Wow – we’re getting to the end. Hopefully, your projects are going well (and you sent a project update), and that will be the main focus of your time. But we do have some topics left…

• Monday, April 30: A lecture of Design. We will have an special guest lecture and interactive activity with someone who has experience as a designer. Please do the reading before the lecture, but you can do the Piazza post afterwards.
• Wednesday, May 2: We’ll combine the previous two lectures and have a discussion on talk materials (using our developing design critique skills to look at some presentations). We will also do course evals.
• Friday, May 4: No class. I will hold extra office hours to discuss projects. There will be a project update due, but details have not yet been provided.

The last week, we’ll talk about 3D and depth perception, and the “other half” of visualization (traditional scientific visualization). But mainly its time for you to get your projects done.

Next week, we’ll go over two topics that I like to talk about (and people said they want to hear about). They are both topics for which preparing yourself for the discussion will be useful. Also, next week is really a chance to get your project on track.

• before Monday – Your project 2 revised proposals are due (extended deadline). If all goes according to plan, you should get initial P1 feedback on 4/20. If you don’t get it before the P2 revised deadline, let us know because something has gone wrong.
• Monday (April 23) – Class discussion on animation, with required Piazza post. Yes, we’ll watch some cartoons in class (projector willing). It makes it more fun. Thinking about animation can be a good way to get at general communication principles.
• Wednesday (April 25) – Class discussion on presentations, with required Piazza post. I guess presentation is part of Visualization, but I am thinking of it more as a skills building thing. We’re not doing presentations in this class, but hopefully it will help you should you need to give on. (which I do, on Thursday)
• Thursday (April 26) – I am giving a talk in the library about the Vis work in our group. You can view it as a chance to see if I practice what I preach (both in terms of vis projects and presentation). But its totally not connected to class, and you probably hear enough of me any way.
• Friday (April 27) – Project 2 Progress updates. A lesson from Project 1 is that doing these are important: they are a really good opportunity for course correction, and to make sure things are on track.

This week we’ll get project 2 fully underway, and look at graphs (network information – not graphs as in bar graphs).

We will get you feedback on your Project 2 proposal on or before Monday the 16th. We will get you initial feedback on your Project 1 midweek. Both of these will hopefully be helpful in created revised project 2 plans (which are due on Friday, April 20th).

Please note: if you did not send an Assignment 6, a Project 1 self-eval or an initial project 2 proposal, it is better to do these late than not at all.

We’ll also try to arrange for Project 1 demos during the week for the small set of people who need to give them.

• Monday (April 16th): Graphs and Networks. Reading 18 would have been due, but since I posted it late, we’ll say it’s officially due on Wednesday – but its best if you read it before Monday’s class, so we can have a more effective discussion.
• Wednesday (April 18th): More discussion of Graphs and Networks. Reading 18 Piazza writeup is really due before class. The Graphs seek and critique assignment is due by the end of the day, but it’s OK to get it done by the end of the week.
• Friday (April 20th): Your revised project 2 plan is due. Note: your plan must be “approved” which may require iteration. Hopefully, your initial proposal had enough detail that this would be easy. Experience with the last project suggests that people that did well at planning had better project experiences – the more help we give you at this stage, the more likely we are to catch problems early and get you on a good track. 

I will hold additional office hours Thursday and Friday 11-noon to discuss projects with people.

Based on the Piazza Survey, it seems the other most desired topics are Animation, Presentations, and 3D Perception. So that’s what we’ll be doing next (in roughly that order).

Next week (April 23-27), we’ll talk about animation (Reading 19 is due for Monday the 23rd!).

After the run-up to the project and Spring break, it’s time to start again with another project. We have some loose ends to tie up from the first project (pay attention to assignments due this week!), and we’ll look ahead to Project 2!

The details for project 2 have not been posted yet (to be honest, some of them are being deferred based so we can see what happened with Project 1). But expect a project proposal (similar to Project 1) to be due at the end of the week.

• Sunday, April 8th: Late Project 1s are due before April 9th!.
• Monday, April 9: Lecture on Sequence Visualization. Required reading will have you look at two interesting systems. Thinking about these tools is a good review of all the concepts from the first part of the class.
• Tuesday, April 10th: Project 1 Summaries are due. Project 2 intention emails are also due.
• Wednesday, April 11th: Lecture time will be to get people started on Project 2 planning. Be sure to bring ideas.We may also do an in-class design exercise. No reading, but Mid-Term Essay due.
• Friday, April 13th: Project 1 Self-Evaluations are due. Project 2 proposals will probably be due, but only if we have told you what they have to be.

Looking ahead: The following week, we’ll look at visualizing graphs and trees. And dive deeply into Project 2. After that, we’ll move to the world of 3D. (or maybe the 3D of the world, to be more precise)

Hard to believe we’ve almost made it to Spring Break.

I am guessing that most people in class will be focused on their projects. I will be busy with my own (the InfoVis conference deadline is March 31st).

