The Week in Vis 01 (Mon, Sep 3 – Fri, Sep 7): What is Visualization

by Mike Gleicher on August 29, 2018

This is the first of the weekly “Week in Vis” postings. There are enough things going on in class that having easy pointers to what will happen is useful. You can also get the highlights at the top right of the course web page. If you haven’t already done so, you might want to look at the “parts of class” page (which is actually part of the required reading) to get a sense of what all these pieces are. (but you should have already read that as part of the start here list).

The Week in Vis postings also gives me a chance to tell you what to expect for the week, and to introduce the topic.

The topic for this week is to talk about what Visualization is – both in terms of generally, but also what this class is. The first lecture (which is Wednesday) will talk about both Visualization generally, but also about the class to introduce the mechanics. In the second lecture (Friday) we’ll do an “in-class” exercise where you will do a little design as a way to get you thinking about the class topics.

You may want to look at this week’s learning goals Learning Goals 1: Week 1 – Introduction.

Note that all of the weekly aspects of class are happening this week, despite the fact that its a short week. There is a reading (which is usually due on Monday before the first lecture of the week), there will be a quiz (usually due on Tuesday, but this week you have more time), an online discussion (usually due on Wednesday, but again, we’re lenient), and a “Seek and Find” (due on Friday, but we’re more flexible this first week).

A big part of the first week is to make sure everyone gets used to the mechanics of the class. So please make sure to do all the class activities so we can make sure the mechanics work.

Readings (due Friday, Sep 7)

This week there is a fairly large amount of readings – because we don’t have much else going on. The reading isn’t as bad as it looks because it’s all fairly light.

The main goal here is to give you a sense of what visualization is. I want you to get some different perspectives, so you can form your own.

Most of these are from textbooks (see the Books page). A goal is to introduce you to the people you’ll be learning from this semester (including me!).

  1. The Course Web Page – the Start Here (TL;DR) page has a list of required things to read. Make sure you understand the class policies and procedures. The How to Vis will have some redundancy with lecture, but this is stuff I really want you to know.
  2. What we talk about when we talk about visualization (Chapter 1 of The Truthful Art) (theTruthfulArtCh1.pdf 5.7mb) This will be your first exposure to Alberto Cairo’s books (see my discussion from the Spring). A great place to start the class.
    For a great (but optional) introduction to Cairo’s style and philosophy, read the “Introduction” (which is before chapter 1) (theTruthfulArtCh0.pdf 7.7mb).
  3. What’s Vis (Chapter 1 from Munzner’s Visualization Analysis & Design) (Munzner-01-Intro.pdf 0.3mb)
  4. Two Blog Postings by Robert Kosara: What is Visualization? A Definition and The Many Names of Visualization – read these to get a viewpoint different than mine.

Optional

  1. Preface (from Munzner’s Visualization Analysis & Design) (Munzner-00-FrontMatter.pdf 0.3mb) – yes, I recommend that you read the Preface of the textbook. It will give you a sense of what’s coming.
  2. Graphical Excellence (Chapter 1 of Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information) (1-VDQI-1-GraphicalExcellence.pdf 33.8mb) – This will actually be on the reading list for week 2, but in many ways, it fits better at the beginning.

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