Reading 2: What is Vis? (Kinds of Vis)

by Mike Gleicher on January 20, 2017

A warning: this is a longer set of readings than usual, but part of the goal is to have you read a bunch of different things to give you a sense of different perspectives.

These readings are due on Sunday, January 22nd (i.e., before class Monday – as the weekly readings are). However, since this is a larger than usual reading and because we haven’t gotten into the regular weekly rhythm, there is a little less rush. (also, this reading is being posted late, so you probably need more time). Please have read all of them before class on Wednesday, January 25th.

This reading is part of the Week 2 Assignment (link). There is a required discussion in the assignment that relates to this reading.

Different people have different ideas as to what visualization is, and what kinds of visualization there are. So in this reading, we’ll try to get some particularly relevant viewpoints. There are purposefully multiple viewpoints represented here, so there are multiple things to read.

  1. Chapter 1 of Munzner. (You can access it from University library or protected reader)
    This is more about “why” (which is the next reading/lecture), but it’s a good place to start.
  2. “What we talk about when we talk about visualization.”(Chapter 1 of Cairo’s The Thruthful Art). This gets at many different kinds of visualization, although his definitions are a bit different than others. (protected reader)
  3. Edward Tufte. Graphical Excellence. Chapter 1 of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd edition (any edition is OK). Graphics Press, 2001. (protected reader).
    If you’re not familiar with Tufte, this will be a good introduction. Later, Cairo will put him in perspective (or you can read my explanation of Tufte). However, I strongly recommend that you read this chapter and form your own opinion first.
    This chapter is a mix of what is vis, why to do vis, and how we’ll know it’s good (the three questions we’ll start the class with).
  4. Classifications of Visualizations. Chapter 1 of Designing Data Visualizations, by Illinsky & Steele (protected reader).
    I like this chapter because it gets at some terminology and some distinctions that others don’t bother to mention (like explore vs. explain).

The following are a set of blog posts to help you get a sense of some other viewpoints, and kinds of visualization.

  1. http://eagereyes.org/criticism/definition-of-visualization
  2. http://eagereyes.org/blog/2011/the-many-names-of-visualization
  3. http://flowingdata.com/2011/09/29/the-many-words-for-visualization/
  4. http://eagereyes.org/blog/2010/the-difference-between-infographics-and-visualization

I don’t agree with everything that you’ve read – but at this point, the goal is to give you many different perspectives on what visualization is, not just mine (you’ll get enough of it!)

Yes, there are 8 readings – but they are relatively light – 4 of them are short blog posts.

Permission to Canvas and Protected Reader

by Chih-Ching Chang on January 20, 2017

With many students still on the waiting list we must be fair. Thus, we cannot give non-students access to things. We’ve removed the access of those who are not actually enrolling in the class. If you successfully get into the class but do not have access to canvas or box (protected reader), please send a inbox message to me via canvas OR e-mail me (Chih-Ching).

 

It is fine if you cannot hand in assignments on time due to this issue. Don’t worry about it.

The Topics in this Class

by Mike Gleicher on January 17, 2017

The class can be divided (roughly) in to 4 parts:

  1. Foundations:
    • What is Visualization?
    • Why do we do it? (and Why bother doing it well?)
    • What does it mean to do it effectively?
    • How do we think about it in the abstract? (so we can learn once and apply a lot)
    • Key Topics: Types of visualization, goals of visualization, audiences and stakeholders, evaluation of visualization, critique skills, task abstraction, data abstraction
  2. Principles:
    • What are the basic building blocks of visualizations?
    • How do we put those together to make effective visualizations?
    • How does human perception work, and how can this inform our design?
    • What principles of visual design can help us?
    • Key Topics: Encodings, Layout, Graphic Design, Human Perception, Color Theory
  3. Applying those Principles:
    • How do we use the principles to solve harder problems?
    • How do we use interaction and multiple views?
    • How do we use standard designs – and when do we need to invent new ones?
    • How do we deal with common challenges (like networks and high dimensions)?
    • Key Topics: standard (and non-standard) designs, combining encodings, interaction and multi-view, graphs, networks, high-dimensions, dealing with scale, 3D objects
  4. Specific Challenges:
    • How have people addressed common, but challenging cases? (e.g., volumes and flows)
    • How are researchers addressing emerging problems? (e.g., uncertainty, statistical models)
    • Key Topics: Scientific Visualization (volumes, flows, tensors), Uncertainty Visualization, Statistical Model Visualization, …

Mixed throughout is the idea that the best way to learn about visualizations is to look at examples (and critique them) and to try making some (either from scratch, or re-designing existing ones). Which means we’ll get some small tastes of what comes later at the beginning, and those concepts from the beginning will permeate throughout the class.

