Michele Mauri

Researcher at Politecnico di Milano – Design Department, he’s the scientific director of DensityDesign Lab. Within the laboratory he coordinates the research, the design and development of projects related to the visual communication of data and information, in particular for projects related to born-digital data and Digital Methods. In 2015, he obtained a PhD degree in Design with the dissertation “Design of the un-finished”.

He is one of the authors of RAWGraphs, an open-source platform for the creation of data visualisations.

From 2017 he’s part of the Public Data Lab, an international group of researchers working on the development of innovative formats for the creation and use of public data.

He’s interested in data visualization, statistics, born-digital data sources and, of course, graphic design.

Research

Publications

Exploring perceptions of Italian urban wildlife on TikTok

Gabriele Colombo, Michele Mauri, Alessandra Facchin. 2026. People and Nature, (5), 1–14.

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Supercharged by AI: Information Design Approaches for a MIL Public Engagement Initiative

Elena Aversa, Michele Mauri, Angeles Briones, Andrea Benedetti. 2026. DIID. Disegno Industriale Industrial Design, 87, 98–113.

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What information designers can do for media and information literacy: a didactical approach

Elena Aversa, Gabriele Colombo, Michele Mauri, Angeles Briones. 2026. 18th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 1, 1–8. Valencia: IATED Academy.

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Mappare il dibattito attorno alla biodiversità urbana con il web

Gabriele Colombo, Alessandra Facchin, Michele Mauri. 2025. In Città biodiverse. Politiche, piani, progetti e processi di co-creazione (pp. 266–281). Fano (PU): Mimesis Edizioni.

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Mapping Urban Biodiversity on the Web. Debates, Perceptions, and Engagement

Gabriele Colombo, Michele Mauri. 2025. Milano - Udine: Mimesis Edizioni.

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Clustering to synthesize and scattering to reveal. Interactions and animations in the visualization of complex hierarchical data in Atlante Calvino

Tommaso Elli, Angeles Briones, Beatrice Gobbo, Michele Mauri. 2024. 2CO3 COmmunicating COmplexity, 186–194. Milano: Franco Angeli.

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Data Design as a Frictional Layer: Data Collections and Design Actions to Produce Discursive Communication Artifacts

Andrea Benedetti, Michele Mauri. 2024. In The Sage Handbook of Data and Society (pp. 483–499). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

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Design artefacts as exploratory tools of Urban Biodiversity debates: eight case studies on Milan

Alessandra Facchin, Gabriele Colombo, Michele Mauri. 2024. Forum Nazionale della Biodiversità.

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Exploring the evolution of Wikipedia articles through Contropedia

David Laniado, Michele Mauri, Erik Borra. 2024. In Investigating Wikipedia: Linguistic corpus building, exploration and analysis (pp. 156–177). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

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From the Cloud to the Ground. A Data-Driven Research to Build Informative Heritage about Data Centres’ Energy Footprint

Fabiola Papini, Francesca Valsecchi, Michele Mauri. 2024. PAD, 17, 307–328.

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Mapping urban wildlife on TikTok. Toward a digital observatory on biodiversity.

Gabriele Colombo, Alessandra Facchin, Michele Mauri. 2024. Forum Nazionale della Biodiversità.

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VisuaLies: Towards a Classification of Misinfovis Situations

Elena Aversa, Michele Mauri. 2024. DIID, 2024(83), 68–79.

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Design for friction. An inquiry to position friction as a method for reflection in design interventions

Andrea Benedetti, Michele Mauri. 2023. Convergências, 16(31), 139–146.

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Designing network visualizations for genetic literary criticism

Tommaso Elli, Andrea Benedetti, Valentina Pallacci, Elena Spadini, Michele Mauri. 2023. Convergências, 16(31), 25–38.

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Digital for Heritage and Museums: Design-Driven Changes and Challenges

Eleonora Lupo, Giuseppe Carmosino, Beatrice Gobbo, Martina Motta, Michele Mauri, Marina Parente, Davide Spallazzo, Federica Rubino. 2023. IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design (Conference proceedings), 1–25.

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Does seeing entail believing? Visualising information during societal crises

Elena Aversa, Michele Mauri. 2023. Proceedings of Nordes 2023: This Space Intentionally Left [Blank], 1, 24–33. Norrköping: Nordes.

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Genetic networks: data model and visualisations

E. Spadini, A. Christen, Valentina Pallacci, Tommaso Elli, Andrea Benedetti, D. Maggetti, Michele Mauri, S. Péterman. 2023. Digital Humanities 2023: Book of Abstracts, 319–321. Graz: Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung - Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, University of Graz.

