The Week in Vis 02 (Mon, Sep 10 – Fri, Sep 14): Why Visualize

by Mike Gleicher on September 7, 2018

This week, we’ll get into the regular rhythm of the class, and hopefully get all the enrollment issues handled briefly.

Last week, we tried to get a sense of what visualization is, and what the class is. If you haven’t done Week 1’s assignments (readings, online discussion, seek and find, and quiz) please do that first! We will be lenient with the first week’s deadlines.

This week, we’ll continue to ask those questions, and add another question “Why should we do it?”

Monday, we’ll have a lecture that will build on the readings. (I am aware that the weekly schedule is problematic – if you wait until Friday to get the readings, you only have a few days to do them, and they technically aren’t due before class – I plan to do something about this in the coming weeks).

Wednesday, we’ll talk about critique – and do it in class (to critique visualizations).

Friday’s “class” is optional: I call it “meet and greet.” Basically, it’s a chance for me to get to know students, and students to get to know me and each others. I won’t have anything planned other than to sit at a table and talk to everyone.

You may want to look at this week’s learning goals Learning Goals 2: Week 2 – Why Visualization.

Readings (due Mon, Sep 10)

First: Unrelated to the main topic, we will be talking about how to critique and practicing critique in class. Usually, we just critique – but one of my goals in this class is to teach people to do it more effectively. This chapter (which is part of a whole book on how to critique productively) will hopefully give you some things to think about, although ultimately, I think it just takes practice.

  • “Understanding Critique,” Chapter 1 of Discussing Design by Adam Conor and Aaron Irizarry, O’Reilly Books, 2015. Chapter available online as a sampler from the publisher. (pp. 7-25, 18 pages)

The main readings are intended to give you a sense of why we do visualization, and why we bother to try to do it correctly. If you haven’t done the first week’s readings, please do them first.

There is a lot of reading this week.

  1. Graphical Excellence (Chapter 1 of Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information) (1-VDQI-1-GraphicalExcellence.pdf 33.8mb)

    Tufte’s fame, style and personality can get in the way of his message. Cairo (lower on the list) will help us understand that. But, there’s no denying that Tufte has had influence – and there is a lot to learn from him.

  2. The Dance of Meaning (Chapter 9 of Visual Thinking for Design) (Ware-9-Meaning.pdf 2.7mb)

    Yes, we’re reading the last chapter first. You might want to skim through the book leading up to it (I basically read quickly) 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.

  3. The Beauty Paradox (Chapter 3 of Cairo’s The Functional Art) (theFunctionalArtCh3.pdf 11.4mb)

    This chapter gets into the philosophy of evaluation. Cairo has an interesting (and non-academic) perspective. We’re reading this now (rather than when we get to evaluation) because it’s good food for thought, and it has a good discussion of Tufte.

  4. The first 17 pages of the Introduction to “Information Visualization: Using Visualization to Think” by Card, Mackinlay, and Schneiderman (01-InfoVis-CardMackinlaySchneid-Chap1.pdf 77.4mb) .

    This is a 1999 book that consists of this intro, and a bunch of seminal papers. The examples are old, but the main points are timeless. It is the best thing I know of that gets at Vis from the cognitive science perspective. The rest of the chapter (past page 17) is good too, but more redundant with other things we’ll read – so it’s optional. Although, every time I go back to it, I am amazed how good this is – despite being old.

Optional

  1. Visual Statistical Thinking (3-VE-2-Visual-Statistical-Thinking.pdf 25.1mb)

    Chapter 2 “Visual Statistical Thinking” from Tufte’s Visual Explanations (pages 26-53; 27 pages) . This is Tufte at his best/worst: describing two historical examples (John Snow’s map of the London Cholera Epidemic and The Challenger Disaster). His oversimplification of the role of visualization in these situations makes his points forceful, but not as black-and-white as he tries to make them. This used to be required, and may be discussed in class.

  2. Why Visualize: From Information to Wisdom Preface and Chapter 1 of The Functional Art (online at publisher) (theFunctionalArtCh1.pdf 7.8mb)

    This is a great introduction to thinking about data presentation from a journalists perspective, with Cairo’s great use of examples, clarity, and connection to a bigger picture. It’s optional since it’s a little off topic (it’s more about Data Journalism), and a little redundant with the other Cairo readings.

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