Crises — whether ecological, financial, social, or political — shape our emotional landscape and influence how we perceive democracy. Public discourse is saturated with crisis narratives, yet the connection between emotional sentiment and political behaviour often remains abstract. The challenge of this project was to translate complex survey data on crisis-related emotions in Germany into a clear, engaging, and meaningful visual narrative. The goal: to help users understand how feelings such as fear, anger, and hopelessness relate to democratic attitudes and societal trends.
The project resulted in an interactive data story that visualises how emotional responses to crises correlate with political perceptions and democratic engagement. Working within the course Mapping Cities – Making Cities at FH Potsdam and in collaboration with Tagesspiegel Innovation Lab, KIT, and other research partners, we analysed the dataset from the study Social Sentiments in Times of Crises. Our contribution focused on designing a narrative structure and visual system that makes the data approachable while maintaining analytical integrity. The resulting interface guides users through key findings, highlights emotional clusters across Germany, and illustrates how crisis sentiment shapes political attitudes. The outcome is a clear, research-driven visualisation that transforms abstract emotional data into an accessible lens on the state of democracy today.
