Syllabus

Course Objectives

Students will learn to

Assignments

  1. Clocks (0%): Apply for this class by completing A0.
  2. Sparks Presentation (5%): prepare a 7min. slideshow presentation on a data visualization practitioner or team that is inspiring to you.
  3. Visualization Design (10%): design 10 divergent representations for the US Census data set and provide a rigorous rationale for your design choices. Present for design critique in class.
  4. Exploratory Data Analysis (10%): identify a dataset of interest and perform an exploratory analysis to understand the shape & structure of the data, investigate initial questions, and develop preliminary insights & hypotheses. Present a report on your findings.
  5. Interactive Visualization (20%): build a visualization that enables interactive exploration along at least three dimensions using a dataset of your own choosing and publish it on the web.
  6. Midterm Exam (10%): individual closed book exam, for 90 min. during class session. Comprises multiple-choice and written essay questions.
  7. Final Project (30%): build a web-based interactive visualization that allows you to answer questions about a topic of your own choosing. You will acquire the data, design your visualization, implement it using D3, and evaluate the results.
  8. Reading Quizzes (7.5%): expect a quiz at beginning of class most weeks; 2~4 multiple-choice questions, each covering one of the central concepts in a required reading.
  9. Class Participation (7.5%): actively engages in class and online (Slack) in critique, analysis, and assisting peers.

Expectations

Caveat Emptor

Auditors

Auditors are welcome in class, and encouraged to form their own homework groups; the teaching team simply won’t be able to provide grading or feedback due to time constraints.

Optional Textbooks