental visualization concepts for the world climate reports. Furthermore, he developed numerous national and international projects on the intersection Sustainability, Storytelling and Data for the Belgian Pavilion on the Expo Shanghai, Wolters Kluwer, European Climate Foundation, and others.

Research Areas

– Human Data Interaction
– Information Visualization
– Interactive Storytelling
– Ai driven Design Methods

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Career

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2024 – today  Institute Director
……………………..Institut Bild.Medien

2023 – today  Full Professor
……………………..ZDD – Center for Digitalization and Digitality
……………………..PBSA – Peter Behrens School of Arts
……………………..HS-Düsseldorf, Germany

2019 – 2023   Full Professor (Lector)
……………………..Chair of the Research Center for Datavisualization
……………………..Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands

2019 – 2021   Visiting Professor UX/UI Design of Data-Driven Systems
……………………..Peter the Great Polytechnical University St. Petersburg
……………………..St. Petersburg

2015 – 2023   Scientific Director/Founder
……………………..Human Data Interaction Lab
……………………..Brightlands Smart Services Campus, Netherlands

2017 – 2023   Visiting Lecturer (Datavisualization & Storytelling)
……………………..Maastricht University & University College
……………………..Venlo/Maastricht, Netherlands

2017 – 2019    Principal Lecturer Zuyd University of Applied Sciences
……………………..Maastricht Academy of Media, Design and Technology
……………………..Zuyd University of Applied Sciences
……………………..Maastricht, Netherlands

2015 – 2017    Senior Lecturer Zuyd University of Applied Sciences
……………………..Maastricht Academy of Media, Design and Technology
……………………..Zuyd University of Applied Sciences
……………………..Maastricht, Netherlands

2015 – 2019    Head of the Data Experience Lab
……………………..Brightlands Institute for Smart Services (BISS)
……………………..From Maastricht University, Open University and Zuyd University of Applied Sciences
……………………..Brightlands Smart Services Campus, Netherlands

2016 – 2017    Visiting Lecturer (Datavisualization)
……………………..FH-Aachen
……………………..Aachen, Germany

2015 – 2016    Visiting Lecturer
……………………..Hochschule Niederrhein
……………………..Mönchengladbach, Germany

2014 – 2017    Co-Founder Head of Datavisualization and UX Design
……………………..Syntody
……………………..Berlin/Potsdam, Germany

2007 – today   Founder and Managing Partner
……………………..Daily Interactive
……………………..Münster/Aachen, Germany

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Recent Publications (Selection)

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2025   Stories for Change: Interactive Storytelling for Social Impact
…………Steffi Kohl, Kay Schroeder, Ed Overes, Adita Saxena, Tanja Godlewski
…………ACM C&C ’25: Creativity and Cognition.

2025   Visualizing Financial Futures: Enhancing Accessibility and Engagement Through Interactive Collaboration
…………Kay Schröder
…………CHI’25 W3: Future of Money and HCI

2023   Telling stories with data – A systematic review
…………Kay Schröder, Wiebke Eberhardt, Poornima Belavadi, Betty Ajdadilish, Nanette van Haften, Ed Overes, Andre Calero Valdez, A. C.
…………arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.01164.

2023   Show Me My Future: Data-Driven Storytelling and Pension Communication
…………Kay Schroeder, Inka Eberhardt, Wiebke Eberhardt, Alexander Henkel
…………Netspar Design Paper 224

2023   The Key to the Future – Mapping Sustainably Energy Production
…………K. Schroeder, S Kohl, J Sinsel
…………ACM CHI’23 WS 10: Dataphysicalization from Theory to practice

2023   Using Speech Contribution Visualization to Improve Team Performance of Divergent Thinking Tasks
…………S Kohl, A Calero-Valdez, K Schroeder
…………ACM C&C ’23: Creativity and Cognition

2023   Certain Uncertainty – A Geospatial Data Physicalization of Water Stress and Population Density
…………K Schroeder, S Jules
…………ACM CHI’23 WS 4: Data as a Material for Design: Alternative Narratives, Divergent Pathways, and Future Directions

2022   NetImmerse – Evaluating User Experience in immersive network exploration
…………K Schroeder, S Kohl, B Ajdadilish
…………International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 13320

