The American Time Usage Survey is a big data collection effort from the U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (BLS).

The survey collects detailed time usage data (how people spend their time) for a sampling of people across the US.

They provide the data files in a very detailed form: data files page. You can get lots of information about who the people are and what they did.

One thing that makes this data interesting is that it is done with a great deal of statistical care to document each thing very carefully so that it can be used correctly.

We will use “the census data set” for many of the design exercises in class. I put it in scare quotes because there will be different versions. This data set was specifically chosen to be “just about right” for class - not too hard, and not too easy, to work with. But complex enough to be interesting. We will provide it in “cleaned” form.

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

Policies Overview

• Attendance: See Class Meetings (attendance policy). You are required to attend class. If you miss an in-class-experience, you cannot make it up. If you miss class, please fill out the Missed Class Form. Bring drawing supplies.

• Parts of Class: See Parts of Class. The class consists of in class meetings (traditional lectures, group discussions, in-class-exercises), online discussions (weekly topics and seek-and-finds), surveys, and design exercises.

• Weekly Rhythm: See Weekly Rhythm. The class follows the same pattern each week.

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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.

Again, if you like what you read in the chapters, please support the authors by buying books. If readers stop buying books, authors will stop writing them.

This class has many parts (see Parts of Class for descriptions). To keep things organized, each week will follow the same general rhythm:

• Monday: Class meeting (lecture and/or in-class exercise); Readings Due; Surveys (content and/or class) Class Survey Due (some weeks);
• Wednesday: Class meeting (lecture and/or in-class exercise); Discussion initial posting due; Content Survey Due (most weeks);
• Friday: Seek and Find Due; Design Exercise Due

Other than class meetings (11-12:15), everything is due on that day, Madison time. If it’s 12:01am Tuesday, it’s not Monday. You should assume that all deadlines are strict. We will let you know if there are exceptions.

This class has no official pre-requisites.

You need to have graduate standing - we expect a certain level of intellectual maturity.

Importantly, you need to be willing to learn about visualization design by reading, discussing/writing, and trying small exercises. (see What Is This Class and Why?).

Attendance is part of class. This class involves in-class experiences. This requires students to be in class - if you are not in class for the in-class experience, you won’t have the in-class experience. If you know that you will miss a lot of classes, or do not intend to come to class “nearly all of the time”, please do not take the class.

Overview

This class has a lot of parts to it. There is a Weekly Rhythm so you can keep everything straight…

• Class Meetings - (Monday/Wednesday) the class meets twice a week. Attendance is required. We’ll use class time for a mix of lectures (traditional professor monologues), discussions (in various group sizes), guest lectures, in-class exercises, and group activites. See Class Meetings (attendance policy) for more information.

• In-Class Experiences - (Monday/Wednesday) these will be small exercises, done on paper, in many of the class periods. You must bring “drawing supplies” to class. You are required to turn in your work - we will only check that you’ve made a reasonable attempt. (check/no check/not turned in) See In Class Exercises for more information.

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This class is a principles-and-design-oriented exploration of Data Visualization. This posting will explain the content, style and rationale for the class. The class is different from most other CS classes.

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Summary

1. This class focuses on the principles of Visualization, with a focus on design. It does not focus on implementation. If you want to learn about implementation, you may be disappointed.

2. The class focuses on the basics/foundations, not the fancy stuff.

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Instructor: Prof. Michael Gleicher
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2:30-3:30, or by appointment (6385 Computer Sciences)
Contact: email gleicher@cs.wisc.edu (please follow Communications Policy)

TA: Cat Nelson
Office Hours: by appointment
Contact: email cwnelson4@wisc.edu (please follow Communications Policy)

Class Meetings: Monday and Wednesday 11am-12:15, Room 1221 Computer Sciences
Attendance: Attendance required, bring art supplies, see Class Meetings (attendance policy)

Exams: This class will have no exams. It will not have an exam during the final exam period.

Communications: See Communications Policy for details. We will use Canvas, email, and this course web.

The Weekly Rhythm should give you the pattern for each week.

The idea here is to give you a sense of the order of topics. (things are subject to change)

Somehow, when making this schedule, I left off a few key topics: interaction, graphic design, high-dimensional spaces, vis for machine learning (and machine learning for vis), scientific data types, …

Week 1: What is Vis?

Understanding what visualization is will help us understand how to learn about it.