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Here are some selected student responses that earned kudos. We picked one of each type somewhat randomly (these are not the “best” - they are a random example of something that earned a kudo, which is in itself a random sampling of things that are good).

We are providing these to give you a sense of what your classmates are doing that catches our eyes.

Design Exercise 6 asks that you make 4 visualizations, each telling a different story, from the Census Data data set. This assignment extends DE05: Stories from Data (EDA).

In this design exercise, we’ll continue working with the Census Data and make more visualizations. The idea is to try to “tell stories” with the data (illustrate interesting things). The problem is, we also need to identify the stories that are worth telling, which means we need to do some exploring. So part of this assignment is to try to do “Exploratory Data Analysis” where we make pictures that suggest what the interesting stories are.

Here is some advice on making good “figures.” It is targeted towards design exercises, but really, they are advice on how to make good figures generally.

These ideas apply more to places where we are asking you to “tell stories” from data. This starts with DE04. If you’re putting a figure in a paper or a slide, you are telling a story as well.

In this assignment, you will make some visualizations from the Census Data. Actual visualizations based on data (unlike last time when we asked you to sketch). You will turn your assignment in using the Canvas survey Design Exercise 04: Pictures from Data (due Fri, Sep 27)

Design Exercise 3 will ask you to consider what visualizations to make to answer questions. We will continue to work with the Census Data.

This assignment will ask you to think more about the Census Data data set. The goal is to think about how questions and visualizations connect, and to start coming up with visualizations that answer questions.

Mechanics

This exercise will be turned in as a Canvas Survey: Design Exercise 03: Pictures and Questions. Most questions ask you to upload a file (a separate file for each question). You should be able to upload just about any image.

Invitations to our Tableau Cloud instance were sent out after class today.

You should receive an email with subject “You’ve Been Invited to Tableau Cloud” from the server (reghelp@onlinemail.tableau.com). Please accept the invitation and set up your account now. Even though we may not use Tableau until next week.

This is a tutorial on how to get started with Tableau using the Census Data for the Design Exercises. It will walk you through what I did to make a few initial pictures. This will show you some of the quirks of Tableau, and the dataset.

This is an update - especially for those who joined class late (we admitted a lot of students on or after the first day, but we should be done for now). We want everyone to get caught up on the first few assignments as soon as possible. Hopefully, we can get through the mechanics and administrative stuff and focused on learning Visualization!

On Friday, September 6, we closed the CS765-24 class. If you are not enrolled, you will not be. I apologize to those of you who wanted to take the class - there was more demand than capacity.

What can you do if you want to learn about Visualization?

• You cannot attend class. Please don’t come. See below. Showing up is only one of the parts of class. You also cannot access internal course materials on Canvas (fair use means just for students in class).
• You can look at the course web (or last year’s). This can give ideas that you can do on your own. The reading list is particularly good.
• I am trying to create resources that work for people outside of class, but it is a slow process. See Visualization Snacks.
• I will teach the class again in the future (probably next fall).

No attendance without enrolmment

One question I was asked (by email and in class): I cannot allow un-enrolled students to attend.

In our first design exercise (it is DE02 because it is in the second week), we will look at our data set and begin to think about why to visualize it. We’ll also practice critique.

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.

See Waiting List - Final Message for an update on the waiting list.

This is a message for students enrolled in class before the class starts. A link to this message will be sent to the class mailing list (usually I don’t do that, but this is not a normal week).

A link to this message will be sent by email to everyone who is on the CS765 Waiting List.