Reading 1: Getting Started

by Mike Gleicher on January 15, 2017

Since this is the first reading for the first, week, it is a little unusual. A lot of the goal here is to get you used to the ways we do readings in class – how we’ll distribute documents to read, how readings are connected to discussion assignments, etc.

Please read all the listed readings before class on Friday, January 20th.

Because not everyone will be aware of the reading before class (part of the assignment is to learn how we will make you aware of readings), and because not everyone will be enrolled in time, we will be a little more lenient with the due date on this one.

The readings:

  1. The course web. Look around, look at the policies pages and other rants. You might also have a look over the previous year’s web (since this year will be a lot like the previous year).
  2. The “frontmatter” (preface) of the Munzner textbook. This is valuable since it explains the philosophy behind the book (which matches the philosophy of the course pretty well). We want to make sure you can find things in the protected reader, so I am not giving you more instructions. You can figure it out from University library or in the protected reader.
  3. Stephen Few. Data Visualization for Human Perception. (online article at interaction.org). This is a nice overview article that will give you a sense of a lot of the topics in this class.
  4. The first 2 chapters of Alberto Cairo’s “The Functional Art”. (see what I have to say about Cairo’s books here) You can access these readings in the course reader here.

You’ll be asked to discuss these readings in Discussion 1.

What we will do in this class

by Mike Gleicher on January 14, 2017

In this class, there will be…

  1. A weekly reading assignment
  2. A weekly discussion assignment
  3. A weekly Seek and Find assignment
  4. Regular “in-class exercises” (approximately once a week)
  5. Several “Design Exercises”
  6. Other “online assignments”

The natural rhythm of the class will be:

  • Two lectures a week, one of which will probably have some in-class exercise.
  • A Reading assignment every week (possibly with multiple parts due on different days).
  • A Discussion assignment every week (possibly with multiple “initial postings” that are required, and with an expectation of participation in discussion).
  • A Seek-and-Find assignment due every week.
  • A “Design Exercise/Challenge” will happen every 3-4 weeks (and unfold over 2-3 weeks)
  • Some other things.

Reading Assignments

In prior offerings, I was told that this class has a lot of reading for a CS class. Expect this year to be the same. You can look at previous years to get a sense: this year’s readings will be similar in quantity and type, but different in specifics.

Each week, there will be a single reading assignment that you are responsible for. It may have multiple parts, and different parts might be due at different times. Some readings may have choices.

We will assess whether or not you are doing the readings from the other class activities. Sometimes, discussions will ask you to discuss or summarize a reading, or some of the other activities will build on the readings. Also, your participation (online and in class) may be used to assess whether you are doing the readings.

All of the readings will be made available online, including the textbooks.

There will be optional readings as well.

Online Discussions

Online discussions will be a significant part of this class.

Each week, there will be a separate online discussion. The previous week’s discussion will not be closed (so interesting conversations can be continued).

For each online discussion, there will be one or more “required postings,” as well as an expectation that each person engages in the discussion (i.e., makes more than the minimum number of postings). Each assignment will detail what is required in the required postings, as well as suggestions for discussion topics.

There will be two “grades” for each discussion: one based on the required posting, and one for participation.

There are also “informal” online discussions (besides the assignments). These are optional, but if you contribute in a positive way, it can help your grade.

Seek and Find Assignments

Each week, you will have an assignment that requires you to find a visualization (usually on the web, but you can find them in print and scan them). Each week’s assignment will ask you to find an example of a visualization (subject to some specifics), and to answer some questions.

Seek and Find assignments are “graded” and required.

In-Class Experiences

In class experiences will be “graded” on the Not Present / Something / Acceptable / Good scale. It is our expectation that most people will get “Good” for trying.

