This past week, we talked about task and data abstractions, and saw how they get combined as ways to think about visualizations. There were lots of forward pointers to what we are going to do about the tasks and data we have, but hopefully, we’re starting to see how the basic pieces of machinery (encodings, transformations, interaction, mappings) will be assembled – even before we learn much about them.
This coming week, we’re going to dive into two more pieces of the puzzle:
- Evaluation – this is a topic that keeps coming up. And we need to think about it, because it’s hopefully clear that you can make lots of different visualizations – but we need to know which ones are good!
- Graphic Design – making things look and work well are a big part of visualization. It’s an art unto itself, but hopefully a few principles will be a helpful start.
So for next week:
- For Tuesday, we’ll read about evaluation and have a reading discussion. (Reading 6: Evaluation). Tuesday’s lecture will follow through on some of the Map tasks things we started to talk about as a way to talk about evaluation.
- For Thursday, you need to do the “Design School in a Day”. The reading, discussion, and Seek and Find are all part of this. (And there are 3 things to turn in before class! Two discussions, and one Seek and Find).
- There is no 838 only assignment this week. Expect one for the following week.
Public Service Announcements:
- Please set up your Canvas Profile!
- Tableau is available to you, if you want it.
- I am posting the lecture slides, and you can discuss them if you want.
What’s coming up…
The following week, we’ll start to talk about perception, and making clearer why some of the choices in encodings can be done in a principled way. We’ll also start on our first “design challenge” assignment.