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Open Visual Storytelling

Michele Mauri, Angeles Briones. 2023. In Visual Storytelling 14 punti di vista (pp. 10–21). Trento-Barcelona: ListLab.

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The Dots and the Line. How to Visualize the Argumentative Structure of an Essay

Margherita Parigini, Michele Mauri. 2023. Annual International Conference of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations. Graz: Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung - Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, University of Graz.

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An Open Toolkit for Small-Scale Data Visualizations

A. Pronzati, Michele Mauri. 2022. DIID. Disegno Industriale Industrial Design, 76, 168–177.

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Engaged research-led teaching: composing collective inquiry with digital methods and data

Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru, Richard Rogers, Tommaso Venturini, Donato Ricci, Axel Meunier, Michele Mauri, Sabine Niederer, Natalia Sánchez Querubín, Marc Tuters, Lucy Kimbell, Anders Munk. 2022. Digital Culture & Education, 14(3), 55–86.

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Information Visualization for the Construction Industry

Michele Mauri. 2022. In Industry 4.0 for the Built Environment (pp. 185–206). Cham: Springer.

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Making posters to understand statistics: towards a didactical approach in communication design

Michele Mauri, Simone Vantini, Beatrice Gobbo, Tommaso Elli, Elena Aversa, Andrea Benedetti, Angeles Briones, Gabriele Colombo. 2022. DRS2022: Bilbao, 1–18.

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Menzione d’onore Compasso d’Oro – Atlante Italo Calvino

Michele Mauri, Tommaso Elli, Angeles Briones, Beatrice Gobbo, Francesca Serra, Valeria Cavalloro, Virginia Giustetto, Margherita Parigini, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2022. ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale. pp. 96–96.

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Staging and storing data sprint-based research results: a communication design approach

Beatrice Gobbo, Angeles Briones, Elena Aversa, Tommaso Elli, Andrea Benedetti, Michele Mauri, Gabriele Colombo. 2022. Dígitos, 1(8), 87–108.

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Visualizing the genetic process of literary works

Valentina Pallacci, Andrea Benedetti, Tommaso Elli, Michele Mauri. 2022. In F. Ciracì, G. Miglietta, & C. Gatto (Eds.), Culture digitali. Intersezioni: Filosofia, arti, media. (pp. 179–184)

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Alternative narratives data visualization archive

Angeles Briones, Michele Mauri. 2021. Design Culture(s) Cumulus Conference Proceedings Roma 2021, 2, 3931–3944.

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Metaphors as Knowledge Activators in Data Visualizations: The case of the Archipelago of Calvino’s literary works

Tommaso Elli, Angeles Briones, Beatrice Gobbo, Michele Mauri. 2021. Proceedings of Cumulus Conference Roma 2021. Cumulus, Romas.

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Visualizing Offshore Foreign Direct Investments: The Atlas of Offshore

Michele Mauri, Angeles Briones, Jonathan Gray, D. Haberly, C. W. Anderson. 2021. Design Culture(s) Cumulus Conference Proceedings Roma 2021, 2, 1127–1143.

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“Drawing with Code”: the Experience of Teaching Creative Coding as a Skill for Communication Designers

Andrea Benedetti, Tommaso Elli, Michele Mauri. 2020. 12th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 3478–3488

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Introducing information visualization to design students

Michele Mauri. 2020. Proceedings of EDULEARN20 Conference, 4442–4448.

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Research protocol diagrams as didactic tools to act critically in dataset design processes

Michele Mauri, Angeles Briones, Beatrice Gobbo, Gabriele Colombo. 2020. INTED2020 Proceedings, 9034–9043. IATED.

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Visual Monitoring of Complex Algorithms

Michele Invernizzi, Michele Mauri, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2020. 2CO: COmmunicating COmplexity Contributions from the 2017 Tenerife Conference, 115–120. Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain: Universidad de La Laguna.

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“We only have 12 years”: YouTube and the IPCC report on global warming of 1.5ºC

Liliana Bounegru, Kari De Pryck, Tommaso Venturini, Michele Mauri. 2020. First Monday, 25(2), 1–1.

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O papel do designer no contexto do Data Sprint

Michele Mauri, Beatrice Gobbo, Gabriele Colombo. 2019. In MÉTODOS DIGITAIS TEORIA-PRÁTICA-CRÍTICA (pp. 161–180). Lisbona: ICNOVA — Instituto de Comunicação da Nova.

