The Week in Vis: Week 09

in Weeks in Vis

This should have been a normal week - with a really important topic. But, since we’re starting a new Design Exercise series, I wanted students to have extra time (especially since I am late in getting the assignment finalized).

Remainders from last Friday (10/25): Discussion 08, Seek and Find 08, De07: Critiquing Census Data Stories

This week, the topic in lecture and readings is Perception. We’ve begun to talk about it, but now we’ll dig in. I find it fascinating - and a useful tool for understanding visualization. I am not a perceptual scientist, but I have friends who are, and I’ve learned a lot from them. In fact, you’ll get to watch a video of one of them. (and you’ve already seen Prof. Schloss give a lecture)

This week we’ll also begin Design Challenge 2 (see Design Challenge 2 - Overview). For the next 4 weeks, the design exercises will be connected to a single data set (ATUS Data for 765-24). This week you’ll start working with the data. The assignment itself isn’t ready (it will be at DE09: Initial Experiments), but if you want to get started early, you could read Design Challenge 2 - Overview to get the basic idea, and ATUS Data for 765-24 to learn about the data set.

One thing that will be different about these Design Exercises is that we will try an experiment where students can (optionally) participate in a “collaborative learning opportunity.” This is explained at Opt In: Collaborative Learning Opportunity for Design Exercises 9-12 - which you should have read already (it was also a Canvas posting). You must decide if you want to participate by filling out the form at CLO Survey: Opt in or out to the Collaborative Learning Opportunity (you must do this by 2pm on Monday, October 28th).

I cannot setup the assignment until I know who is participating (which is why we have the odd deadline - this is the first 2pm deadline).

For students who decide to “opt in” there will be a discussion due (probably wednesday/friday - since it won’t be ready for the usual Monday/Wednesday cycle).