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Welcome to Kawan—our vibrant community of data heads and storytellers. We’re all about improving data literacy and sharing nuanced stories about Asia. Come hang!
Rethinking design beyond the algorithm— issue #69
With AI and data analytics offering personalised experiences, it seems technology is now a few steps ahead of us. Machines are anticipating our needs and making people feel seen. Yet it cannot replace what makes us human. Can we design with this in mind?
Simulating what it feels to be a Kpop fan
Our latest story The Physical Phenomenon explores why physical albums remain so popular in the K-pop industry despite the rise of digital streaming. This behind-the-scenes looks at the motivations behind the writing, illustration style, and data visualisations created for the piece.
Inktober Journal
As Inktober 2019 draws to a close, our resident animator Griselda walks us through her #Inktober illustrations and the quirky stories that…
A day in the life of a programmer at a startup
Hi, I’m Dylan, the lead developer at Kontinentalist. So as a developer, people often think that my work entails sitting in front of my computer all day, with 1s and 0s filling my screen. They are wrong. I have three screens! 😉 Today, I’ll walk you through a typical
What does partnership work entail?
When I first sat down with Bella, our Medium editor, to talk about what sort of articles I could contribute, Bella suggested something…
Where got ghost in Singapore?— issue #5
Trick or treat! It's Halloween season! The ghouls and pumpkins fill store aisles across Singapore. But Southeast Asia has about as many ghouls as we have tropical fruits and types of spices. We're diverse like that. So step away from the usual stories and explore our
Humans of Kontinentalist: Rayson
A few weeks ago we caught up with Rayson, our summer intern. Rayson is a third-year university student studying for a Bachelor in…
A quick guide to ArcGIS — how do we begin?
What is GIS?
Humans of Kontinentalist: Dewi
Today we caught up with Dewi, our business development manager, and recently, writer! Her first story on Batik was released last week.
Did a four-eyed historian invent the Mandarin script? — issue #4
Hello，你好，வணக்கம் Singapore has always favoured linguistic pragmatism, where we learn a language for its utility. Increasingly, that language is Mandarin. People often tell me, "You should let your child take Mandarin as a second language. It's better for her." No offence is intended
Rayson’s Journey to the Maps: Interning at Kontinentalist
Rayson, who wrote this well-received story on rising sea levels, shares his intern experience at Kontinentalist.
Reduce API loading time: Never forget to Cache!
Kontinentalist serves quite numbers of traffic everyday, and thus user experience is really important for us. One of the UX factors apart… How did Kontinentalist reduce API loading time by using Cache
How to tell data-driven stories
We conducted a workshop for our writers recently, and below are some of the highlights.
Visualising a team bonding retreat
Inspired by the Dear Data project where two designers sent each other visualisations describing their week, our team decided to try…