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The IEEE Conference on Visualization (known colloquially as IEEE Vis or VisWeek) is the premiere academic venue for Visualization Research. This year, the conference ( IEEE VIS 2021) is going to be held virtually, October 24-29th. For class that week, we ask that you “attend” VisWeek - we will replace normal class activities with “conference activities” and encourage you to attend as much as possible.

You will need to register for the conference (free for students) ahead of time.

For the design exercises (and possibly other things), you must at least try Tableau.

Tableau is a commercial data analysis and visualization tool. The company generously provides it for use in classes through the Tableau for Teaching Program.

Here, we will give you a brief guide on how to get started with it, and pointers to some resources. We expect students to figure out how to work with Tableau enough for class.

This is a list of the topics that we plan to cover in the class, in the order that we cover them.

It’s more about content than about the specific activities we do for these different topics. If you want the details, see the Schedule.

This class has a few requirements: while you do not need to buy books (we will provide all readings online). You do need to bring “art supplies” to class and have a way to “scan” drawings. And you need to come to class.

Given the changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may need to adapt how we communicate.

But, even as an in-person class, we use a variety of online tools to communicate between course staff and students. We will have in-person class meetings (in Room 312 Wendt); we will use Canvas (see Tips on Using Canvas) for announcements, discussions, and hand-ins; we will use Piazza for student-initiated communications; we will use Zoom for online conversations, and we will use the course web to distribute information.

If you’re looking for the syllabus, you are probably looking for pages on this web site. The “official University syllabus” is a document that is posted in the official places.

The class is organized by week - each week generally follows the The Weekly Rhythm. A detailed schedule will be provided soon.

If you want to see due dates, you can use the Canvas Calendar to see that. The Canvas Course Summary is also a convenient listing.

If you want to see the list of topics, you can see a Thematic Schedule, or look at All Readings.

This posting explains the rationale for the class. It will help you understand my rationale for why I have designed the class the way that I have, and what you should expect from the semester.

Overall Summary (see below for details)

1. The class has a number of different parts, most happen on a regular schedule each week.

2. Attendance is required. Notify the course staff if you will miss class. You are required to complete in class activities.

3. The course will use this course web, Canvas, and Piazza. Students are responsible for the contents. Announcements will be made using Canvas.

4. Deadlines are the day given (Madison time). Any time on that day. Deadlines may be flexible, but cutoffs are not. We let you drop low scores if you miss things.

5. Bring art supplies to class.

6. Readings (and other materials) are required.

7. We measure participation by checking that students complete the various assignments and class activities. These include regular online activities (discussions, seek and finds, surveys) and less-regular design activities.

8. We’ll give you a grade at the end based on your work.

This class is a continual stream of small things, rather than a few bursts of big things (like a project-oriented class would be). It’s good that you know to expect this from day one.

The details of how things work are still up in the air because of COVID.

I have designed this class with a large number of small activities each week. I understand that it can be a lot to keep track of, so the idea is to have a (relatively) constant rhythm each weak so you now what to expect (if it’s Monday, you know…).

The first and last weeks break the pattern.

An attempt to assemble a list of the videos from 2020 - in theory, everything was recorded, in practice, some things were lost as the University switched systems and we weren’t keeping track of stuff well enough.

Canvas is central to the online parts of the class. It is worth taking a time upfront to learn to use it effectively and to configure it to your needs.

We will refer to a number of books over the course of the semester.

You will not need to purchase any books for this class. The required readings will be provided online. Of course, you might want to buy some of the books if you want to support the authors, read beyond what is required for class, or like owning physical books.