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Teaching the Critical Role of Designers in the Data Society: The DensityDesign Approach

Michele Mauri, Gabriele Colombo, Angeles Briones, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2019. Proceedings of DRS Learn X Design 2019: Insider Knowledge, 183–195. Ankara: METU Department of Industrial Design.

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Topic tomographies (Toptom): A visual approach to distill information from media streams

Beatrice Gobbo, D. Balsamo, Michele Mauri, P. Bajardi, A. Panisson, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2019. Computer Graphics Forum, 38(3), 609–621.

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Designing diagrams for Wikipedia: opening a reflection on the role of information visualization in collaborative projects

Michele Mauri, Azzurra Pini, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2017. Information Design Journal, 23(1), 65–79.

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Digging Wikipedia: The online encyclopedia as a digital cultural heritage gateway and site

Christian Pentzold, Esther Weltevrede, Michele Mauri, David Laniado, Andreas Kaltenbrunner, Erik Borra. 2017. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 10(1).

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RAWGraphs: A Visualisation Platform to Create Open Outputs

Michele Mauri, Tommaso Elli, Matteo Azzi, Giorgio Uboldi. 2017. In Proceedings of the 12th Biannual Conference on Italian SIGCHI Chapter (p. 28:1–28:5). New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3125571.3125585

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Visual Geolocations. Repurposing online data to design alternative views

Gabriele Colombo, Michele Mauri, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2017. Big Data & Society, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951717702409

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Designing diagrams for social issues

Michele Mauri, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2016. Proceedings of DRS2016: Design + Research + Society - Future-Focused Thinking, 3, 941–956. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.185

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Opening the Black Box of Scholarly Communication Funding: A Public Data Infrastructure for Financial Flows in Academic Publishing

Stuart Lawson, Jonathan Gray, Michele Mauri. 2016. Open Library of Humanities, 2(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.72

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Visualisation Strategies for Comparing Political Ideas with the ORATIO platform

Tommaso Elli, Giovanni Moretti, Rachele Sprugnoli, Michele Mauri, Giorgio Uboldi, Sara Tonelli, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2016. In M. Eder & J. Rybicki (Eds.), Digital Humanities 2016. Conference Abstracts. Krakow: Jagiellonian University & Pedagogical University.

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A platform for visually exploring the development of wikipedia articles

Erik Borra, David Laniado, Esther Weltevrede, Michele Mauri, Giovanni Magni, Tommaso Venturini, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Richard Rogers, Andreas Kaltenbrunner. 2015. Proceedings of the 9th International AAAI Conference of Web and Social Media.

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Designing Controversies and Their Publics

Tommaso Venturini, Donato Ricci, Michele Mauri, Axel Meunier, Lucy Kimbell. 2015. Design Issues, 31(3), 74–87. https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00340

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Societal Controversies in Wikipedia Articles

Erik Borra, Andreas Kaltenbrunner, Michele Mauri, Esther Weltevrede, David Laniado, Richard Rogers, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Giovanni Magni. 2015.

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Street-level City Analytics: Mapping the Amsterdam Knowledge Mile

Sabine Niederer, Gabriele Colombo, Michele Mauri, Matteo Azzi. 2015. In I. Theona & D. Charitos (Eds.), Hybrid City 2015: Data to the People (pp. 215–220). Athens: URIAC.

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Climaps by Emaps in 2 Pages (A Summary for Policy Makers and Busy People)

Michele Mauri, Giorgio Uboldi, Daniele Ciminieri, Matteo Azzi, Tommaso Venturini, Axel Meunier, Anders Munk, David Laniado, Andreas Kaltenbrunner, Bernhard Rieder. 2014. Available at SSRN

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Contropedia – the analysis and visualization of controversies in Wikipedia articles

Erik Borra, Esther Weltevrede, Paolo Ciuccarelli, David Laniado, Giovanni Magni, Michele Mauri, Richard Rogers, Tommaso Venturini. 2014. OpenSym ’14: The International Symposium on Open Collaboration Proceedings, (May), 288021.

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Il ruolo dell’Information Visualization nella progettazione di interfacce per archivi digitali eterogenei

Michele Mauri, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2014. In F. Ciotti (Ed.), Digital Humanities: progetti italiani ed esperienze di convergenza multidisciplinare (p. 16). Firenze: Sapienza Università Editrice.

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Weaving data, slicing views: a design approach to creating visual access for digital archival collections

Michele Mauri, Azzurra Pini, Daniele Ciminieri, Paolo Ciuccarelli. 2013. In Proceedings of the Biannual Conference of the Italian Chapter of SIGCHI (CHItaly '13). ACM, New York, NY, USA

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