A Manifesto for the Data Native Generation
"Data-driven" is dead, and that might be a good thing. In today’s design and communication landscape, few expressions have experienced such pervasive adoption and, at the same time, such a gradual loss of meaning as "data-driven." Originally, this term was meant to represent a data-based approach, a beacon of rationality in the information age. However, how much of its original, meaningful essence remains? Increasingly, "data-driven" has become nothing more than a marketing formula, a linguistic device that professionals and companies add to their homepages to appear cutting-edge, often without fully embracing its true significance and implications.
This phenomenon of linguistic appropriation and semantic dilution is not new but is unfortunately common in business contexts. It has already happened with several design-related disciplines, where emerging trends were superficially exploited and transformed into marketable products and services. A notable example is the trajectory of "design thinking": initially conceived in a specific context with tangible innovative value, it progressively turned into an omnipresent buzzword, devoid of real substance. This process is analyzed by critic Silvio Lorusso in his essay What Design Can't Do, where he highlights how, in many professional contexts in recent years, design has lost its original purpose of challenging established models, instead becoming a mere narrative device used to legitimize pre-existing business decisions.
Similarly, the ubiquity of the "data-driven" label—now seemingly indispensable to any agency or consultancy—has started to reveal its true nature beneath the golden veneer: a fast and superficial branding and positioning gimmick rather than a genuine revolution in processes and methodologies. However, when discussing the relationship between data and design in a market where algorithms and artificial intelligence will increasingly permeate both personal and professional dynamics, any superficial approach to data risks being highly detrimental.
To decode the present and design a sustainable future, the only sensible approach is to question how we have viewed data so far and imagine a new relationship with it—one made possible only by adopting a mindset that my colleagues at Accurat and I call "Data Native." Being data native means making data a second mother tongue, a cognitive substrate that permeates every phase of creative thinking, enriching it in ways that are still largely unexplored and uncodified.
The concept of "data native" draws inspiration from the term "digital native," coined by Mark Prensky in the early 2000s to describe a generation that grew up with digital technology as an integral part of their daily lives. Just as digital natives do not perceive technology use as an acquired skill but as a natural part of their existence, data natives interact with data with the same spontaneity. Being data native does not merely mean being competent in data analysis but living in an environment where data is an extension of thought itself.
The evolution of linguistic knowledge in professional contexts over recent decades provides an apt comparison. In the past, knowing a foreign language was a specialized skill, the domain of interpreters or translators. Today, English has become a fundamental competency, essential in many professional fields—not an expertise to be accessed only when necessary but an indispensable requirement for any job that involves human interaction.
Similarly, in a professional landscape increasingly shaped by numbers and algorithms, where the boundary between online and offline has dissolved, considering data merely as a tool to externally validate a process based on pure intuition is an outdated notion. We live immersed in growing complexity, and even the most creative professions can no longer ignore challenges such as climate change, the balance between equity and economic growth, or the proliferation of emerging technologies whose implications on economies and ecosystems are hard to disentangle from the traditionally "creative" aspects of a project. A passive approach to data is no longer sufficient.
In the world of graphic design, data has historically been seen as a supporting tool—numbers that justify aesthetic choices or highlight results in performance reports. But this view is limiting, fundamentally reactive and conservative, focused on the past rather than the future. Superficial approaches like these create a separation between data and the creative process, reducing data to an accessory rather than an integral component. Instead, data should increasingly become raw material for artistic creation, just like color, form, or typography. We need more adaptable, proactive, and holistic thinking and design models that enable us not just to passively accept data but to design with it.
My personal transition toward this way of understanding the relationship between data and creativity did not happen by chance but through a long process that began in 2011. With the design studio I co-founded, Accurat, we have always felt the urgency to challenge conventions and redefine the role of data in design and communication. From the outset, we worked in data-rich environments, creating applications and communication artifacts that made complexity more accessible. During the years of great excitement when we were among the few engaging with these topics—amid the explosion of Data Visualization in all forms of communication—we naturally developed our own design approach based on practice and observation. We called it "Data Humanism," a philosophy that recognized and restored dignity to the imperfect, subjective, and profoundly "human" nature of data.
Data Humanism was our response to a phenomenon we observed closely in the early 2010s: the creation of the universal myth of data as the "new oil," a precious, neutral natural resource waiting to be extracted and mass-sold through machine learning and data science techniques. Instead, our provocation was to flip this definition and recognize data for what it truly is: a highly imperfect social construct laden with values, perspectives, biases, and errors. Through this paradigm, Accurat has spent years promoting the idea that data can also be used to tell human stories, reflect emotions, and create empathetic connections.
This is because data is not objective truth but cultural artifacts that inevitably reflect the perspectives, biases, and preconceptions of those who collect and process them. A deep understanding of this inherent fallibility allows us to treat data as something alive and vital—capable of inspiring and generating meaningful, human connections. Building on this foundation, after more than a decade and over 500 projects at the intersection of numerical science and design, the idea of a data native designer has emerged as a natural next step. If the lens of Data Humanism exposed the human implications of data, being data native has become the practical application of this vision: a fluid and intuitive integration of data—and its imperfections—into every phase of the creative process, from conception to execution.
This shift has led to substantial changes in how we train our teams and approach our methodologies, emphasizing fluidity and interdisciplinarity while allowing for sometimes extreme experimentation. To maintain this holistic perspective, we have deliberately avoided specializing in a single industry. Instead, we have built a professional trajectory alternating between traditional consultancy projects focused on optimizing business processes and purely artistic explorations without direct commercial objectives.
This freedom to explore and experiment—seemingly an end in itself—has actually pushed us to develop our work in non-obvious directions and uncover deeper and more meaningful synergies between numbers and creativity, without the immediate pressure of practical returns. We believe that the greatest advantage of a truly data native approach is knowing how to combine numbers and intuition to imagine and dream about possible futures and then transform these visions into more effective models for understanding the present.
A transition to a design practice that is truly data native requires, in our view, a mindset shift that must be embraced by all design professionals, not just technicians and data scientists. Adopting this approach does not mean abandoning intuition or subjectivity; on the contrary, it means enriching them. It means using numbers and algorithms as a lens to expand our understanding of the world—to see what would otherwise remain hidden. For graphic and digital designers, it means learning to engage with data not as technicians but as storytellers and creators. It means developing and cultivating a visual language capable of translating complexity into beauty and understanding.
This approach will inevitably result in more effective, inclusive, engaging, and, above all, meaningful design. Being data native means achieving a level of familiarity with data that allows one to instinctively recognize its limitations and potentials in any situation, without external validation, and to seamlessly translate it into actions, creative gestures, or narratives.
It is not a technical exercise but a highly creative practice that requires not only study but also empathy, intuition, and imagination. It is a responsibility—a call to make the world more comprehensible, inclusive, and inspiring through the transformative power of data. This challenge presents an opportunity to redefine the role of design, turning it into a bridge between complexity and understanding, between data and humanity. Through this evolution, we can imagine—and design—a future where data is not just a tool but a powerful ally in our journey toward a more conscious world and more sustainable innovation.