You can’t make up an in-class experience. Even if you did the work at home, you will have missed out on the collaborative aspects and other things that only happen in class. For some of the assignments, we will let you get “partial credit” by doing it on your own afterwards (especially if there are reasons why a large portion of the class might miss an exercise).

The Design Exercises

The design exercises are “mini-projects” where we will ask you to actually create things. There will be 3-4 over the course of the semester. They will typically have multiple phases (for example, there may be a phase where you need to turn in your thoughts on the tasks, or to summarize your goals). For each assignment, the deliverables will be described.

The exercises are intended that everyone should be able to do them – and it is your choice of what tools you use. All of the exercises will be “programming optional” – we will provide ways for you to do them without doing any programming (for example, using GUI-based design tools).

Other Assignments

This is a catch-all for small assignments that we’ll ask people to do that don’t fall into the regular categories. There won’t be a lot of them, and they won’t be very big. But we will keep track of them.

Weekly Schedule and Class Attendance

by Mike Gleicher on January 14, 2017

Class Schedule

The class is officially scheduled for 1-2:15 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Every week of the semester (except during break).

Note that this is “overscheduled:” the class is scheduled for 3*75 minutes a week, but is only a 3 credit hour class. So, we will meet for (on average) 150 minutes a week (which is what a 3 credit hour class is meant to do).

Under normal circumstances, the class will meet twice a week: on Monday and Wednesday. There will be exceptions. For example, the first week, classes start on Wednesday, so we will meet Wednesday and Friday.

Students are responsible for checking the course web to determine the schedule.

We will do everything we can to give you as much advanced warning as possible as to what the class schedule is. We also understand that the irregular schedule makes things difficult for people (which is why we will do all we can to stick to Monday/Wednesday as a regular pattern).

 

Policy on Attendance

Class attendance is required.

It is my job to make sure that your time in class is well spent and worth it. It is your job to be there. Sometimes the value in a class experience may not be obvious to you. And sometimes, I’ll do something experimental which may fail. If you don’t feel like I am keeping up my side of this deal well enough for you to keep up yours, let me know.

Being present in class means more than just being there physically: it means being there mentally and participating. With devices (phones, laptops, etc.) it is really tempting to read your email, check the news or social media, play a game, or take a nap. It’s tempting to think of class like a cafe – a nice comfy place with a good internet connection. But, remember, that when you do this, not only are you missing out, but you are distracting to others.

So please plan to come to class and really attending class. In some ways its worse to “be there (physically) but not be there (mentally)” than to not be there are all.

If you don’t intend on attending “nearly all” of the class meetings, you should not take this class. If someone’s attendance is perceived to be a problem, we will penalize them.

We understand that it is impossible for everyone to be at every class (even the instructor misses some classes). Things happen – bad and good. You get sick, you need to go to a family reunion in honor of your grandmother’s 100th birthday, you need to go to Stockholm to get a Nobel prize, your alarm clock breaks and you sleep through class …

The range of reasons people have for missing class is broad – and it’s difficult to judge what is “legitimate” or not. So, if you are going to miss class, let the administrative TA (Chih-Ching) know. If at the end of the semester, we decide that your attendance is a problem, we’ll look at the reasons.

In general, there is no way to “make up” what happens in class. You cannot make up an in-class experience (since you didn’t experience it!). We will try to make some exceptions at the beginning of the semester when people will miss class because they aren’t sure of their enrollment status. But, if you miss class, you miss what happened. Talk to a classmate to find out what we talked about. You are still responsible for any online assignments either due before or after a class. But you cannot do an in-class experience without actually being there, and doing/having the experiences is what makes this course.

We also understand that irregularity of the class schedule can make it difficult for you to plan when you will miss class. We will try to give you sufficient warning on the class schedule. However, if there is an unexpected schedule change, we will be more understanding if people cannot come.

Knowing who is (and is not) in class is difficult. There are enough people that it’s hard to remember everyone, and keep track. Ironically, when you notice someone is missing it is often a good sign about the person (the person is enough of a contributor to class that their absence is felt). We’ll do some things to keep track of who is and isn’t in class, including the in-class experiences, but we will generally rely on the honor principle for you to tell us you weren’t there. If we notice that you’re missing and you didn’t tell us, that’s not good.