In terms of projects: remember that your initial hand-in plan is due before Monday, March 26th. The final project is due on Friday the 30th. If you would like to take the extension until April 9th, you must let us know before the 30th. Remember, the extension is an all-or-nothing choice, and there is a cost: we will have higher expectations for 6-week long projects than for 5 week long projects.

For class:

• Monday, March 26th – We’ll have a lecture on interaction. The reading (with Piazza posting) will mainly be a bunch of examples of things you’ve probably seen. But it’s good to think about all the different interactions in one place.
• Wednesday, March 28th – There will be no readings (since you’ll probably be busy with projects). The lecture will discuss some topic that doesn’t expect you to have read something beforehand. We may also discuss project 2.
• Friday, March 30th – There will be no optional class. I will hold office hours to discuss last-minute project questions.

Over break, there will be a reading for the lecture immediately after break (a paper about a system we built here). That first week in April we will also get started on Project 2.

Small change in plans: we’ll defer talking about graphs and networks to spend more time on high-dimensional data and related issues. This will also allow you to be more focused on your projects.

The reading for this week (Reading 15: two chapters from Munzner) will be discussed over the two lecture days. We might take time Wednesday for projects discussion. They are “due” Wednesday, but if you comment earlier, it will help with the discussion.

• Monday (March 19) – The general topic is “too much stuff.” We’ll talk about what happens when you have too many variables, too many data points, …
• Wednesday (March 21) – More discussion of dealing with too much stuff. Additionally, we might use time for peer review of project progress or an in-class design exercise.
• Friday (March 23rd) – Project handin plan due. I will actually be out of town, so I might ignore your email until Monday.

The following week, as it is right before the project is due, is bound to be unusual.

This week, we’ll move on to discuss higher-dimensional visualization. We’ll have a color “seek and find” exercise. And you’ll keep working on your projects. The readings are intentionally light (and the seek and find is hopefully not such a big deal) so that you can really make progress on your projects.

• Monday (March 12) – Reading 13 is due (bi-variate displays) for discussion in class. We’ll actually see some of Colin Ware’s recent research.
• Wednesday (March 14) – Reaching 14 is due (multi-variate displays) for discussion in class. The color seek and find assignment is also due.
• Friday (March 16) – No class, but I will hold an extra office hour during class time (11am-noon). Your Project 1 Progess Update is due. For this, you need to send an email to the professor and TA describing your progress with the project. A short description is fine.

With projects underway, we will now stop deferring our conversation about color. Both lectures will be a disucssion of color.

The color readings were lumped into one big list. Because I posted it late, I do not expect you to have read much before Monday’s lecture, but you need to do the readings and make a Piazza post for Wednesday.

• Monday 3/5 – Class lecture discussion about the basics of Color.
• Wednesday 3/7 – More class lecture discussion about Color. Reading 11/12 is due (with a Piazza post).
• Friday 3/9 – No optional class. Project 1 Plan Updates due.

I will be available for discussions of projects this week, either during office hours (additional office hours will be posted), or by appointment.

At the end of the week, we’ll announce another visualization finding and critique assignment for next week. Next week we’ll talk about more issues in the effective use of color, and start talking about networks (graphs).

As we enter the second third of the class, we’ll ramp up on project 1, and continue to move from an understanding of perception to actually designing visualizations.

• Monday, Feb 27: You need to have initiated a dialog (by email) about your project ideas. Discussions are processed first-come-first-served, so if you wait until the last minute you may not get a prompt reply.
• Monday, Feb 27: Reading 9 is due. Lecture discussion on encodings.
• Wednesday, Feb 29: Reading 10 is due. Lecture discussion on putting encodings together to make visualizations.
• Friday, March 2: Project 1 Project Proposals are due by 5pm. This means I must have accepted your proposal by then. The TA and I will hold office hours during the class time slot (11-noon). However, this is to go over final details – we should have already be close to having a project proposal.

The following week, we’ll be talking about Color.

Note that I recently posted the first project and a clarification about grading. I have also added more detail to the syllabus.

This week, we’ll look at perception in more detail, and start to think about how we’ll move on to use this for creating visualization. You’ll wrap up the redesign assignment, and get started thinking about Project 1. And you really should be thinking about project 1 ideas, and beginning a conversation for ideas.

• Monday (2/20) Reading 7, with required comment. This is some basics of perception reading. It’s hard to just get a small taste of the field, but hopefully this will give us a foothold.
• Wednesday (2/20) Reading 8,  comments optional (but encouraged – I really do find them useful). This reading is intentionally light so you can start to spend time on the project and re-design assignment. You may want to go back to some of the optional readings from Monday.
• Friday (2/24) Re-Design Assignment Due.
• Friday (2/24) – In the optional class, time, I’ll use it as a discussion of project ideas. Bring ideas, and we’ll talk about them. You can even think of this as a “workshop” where you can bring your pet problems to talk about what you might do about them (or even try to recruit others to help you with it). I’ll bring a few problems to seed the conversation.

Looking ahead, the following week, we’ll start trying to connect perception back to visualization through the choice of encodings, and we’ll start to evolve project proposals.