Slides online

by Mike Gleicher on September 7, 2019

As promised, I am putting lecture slides online (in Canvas). You should be able to find them in the “files” part of Canvas, but if you need a direct link:

https://canvas.wisc.edu/courses/170656/files/folder/Slides

My experiments with lecture capture for the first day is online at: https://mediaspace.wisc.edu/media/CS765+Data+Visualization+2019+-+Lecture+1/0_8kr0glxt

In the future, I may try to put preliminary versions of the slides online before class.

Quiz 1 Ready

by Mike Gleicher on September 5, 2019

Quiz 1 is now ready. The link is https://canvas.wisc.edu/courses/170656/quizzes/134418. You should do it after you do the first week’s readings. (you also can only take it after you are enrolled in class).

Normally, quizzes will be posted Monday, and due on Friday. But this is an unnusual week.

Week 1 Deadlines and Waiting Lists

by Mike Gleicher on September 4, 2019

Things always get off to a rough start – so we’ve shifted the deadlines for week 1 a bit…

Please try to do everything as soon as possible, but we will accept the first week’s work (online discussion, seek and find, quiz) until the end of the 2nd week. This should give everyone a chance to get enrolled, worked out issues in submitting things to Canvas, etc.

You can see the first week’s assignments in the first Week in Vis posting.

The first “Quiz” isn’t available yet – I will announce when it is.

If you are not yet enrolled: (if you are enrolled, do things on Canvas!)

  1. Make sure you are on the waiting list (and coming to class)
  2. Since you don’t have access to Canvas, I’ve placed the first readings (for the first 2 weeks) into a box folder: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/wzyrqt9zav0yyvugxewhxg2uqvkszkg4
  3. While you can’t post your Online Discussion or Seek and Find until you get Canvas, you may want to think about the prompts.
    1. Online Discussion: “From the readings (including the class web – be sure you’ve read the “How to Visualize” posting), you should have gotten a few different definitions of what visualization is – including mine. You’ll also get a sense of what is in the textbook (Munzner’s preface has a summary) and the plan for the class. And hopefully you have a sense of my “4 step process” for visualization and the “4 components of visualization.” For your posting, talk about how these things (definitions of visualization, topics from the book and class, …) fit with your interests. What are you interested in visualization? How does this align with what other people think visualization is and how the class will teach it?
    2. Seek and Find: “We want you to be a little more aware of the visualizations that you encounter in your life. We also want to work out the mechanics of handing in assignments, specifically seek and finds. Check over the Seek and Find ground rules and make sure you are able to post images to canvas (see Posting Images To Canvas).For week 1, you can pick any data visualization – but pick one that you encountered recently. Either something from your day to day life, your research, your hobbies, …In your description, tell us where you encountered it, why you think its a data visualization, and why you were interested in it. Don’t worry about judging it for now.”

I do not know if we will be able to enroll everyone from the waiting list. But, I intend to figure it out in class on Friday when we get a good sense of who is really intending to come to the class.

The Week in Vis 01 (Mon, Sep 2 – Fri, Sep 6): What is Visualization

by Mike Gleicher on August 30, 2019

CLASS MEETINGS
  • Mon, Sep 2 – No Class (Labor Day)
  • Wed, Sep 4 – Intro
  • Fri, Sep 6 – ICE:two numbers(1)
WEEK DEADLINES

This is the first of the weekly “Week in Vis” postings. There are enough things going on in class that having easy pointers to what will happen is useful.

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to look through the Start Here page. In particular, the parts of class page will help you understand what you have to do this week, although the first week, the deadlines are a little skewed as we have some “getting started” issues. If you notice, the deadlines are all crossed out above – since realistically, you might need a few extra days to work out the mechanics (and we didn’t start on Monday this week). Please have things done as soon as possible.

The topic for this week is to talk about what Visualization is – both in terms of generally, but also what this class is. The first lecture (which is Wednesday) will talk about both Visualization generally, but also about the class to introduce the mechanics. In the second lecture (Friday) we’ll do an “in-class” exercise where you will do a little design as a way to get you thinking about the class topics.