In-class experiences will give us one tool to gauge who is at class. Do not try to game this. If you miss an experience, you miss the experience.

Books for this class

by Mike Gleicher on January 13, 2017

You do not need to buy any textbooks for this class. All readings (and there is a pretty large amount) will be provided for you online. 

The two “textbooks” for the class are placed on “electronic reserve” by the library, so they are available online completely. For all other books, we will use a small enough amount that I can provide you with the readings under “reasonable academic fair use.”

If you like to own the physical books (which you might for some of these – as they are really good books), or if you like to support the authors, or if you want to see more of books that I can only give you a few pieces of, then go ahead and buy them. I have not arranged for them at the University Bookstore (because they are not required, it probably doesn’t make sense for them to order in textbook quantities), but you can get them almost as fast online (see my 2015 rant about online bookstores).

We will read most, if not all of these textbooks (links are to the 2015 rationales):

We will also look at selections from the books of Edward Tufte (see my 2015 discussion) and Alberto Cairo (see this for my thoughts). Cairo’s books are excellent tutorials on visualization. Tufte’s books look nice on a coffee table and… well… you’ll see.

 

Books: The Functional Art and The Truthful Art

by Mike Gleicher on January 13, 2017

Alberto Cairo’s books “The Functional Art” and “The Truthful Art” art are both excellent visualization books. Cairo is a designer who focuses on journalism visualizations, so his target is more for journalists and creators of “information graphics.” But he has such a keen eye, writes well, and brings enough of the “academic vis” concepts to his work that his books make them really valuable to a wide audience. His writing style – which makes very clear what is his opinions, and what is more factual (unlike, say, Tufte) – is very accessible, and the book is full of nice examples.

His books are open minded (he sees both sides of the various debates), and provide a good balance between the artist/designer prospective, the psychologist perspective, and the Tufte-ist perspective.

I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to learn more about Vis – or even to people who know a lot, and want to see how different perspectives get put together.

I did not make them required textbooks because: 1) I couldn’t pick which one, 2) a lot of each book is journalism specific – which while interesting and providing good examples, is not the focus of the class, 3) the library wasn’t able to get it for electronic reserve, and 4) I only realized how good the books are too late to require them. They are strongly recommended. We will have readings (subject to academic fair use from them). But I recommend you buy them. (these are Amazon links, for my feelings on Amazon see this rant from 2015).

Some notes on the content (to contextualize the readings)

The Functional Art is Book 1:

  • Preface: an interesting story to motivate the tension between art and factual presentation
  • Chapter 1: Why Visualize – a nice example of using basic tools to expose the basics of visualization, along with some of his philosophy. (required reading)
  • Chapter 2: Forms and Functions – this is a very different perspective on design of visualizations than I normally take (focused on encodings). Gets across the concept of how wide the design space is, and how task connects to design. (probably required)
  • Chapter 3: The Beauty Paradox: has the best explanation of Tufte-ism (that is kind to both sides of the “war” – an amazing feat). The minimalism wars section 61-72 is required as it provides a good context to understand Tufte. The first part of the chapter 45-61 is probably required since it sets up the last part, and gives an interesting way to think about the visualization design space (that is a little skewed towards journalism/infographics, but good food for thought in general).
  • Chapter 4: The Complexity Challenge: A nice discussion of some ideals in infographic design, which are nice ways to think about more complex vis in terms of the audience. Interesting, and a perspective missing from class – but recommended, not required.
  • Chapter 5: The Eye and Visual Brain: A nice survey of perception for vis. Recommended, since it’s concise – but we’ll read some more thorough sources.
  • Chapter 6: Visualizing for the Mind: More basic perception. I like this because he makes great connections of why understanding perception helps with Vis design. A nice intro to graphical perception (we’ll read some of the original sources). Probably required.
  • Chapter 7: Images in the Head: Some thoughts on the connection between design and “high level” perception. I like it a lot, and it is a topic that is missing in my thinking (and to an extent, this class). But it’s more tied to infographics, so it won’t be required.
  • Chapter 8: Creating Information Graphics, Chapter 9: The rise of information graphics: Nice discussions of design principles, but too tied to infographics to be relevant enough to class.
  • Profiles 1-10: Interviews with designers. Interesting for the cool examples. Less relevant for the class.

