Design Exercise 3: A Design Problem

in Design Exercises

We have extended this assignment by 1 day - it is now due: DE03: Designs for Questions (due Wed, Oct 5).

Some clarifications:

  1. You may use either version of the data set at AidData data set. Do not use the “original” version available elsewhere on the web.
  2. There are some data cleaning issues (the same purpose might appear with a slightly different names, the codes seem to be correct).
  3. It is a valid strategy to try to put multiple visualizations into one visualization (this was even mentioned in the original assignment as a way to come up with initial designs).
  4. Your designs will, almost certainly, not show everything (there is too much data to cram into a single visualization!). You might choose to aggregate, to select a subset (like top-N), etc. You might want to make clear what you are chosing not to show (e.g., that it is an explicit choice). The assignment this is built from was meant to be interactive, which provided a different tool to combat scale.

Post-Hoc thoughts for next year…

This data set is big enough to be tricky - and the questions have enough complexity that they seem to pull towards interaction.

DE3 doesn’t specify design on a single page.

Should do better at providing rubric before we start.

In this exercise, you get to try making some visualizations for specific problems.

It is acceptable to sketch (we encourage it), but, if you want to try experimenting with the real data, you can. You can create designs using pen and paper (you can scan them or photograph them to turn them in), or you draw them digitally, or you can write programs or use data analysis tools to create the visualizations. A warning: programming or using a data analysis tool might be extra work, and may not give you the flexibility to make the design you want.

For this assignment, we seek to create static visualizations (things that would work printed on paper). We may consider interaction later.

This exercise consists of two different “questions” - each requires its own visualization. For each question, you must turn in at least one design. We encourage you to make multiple designs, and to turn in the best 2-3 for each question. (you should pick the best one for each question)

You will turn this in as a Canvas Assignment: DE03: Designs for Questions (due Wed, Oct 5). This assignment will allow you to upload multiple files. Please have 1 file per visualization. Please use the naming scheme where the question is first, if it is an alternate design (not the best one) use a “-number”, and the correct extension (we prefer PDF, but image formats such as PNG or JPG or SVG are OK). So, it you had 3 visualizations for question 1, they should be “1.pdf” “1-2.pdf” and “1-3.pdf” (where 1.pdf is the one you think is best).

Please keep your files “anonymous” (do not put your name on it). We will be releasing these for peer review.

You need to turn in at least 2 files (1.pdf, 2.pdf). Warning: the deadline is pretty strict. If you don’t turn things in on time, you will miss the opportunity to have your design critiqued.

Feel free to annotate your designs to explain them, whether its to help the viewer interpret them or to explain what you were trying to draw but couldn’t.

All of these designs are for the AidData data set data set. An explanation of the data set is on that page. For the assignment, you can use the smaller version (especially if you are sketching).

The questions (you must make a visualization for each):

  • Question 1: a) How does the amount donated vs. amount received change over time for each country?; b) Are there countries that mostly send or mostly receive and countries that have a similar amount of donations they receive and send?; c) Are there countries that change their role over time? That is, they used to mostly send donations and turn into mostly receiving donations and vice-versa?; d) Are there countries in which you can find a sudden increase (“peak”) or a sudden decrease (“valley”)?
  • Question 2: Focus on the top 10 “Coalesced Purposes” of donations (in terms of amount of disbursement across all countries and all time). What are the top 10 purposes of disbursements (in terms of total amount of disbursement) and how does their relative amount compare over time? E.g., are there purposes that tend to be prominent for a period of time and others that become more prominent during other periods? Hint: looking at the graph one should be able to observe: “Ah! During these years donations were mostly about X but then there were way more donations about Y”. Note: if the purpose is “UNSPECIFIED” it should be removed.

You might notice that there are multiple questions as part of each of the two “Questions.” The intent is that one “design” covers the whole Question (including its parts), but one possible type of design might be a composite of separate/independent visualizations. One strategy might be to think of separate charts for each sub-question as an initial iteration, and then try to come up with more integrated designs as you refine your ideas.

We understand that sketches may be limited by your artistic skill. What is important is that the sketches convey the idea clearly - they should make it obvious what the real visualization should look like, and convey it well enough that we can consider whether the “real thing” would be effective.

What’s Next

We plan to have an opportunity for feedback on these designs, and then we will give you the opportunity to improve them for grading. We haven’t decided exactly how this will work. But do expect to do some peer critique.

Your “grade” for this will will combine what you did for this initial version, some critique aspect, and your redesign. We will also keep track of whether you turned in a reasonable assignment on time.

Credits

This assignment is based on an assignemtn that Prof. Enrico Bertini gives in his class. His assignment had a third optional question, that I removed since it was too hard. His assignment also required students to program their solutions with real data (although, only in a second part - the first part required sketching, like this assignment). We might try a programming version later in the semester.