  1. Even though it’s the first week, we’ll still have most of the parts of class. The first Online Discussion and Seek and Find for this week are ready to go. The Quiz might be delayed. Normally, these have strict and regular deadlines. The first week, we’ll start a little more slowly.

Normally, I prefer you at least start the readings before Monday’s lecture. This week, there was no Monday lecture, so try to get to the readings as soon as possible

Readings for Week 1:

The main goal here is to give you a sense of what visualization is. I want you to get some different perspectives, so you can form your own.

Most of these are from textbooks (see the Books page)). A goal is to introduce you to the people you’ll be learning from this semester (including me!). I recommend reading things in this order. If you haven’t read the page about Books for the class, I recommend you do so, since it will give you some context.

  1. What we talk about when we talk about visualization (Chapter 1 of The Truthful Art) (theTruthfulArtCh1.pdf 5.7mb) This will be your first exposure to Alberto Cairo’s books (see my discussion from the Spring of 17). A great place to start the class.
    For a great (but optional) introduction to Cairo’s style and philosophy, read the “Introduction” (which is before chapter 1) (theTruthfulArtCh0.pdf 7.7mb).
  2. What’s Vis (Chapter 1 from Munzner’s Visualization Analysis & Design) (Munzner-01-Intro.pdf 0.3mb). This is the main textbook of the class, and is important to get the main ideas.
  3. My “What is Vis” posting (What is Visualization?) – which may be redundant with the first lecture. It is strongly based on Munzner.
  4. Two Blog Postings by Robert Kosara: What is Visualization? A Definition and The Many Names of Visualization – read these to get a viewpoint different than mine.

In addition to all this, you should look over the course web to understand things like course policies.

Waiting List and Enrollment

by Mike Gleicher on August 30, 2019

We have more interest in the class than we have seats. It is unclear how many students we can take from the waiting list.

If you are enrolled in class: congratulations! We’re excited to have you! However, should you decide you don’t want to take the class, please drop the class to make room for someone else.

If you are on the waiting list: Please come to class the first day. If you are a CS student: you have priority and you will be able to enroll. If you are a student from another department: it is unclear how many non-CS students we can accommodate. But the first day should give us a sense of how much space we have.

Start Here

by Mike Gleicher on August 30, 2019

Welcome to CS765 Data Visualization! If you’ve found this page, you’re on the right track.

There are a lot of small pieces to class, which lead to a lot of things on the website. Once things get to steady state, it isn’t so hard, but the first week can be confusing.

Your first thing to do is to understand what this class is so you can make sure that you are in the right place. Some things I recommend:

  • Read through the “What is the course and why” posting. This will give you a sense of what this class will be.
  • Read through the “What is Vis and How Do You Do It” posting – this will be a reading for the first week, but you may want to read through it to get a sense of where I am coming from.
  • Look at the Schedule as this will give you a concise list of the topics we will cover. You can also look at the Readings page that puts the entire semester’s worth of readings on one page (warning: it’s intimidating as a single page).
  • Look at the “Parts of Class” page – this will give you a sense of what we will do in class.
  • You can always look at Last Year’s Course Web. It looks a lot like this year’s.

Most importantly: come to class the first day (Wednesday, September 4, 11am, Room 312 Wendt Commons).

Some things you need to know:

  • Class will generally meet twice a week (on Monday and Wednesday after the first week). 11am in 312 Wendt Commons.
  • Bring “art supplies” to class (colored pens or pencils).
  • Check the course Web https://pages.graphics.cs.wisc.edu/765-f19 for info.
  • You don’t need to buy books, but you might want to (see the Books page).
  • There is a class policies page that is probably more detailed than it needs to be.
  • A lot of the regular weekly structures may not be set up for the first week.

This is the course web for CS765!

by Mike Gleicher on August 26, 2019

You have found the course web. There isn’t much here yet. Check back again soon. Or, look at last year’s course web as this year’s class will be similar.

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