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Welcome to my data visualization portfolio for the Telling Stories with Data course at CMU.
Here, I’ve shared projects that explore how design, storytelling, and analytics come together to make data meaningful.
Hi! I’m Harnoor Parmar (she/her), a graduate student in Information Systems Management at Carnegie Mellon University. I’m interested in how technology, data, and storytelling come together to create real impact.
Before CMU, I worked as a Software Developer at BlackRock, building backend systems that supported large-scale data workflows. These days, I’m exploring how data visualization can make complex ideas more intuitive and engaging. When I’m not working with data, you’ll probably find me on a walk around Schenley Park or experimenting with new coffee blends.
Through this course, I want to get better at using data visualization to tell clear and meaningful stories. I’m especially interested in how thoughtful design choices can make complex information easier to understand and more impactful for different audiences. I’d love to explore new tools and techniques that help bridge the gap between analysis and communication.
After I graduate, I plan to work in a technical or data-focused role where I can combine my background in software engineering with my growing interest in analytics and visualization. My goal is to keep building tools and systems that help people make better, data-driven decisions — and hopefully, make technology feel a bit more human in the process.
This project explores how government debt has evolved across countries over time and how design choices shape public understanding of economic data. I analyzed different ways to visualize debt-to-GDP ratios and created a clear, data-driven graphic that highlights key trends and regional contrasts while maintaining visual balance and interpretability.
In this project, I analyzed a NOAA climate visualization on greenhouse gas trends, critiquing it for clarity, accessibility, and design effectiveness. Using those insights, I created an interactive redesign where users can click any year to compare changes, view percentage shifts, and explore how different gases have evolved over time. The project focuses on improving data storytelling through thoughtful color, interaction, and usability choices.
This final project explores how rising housing costs, food prices, and college expenses are putting increasing financial pressure on students — and how their earnings struggle to keep up. Through a series of data-driven visualizations, I highlight the gap between what students need to afford and what they can realistically earn. Parts I, II, and III walk through the development of this story: from early sketches to user research, storyboard drafts, and the final Shorthand narrative.
Here are the parts: Part I Part II Part III
Datasets & Government Sources
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Consumer Price Index: Housing and Food Series (CUSR0000SAH1, CUSR0000SAF1). Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/cpi/
National Center for Education Statistics. (2025). Table 330.10: Average undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board rates charged for full-time students in degree-granting postsecondary institutions. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/
National Center for Education Statistics. (2025). Table 503.20: Percentage of full-time and part-time undergraduates who worked, by control and level of institution. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/
National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Digest of Education Statistics: Student Financial Aid and Earnings Data. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/
Supporting Research
College Board. (2024). Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2024. Retrieved from https://research.collegeboard.org
Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (2024). Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. Retrieved from https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. (2021). Learning While Earning: The New Normal. Retrieved from https://cew.georgetown.edu
I used Grammarly to review my writing for clarity, grammar, and tone consistency. I also used Microsoft Copilot to help brainstorm section headings, refine story structure, and organize my narrative flow. All analysis, data cleaning, visualizations, design decisions, and final writing were completed by me.