01 · The Question
What does visualization reveal that traditional sports media obscures?
And how can design challenge the dominant narratives told about women's athletes?
A Doctoral Creative Production Research Project · Clemson University
The Dawn Staley Effect.
Seeing The Game Differently.
Data Visualization as a Communication Tool in Women's Basketball.
A research and creative production dissertation by Kris E. Smith, examining how data visualization can change the way we see, talk about, and communicate about women's basketball.
FIGURE 01
FORTHCOMING
A visualization from the dissertation in progress.
THE DISSERTATION
The Creative Production (i.e. project).
A creative production dissertation in three parts.
02 · The Method
Critical making as inquiry. Building the artifact is the research.
A literature review across four threads with open-source data from Her Hoops Stats and Basketball-Reference.
03 · The Artifact
An interactive, born-digital web dashboard.
The visualization isn't reporting the finding. It is the finding, designed to be read and shared.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
Solid lines are named research areas. Dashed and dotted lines are the cross-cutting and methodological threads.
DESTINATION PHD · ROAD TO DR. SMITH
The Road.
A 2022 capstone at Ole Miss became the seed of a dissertation. Five years on, the artifact is taking shape.
- The Capstone. Ole Miss The first thread
- Information Design with Matt Chambers
- Visual Rhetorics with Todd Anderson
- The Pivot. Approved as Creative Production
- Prospectus & Quals. Proposal + Qualifying Exams
- Defense.
COMPLETED
YOU ARE HERE
UPCOMING
SELECTED WORK · @THEBLACKTECHIE
The Work.
Published portfolio pieces and dissertation work in progress. Each piece links to the full interactive on theblacktechie.github.io.
Moving to theblacktechie.com soon. The site will be updated to reflect that.
The Career Ladder
A multi-part series tracking how players' careers evolve season by season.
View on portfolio →Possessions
An exploratory hover-driven view of game possessions and player efficiency.
View on portfolio →
IN PROGRESS
Visualization 01.FORTHCOMING
First of the dissertation's signature pieces. Updates here as the work develops.
Coming soon
IN PROGRESS
Visualization 02.FORTHCOMING
Second of the dissertation's signature pieces. Updates here as the work develops.
Coming soonABOUT THE PROJECT
Kris E. Smith, MBA, MSSA.
Researcher, Student, Data Viz Practitioner.
@theblacktechie
Third Year Doctoral Student in Clemson University's Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design program. My work sits at the intersection of seeing women's basketball differently through data. I am researching data visualization as a communication tool in women's sports, specifically women's basketball.
What this means: how do charts and graphics influence the way fans understand players, talk about the game, and connect with what is happening on the court? How does the right visual help someone understand what the numbers mean instantly?
The audience for this work extends beyond academia to fans of the game, college coaches, and WNBA co-owners. All of them shape how women's basketball is seen, told, and remembered.
THE COMMITTEE
Each member evaluates one structural pillar of the dissertation.
- CHAIR · METHODOLOGY Dr. Lisa Melonçon Programmatic issues in Technical and Professional Communication, research methodologies, and user experience. STC Rainey Award winner; edits the field's only open-access TPC book series.
- MEMBER · CREATIVE MEDIUM Todd Anderson Visual artist and reductive woodcut printmaker. NSF Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. Books held by The Met, Library of Congress, Yale, and Stanford.
- MEMBER · VISUAL RHETORIC Dr. Eddie Lohmeyer Assistant Professor of Visual Rhetoric and Information Design. Author of Unstable Aesthetics: Game Engines and the Strangeness of Modding (Bloomsbury). Works with experimental animation, glitch, and AI engines.
- MEMBER · SPORTS COMMUNICATION Dr. Bryan Denham Campbell Professor of Sports Communication. Studies media, health, and policy dimensions of sport. Author of Categorical Statistics for Communication Research (Wiley); quantitative methods.
CONNECT
- PORTFOLIO theblacktechie.github.io Moving to theblacktechie.com soon
- EMAIL hello@theblacktechie.com
- SOCIAL · ALL @THEBLACKTECHIE
CITE THIS PROJECT
Smith, K. E. (2026). The Dawn Staley Project: Seeing The Game Differently. [Companion website to doctoral dissertation, Clemson University]. https://thedawnstaleyproject.com