2022   ViCon – Towards understanding visual support systems in collaborative video conferencing
…………K Schroeder, S Kohl
…………Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management. Health, Operations Management,
…………and Design: 13th International Conference, DHM 2022, Held as Part of the 24th HCI International Conference, HCII 2022

2022   The Pension Story – Data-driven Storytelling with Pension Data
…………K Schroeder, P Belavadi, M Ziefle, A Calero-Valdez
…………International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 13320

2022   Rethinking Pension Communication – the Role of Methaphors in Information Visualization
…………K Schroeder, S Kohl, F de Jongh, M Putzu, M Ziefle, A Calero-Valdez
…………Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management. Health, Operations Management,
…………and Design: 13th International Conference, DHM 2022, Held as Part of the 24th HCI International Conference, HCII 2022

2022   Designing Immersive Sustainable Food Experiences in Augmented Reality: A Consumer Participatory Co-Creation Approach
…………DID Han, SG Abreu e Silva, K Schroeder, F Melissen, M Haggis-Burridge
…………Foods 11 (22)

2022   Enhancing Evaluation of Room Scale VR Studies to POI visualizations in Minimaps
…………B Ajdadilish, S Kohl, K Schroeder
…………Eurographics Conference on Visualization (EuroVis) 2022

2022   Zooming in on the Effect of Sociometric Signals on Different Stages of the Design Process
…………S Kohl, K Schroeder, M Graus, E Efendic, J Lemmink
…………ACM C&C ’22: Creativity and Cognition

2021   Designing a personalized health dashboard: interdisciplinary and participatory approach
…………M Weijers, C Bastiaenen, F Feron, K Schroeder
…………JMIR formative research 5 (2), e24061

2020   Evaluation of a financial portfolio visualization using computer displays and mixed reality devices with domain experts
…………K Schroeder, B Ajdadilish, AP Henkel, A Calero Valdez
…………Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

2020   Towards bridging the gap between privacy terms and humans through information visualization.
…………K Schroeder, B Ajdadilish, A Calero Valdez
…………PinG Privacy in Germany

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Recent Talks & Exhibitions (Selection)

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2025  Schröder, K; Talk: Human Data Interaction
………..On/Off Design, , 15.01.2025

2024  Schröder, K; Keynote:  Von Daten zur Erkentniss: Die Rolle der Visualisierung
………..Nacht der Wissenschaften , Haus der Universität, , 13.09.2024

2024  Schröder, K; Keynote:  Visualization, Ai and upcoming Challenges in Design
………..Start Art Week ‘24 , 30.08.2024

2023  Schröder, K; Keynote:  Understanding Pensions
………..Mercer, Kasteel Woerdern , 10.11.2023

2023  Schröder, K; Takagi, M.; Sinsel, J; Exhibition: Loosing Earth – Mapping (climate) Change
………..Kunsthalle Düsseldorf , 13.10.-15.10.2023

2023  Schröder, K; Lightning Talk:  Ai in Arts – a brief introduction
………..CulturaNova Festival, Royal Theater , 27.8.2023

2023  Schröder, K; Lightning Talk:  Certain Uncertainty – Datengeschichten für eine bessere Welt
………..Re:Publica Berlin Conference, 7.6.2023

2023  Schröder, K, Sinsel Jules: Exhibition:  Certain Uncertainty
………..Museum of Wild and Newfangled Art Biennial , 1.5.2023

2023  Schröder, K; Lightning Talk:  Mapping Global Waterstress
………..Datavisualization Society Washington, 5.4.2023

2023  Schröder, K; Workshop Understanding Climate Change through dataphysicalization
………..ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Hamburg, 28.4.2023

2022   Schröder, K; Sinsel Jules; Exhibition: The Key to the future: Mapping Sustainable Energy Production
………..Dutch Design Week Eindhoven, 22.-30.10.2022

2022    Schröder, K; Keynote: Human Ai Interaction
………..AI conferentie sociale impact (Ai Conference on social impact), 20.10.2022

2022    Schröder, K; Keynote: What you see is what you get? Utilizing data visualization for knowledge dissemination
………..Illusion or reality, The influence of our mind on research and practice.
………..Care days 2022, Netherlands School of Public Healthcare, Eindhoven, 12.05.2022

2022    Schröder, K: Lightning Talk: Connecting the Dots – towards Visual Intelligence
………..CBS Week van de innovatie, BSSC, 16.05.2022

Memberships (Selection)