Reading 3: Why Visualization?

This is another one of those “let’s see from multiple perspectives” kind of readings set. This reading is due before Monday, February 6th.

Again, I’d like you to read 3/4 things to give you 3 different perspectives on the matter.

1. Chapter 9 of Visual Thinking (the textbook) by Colin Ware. Yes, we’re reading the last chapter first. You might want to skim through the book leading up to it (I basically read qucikly) it in one sitting. Reading the ending might motivate you to read the whole thing (which we will later). The perspective here is how the perceptual science might suggest why vis is interesting. Remember that you can access this book online if you don’t have it.
2. Chapter 2 of Tufte’s Visual Explanations (pages 26-53). The perspective here is historical – what can happen when Visualizations work or fail. A scan of the capter is here, and hopefully you remember how to access the protected course reader. The first chapter
3. The paper: J.-D. Fekete, J.J. van Wijk, J.T. Stasko, C. North,  The Value of Information Visualization.
   In: A. Kerren, J.T. Stasko, J.-D. Fekete, C. North (eds.), Information Visualization – Human-Centered Issues and Perspectives. LNCS 4950, Springer, p. 1-18, 2008. The copies I can find on the web are corrupted, except for the official version. (copy in reader) The economic model in their is of questionable value to me, so you can skip it if you like.
4. The paper “Casual Information Visualization: Depictions of Data in Everyday Life”. (authors version) (doi). Yes, this is the fourth one in a list of three. It’s somewhat optional – but it may be better to read all 4 quickly so you can at least glance at this one.

As usual, I would like you to post (at least) one entry on the Piazza page to confirm that you’ve done the reading. You seem to all be coming up with interesting thoughts, so I feel like I can just say “write something” and good stuff will happen.