@neuroticWisher,
Data dumping is a real problem with writers, and not just beginners. You've got all of this research, and you don't want it to go to waste ....
You need to parse it out slowly, and also think of interesting ways to do so. Let's say you need to indicate that one character is taller than another. How about having the tall character duck when walking inside, in order to avoid hitting his or her head on the door frame, whereas the shorter character doesn't have to do that? Or the tall one calls the short one 'short stuff' on one occasion. In either way, the information comes out without a ton of dull exposition.