We’ll provide chapters 1,2,3 and 6 (4 of 19 chapters) since providing more would be pushing the limits of fair use – and I want to support the author. If you like what you see in those chapters, buy the book!

The Truthful Art is Book 2: (or to be more precise, it’s a later book. it’s hard to call them a series)

  • Preface: A great story to motivate data storytelling and inquiry. I have seen him give a talk (which was reviewed here).
  • Chapter 1: What we talk about when we talk about visualization. A nice set of definitions. Different than others. (possibly required)
  • Chapter 2: The five qualities of great visualizations: This is a very “journalist” take on it, but it provides a nice counterpoint to some of the other “how do we know its good” discussions. (possibly required)
  • Chapter 3: The Truth Continuum, and Chapter 4: Of Conjectures and Uncertainty. This gets into “data thinking” in a fabulous way. I recommend Chapter 4 to anyone who needs to see how statistical thinking related to, well, anything. (recommended, but a little off the mark for class)
  • Chapter 5: Basic Principles of Visualization: A nice review of encoding. We’ll see it much more formally in other readings, but it is so nicely placed in the context of design, we’ll use it to complement the more complete treatments (probably required)
  • Chapter 6: Exploring data with simple charts: brings basic tasks into perspective with the encoding principles.
  • Chapter 7: Visualizing Distributions – gets to some specific designs connecting standard designs to design ideas and …
  • Chapter 8: Revealing Change – again, a wonderful look at standard problems and designs, and then connecting them to how they can be used an improved for specific cases.
  • Chapter 9: Seeing Relationship – like 7,8
  • Chapter 10: Mapping Data – see the pattern with 6-11? this one is a little less relevant to class
  • Chapter 11: Uncertainty and Significant
  • Chapter 12: On Creativity and Innovation

It’s hard to pick just bits of this book, since 3-4 is such good “general knowledge”, and 6-11 are really great at helping to understand important tasks (and the designs that support them). But we’ll probably require 1,2 and 5. I’ll probably base lectures on 6-11. And I’ll strongly encourage you to buy the book.

 

Information for People on The Waiting List

by Mike Gleicher on January 12, 2017

This message was sent to everyone on the waiting list by email. If you did not receive it, please check to make sure you are on the waiting list and that your university email account is working.

This message is intented to get to everyone on who is on the CS765 (Data Visualization) waiting list. There is no easy way for me to send email to the list – hopefully this will work.

There was a lot more demand for this class than I expected.

All the space in the original room (40 seats, in a room for which 40 is very cozy) filled immediately. I was able to find a better room, which has 64 seats in it. This means that many people on the waiting list will be let in. But many people will not, and the University won’t allow me to have more students than chairs (even if you do want to stand). I was not able to find an even bigger room.

Given the high demand, I also plan to teach the class in the Fall. This isn’t a 100% certainty – but it will be made more likely if there is evidence of lots of demand. (so stay on the waiting list for now).

IF YOU ARE ON THE WAITING LIST: Please do not send me arguments for why you think you need to be put to the front of the queue. I assume everyone has a good reason. I am not sure of how to fairly order the requests and am figuring out how this will work. The University wants me to have a uniform policy (and “writes a good reason note” is not a uniform policy). Simply going in order is not fair because information about the class spread unevenly around campus (and I’m not sure it works since the enrollment system doesn’t necessarily break ties in a fair way).

This week, we will start inviting people off of the waiting list to enroll. If you are invited, please accept (or reject) the invitation quickly. (I believe that the enrollment system sends you email – but I’ve never seen the students side of this).

I expect that many people will drop the class after the first lecture or two, in which case we will be even more spaces. However, until people drop, I can’t let new people in.

Because there is no extra space in the room, please do not come to class if you are not enrolled. If you miss one of the first classes and are enrolled later, we will work something out. (although in general, you need to come to class and cannot make up in class work).

If you are curious… there are 65 people on the waiting list. If no one drops, we can have about 25 more people. I expect that it will be closer to 35 given drops.

E-mail Subscription

by Alper Sarikaya on January 6, 2017

You may elect to sign up on this page to receive e-mail notifications whenever a new post is added to the course web. If you have any problems with this mechanism, let the course staff know!


 

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