Weeks in Vis

Week number 3…

We’re slowly getting the mechanics worked out - hopefully you are able to do all of the Parts of Class, and the synchronous classes haven’t been too problematic.

This week’s topic is abstraction: how do we talk about tasks and data in a general way.

Readings 03: Abstraction - will get at the main ideas, and suggest some things to look at beyond the minimum.

• Online Discussion 03: Abstraction (due Tue, Sep 15) - as usual, there are two parts (one due on Tuesday, one due on Friday)
• Seek and Find 03: Abstraction (due Fri, Sep 18), which is more practice at thinking about task and data abstraction.
• Survey 03: Abstraction (due Fri, Sep 18) - these are helping me help you, as well as (hopefully) helping you reflect on the material.
• Design Challenge 1 is beginning! The first phase is due at the beginning of next week. DC1-1: Tableau Tests (due Mon, Sep 21)

Week number 2…

We’ve made it through week 1, and done all of the different parts of class (except for design challenges). If you didn’t do week 1’s seek and find, online discussion, or survey, please do it (better late than never).

Readings 02: Why Visualize? This week has more readings than usual. There are some for before class on Wednesday (or really, before your first discussion post), some for before class on Friday, and some to read after wednesday’s class (since I’ll help put them in context with the lecture). This week is unusual is there are the readings (on critique practice) to read before Friday’s class.

• Online Discussion 02: Why Visualize? (due Tue, Sep 8) will follow the usual pattern (one post due Tuesday, one post due Friday, discussion throughout).
• Seek and Find 02: Why Visualize? (due Fri, Sep 11) - hopefully, you’re getting the hang of the seek and finds.
• Survey 02: Why Visualize? (due Fri, Sep 11) - again, this is to help me and to get you to think about what we’ve done during the week.
• Class Wednesday will be more lecture like, and on Friday we’ll do a critique practice exercise.

This is the first of a weekly posting called The Week in Vis that explains what is going on in class during the week. It also should give you context for why we are doing things, and how it all fits together (so it is part of the “content” for the course).

Usually, I make this posting on Friday (before the week), but this is not a normal week. And this isn’t a normal week-in-vis posting.