(sorry – the title is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is now old enough that I can’t expect everyone to get the reference)
This assignment is due before Friday, February 3rd. (e.g. I will look at them early Friday morning in preparation for Friday’s class)
For this assignment, you need to go out into the world (well, the web), and find a visualization and bring it back to class. You’ll need to comment on how it relates to some of the class concepts. We might make use of it later.
Objectives:
- To get people to connect examples to the conversation in class.
- To give people an opportunity to show us the kinds of data you may be interested in.
- To try out the Piazza picture embedding mechanics
- To see how Piazza is going to hold up with 40 people
What you’ll do
Find a visualization, preferably on the web (so you can give a link to it). Preferably one that can be conveyed well in a small picture that represents data of interest to you (especially if you work in some domain). Preferably one that is different than what other people have given.
Grab a snapshot of the visualization (as a picture like a PNG or JPEG – you may need to use screen capture and then edit it). In addition to linking to the visualization, we want you to post a picture. Please make sure the picture isn’t too big (if you upload a big picture, it even uses bandwidth if you show it at small size). We want the picture by itself so we can see it without following the link to where its from, and to see it out of context).
Make a post on Piazza. Give a link to where the visualization came from, as well as an embedded small picture. In this post, comment on what type of visualization it is (in terms of what we were discussing in class). At this point, we are not asking you to critique the visualization. Just try to articulate what it is. How does it fit in to the various perspectives we discussed (infovis vs. infographics, explore vs. explain, …). Does it have an intended message? What was the creator trying to achieve.
Say something about the data itself: why are you (or would someone) be interested in it. Part of the goal is to have people start to introduce us to their domain interests.
The Piazza link for this assignment is: http://piazza.com/class#spring2012/cs638cs838/16