Architecture, Design and Planning Unit of Study Outline DECO3100 Information Visualisation Design Studio Semester 1, 2020 | 12 credit points Unit Coordinator: Somwrita Sarkar email: [email protected] consultation hours: Thursdays 10-11am, Rm 275, Wilkinson Building Coordinator: Somwrita Sarkar, [email protected] Tutors: Rohann Dorabjee, [email protected] Drew Cosgrove, [email protected] John Antonios, [email protected] Rashi Shrivastava, [email protected] Lectures: Mondays 9-10 am, Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre 315 Tutorials: Mondays 10-12 pm, Wilkinson 261, 262, and 269 Computing Studios Studios: Mondays 1-4 pm, Wilkinson 261, 262 and 269 Computing Studio • Introduction The field of information visualisation focuses on how data can be effectively represented and meaningfully communicated to people, in interactive and automated ways. The unit of study introduces the principles of information visualisation design, with special attention to aesthetic communication of data, data analytics, and user engagement. Key concepts covered in this unit include: abstract data visualisation; data acquisition; and parsing and processing of data. Using a combination of vector graphics software tools such as Adobe Illustrator and programming languages for processing data, students will develop information visualisations of real-world datasets that are both communicative and engaging. The unit will equip students with the skills to produce static as well as web-ready interactive data visualisations. This unit is a core unit in the Bachelor of Design Computing program. It involves 6 hours of class time per week: 1 hour lecture, 2 hours tutorials, and 3 hours of studio time.
Architecture, Design and Planning • Schedule All assessments are due 11:59 pm of the noted date. The lecture and tutorial schedule is updated each week – please look for the most updated version on Canvas. Week Date Lectures Tutorials Studios Assessment Tasks 1 24 Feb 2020 Lecture 1: Unit Overview, Context, Why, How of Information Visualisation. Tutorial 1: Design Activity – Explorations of Info Vis around Campus Studio 1: Assessment 1 overview, and submissions to Canvas of the campus exploration design activity Assessment 1 out 2 02 Mar 2020 Lecture 2: Visual Communication and Storytelling Tutorial 2: Bar Chart tutorial and HeatMaps Studio 2 3 09 Mar 2020 Lecture 3: Data and Visual Encoding Tutorial 3: Slopegraph Tutorial – Line chart/Scatter Plot tutorial Studio 3 4 16 Mar 2020 Lecture 4: Explorartory Data Analysis Tutorial 4: 5 Number summary, Box and Whisker with Outliers Studio 4: Introducing Assignment 4 – getting into groups. Assessment 1 in (15 Mar 2020), Assessment 2 out 5 23 Mar 2020 Lecture 5: The Big List of 20 No Nos Part 1 Tutorial 5: Data Wrangling – VS Code Studio 5: Storytelling with Data exercise 6 30 Mar 2020 Lecture 6: The Big List of 20 No Nos Part 2 Tutorial 6: Introduction to Gephi Studio 6: Zoom meeting discussion 7 6 Apr 2020 Lecture 7: More Complex info vis – Multidimensional data, Networks Tutorial 7: Introduction to QGIS and drawing choropleth Map – Part 1 Studio 7: General Feedback from A1. Master Document on Assignment 2. Mid-semester break (22 Apr 2019, no class) 8 20 Apr 2020 Lecture 8: Maps and Geospatial data Tutorial 8: Introduction to QGIS and drawing choropleth Map Part 2 Studio 8: Introduction to Assignment 3 – PDF with library uses. Assessment 2 in (19 Apr 2020), Assessment 3 out 9 27 Apr 2020 Lecture 9: Data visualisations for the Web. Tutorial 9: Refresher on HTML, CSS and JS. SVG and Canvas. Studio 9: Creating an SVG artwork with JS – Showing how arrays and objects work. 10 04 May 2020 Lecture 10: Interaction in Data Visualisation Tutorial 10: JS for Data Vis Studio 10: Creating a static visualisation with a JS library. 11 11 May 2020 Lecture 11: Animation in Data visualisations Tutorial 11: Adding interaction and animations in Visualisations Studio 11: Creating an interactive and animated visualisation with JS 12 18 May 2020 Lecture 12: Guest Lecturer – John Aldre Jota Tutorial 12: Q & A – Workshop for assignment 3 Studio 12: Live Q & A – Workshop for assignment 3 Architecture, Design and Planning 13 25 May 2020 No lecture Student Presentations Students Presentations Assessment 3 in (24 May 2019) • Assessment Tasks Total number of assessment tasks: 4 The 3 assessments together account for 90 marks. 10 marks are reserved for tutorial submissions and are awarded on a pass/fail basis. You will see that the assessments build up – the second one uses the structure in the first one, then adds a bit extra, and so on. (1) Assessment title Static Visualisation Design Assessment description Choose a small data set, and design a static visualisation. Write a one page summary (no more than 2-3 paragraphs) rigorously justifying your design choices. Use Excel and Adobe Illustrator to design the visualization. The visualization should be submitted as an A4 sized pdf, followed by the justification paragraphs. Marking Criteria: Marks will be assigned on the following breakdown, fractional marks may be awarded on each dimension: Criteria/Learning outcome Maximum marks Description Design skills in correctly designing and formatting all parts of a visualisation 5 In the A4 pdf, are Title, Axes, Legends, Data Sources, and all detailed parts of a visualisation present? Have all elements of a graph/visual been included properly? How effectively and clearly does the title explain the story? How effectively does the placement of the parts of the graph(s) communicate overall meaning? Design skills required to develop an information visualisation prototype using real-world datasets, using existing visual graph/chart types, and the ability to develop new visual representations based on data 5 Is there evidence of a good and clear usage of standard graph types? Is there evidence of new work on a standard graph type? How clearly is the main message being communicated visually? How clear is the visual map between the data and representation? Reasoning skills to provide justification and design rationale for all aspects of a visualisation 5 Justification: A clear strong concept, responding to the brief. Rigorous justification provided for visualisation design. Programming skills, technical skills on tools and programming languages required to successfully produce final publication standard infovis 5 Evidence for proper use of technical, visualisation and design skills. Architecture, Design and Planning Assessment category and type Submitted work Assignment, design Individual or group: individual Length / duration Submit an A4 pdf file with your visualization on Page 1 and your justification on Page 2, YourName_unikey_A1_DECO3100.pdf. Weight 20% Due date & time 15 March 2020, 11:59 pm Learning outcomes assessed 1,2,3,5 (2) Assessment title Exploratory Data Analysis Assessment description A primary aim of data visualisation is to answer questions from the data, and to negate or confirm any hypotheses from the data. Exploratory data analysis helps in visual, non-statistical, non- computational, non-mathematical ways to enable this aim. In this assessment, you will choose a data set and you will pose a particular question, analyse the data using the exploratory analysis methods covered in the tutorials and studios. You will then generate a final visualization, that brings out the affirmation or the negation of your hypothesis, based on your data analysis. Please refer to the template that is provided alongside on Canvas. You will do the following: 1. Choose a particular domain and a data set that you are interested in. 2. Pose an initial question, and then refine it. 3. Conduct exploratory analysis and report on it. 4. Produce a final visualization answerin
g the posed question. The exploratory analysis process will be covered in detail in class. Submit a 2-5 (single) A4 page report as a pdf, using only 11pt font (Times or similar) or 10 pt font (Arial, Helvetica or similar) reporting on the Exploratory Data Analysis process, and then finally concluding with how you answered the question you posed. Marking Criteria: Marks will be assigned on the following breakdown, fractional marks may be awarded on each dimension: Criteria/Learning outcome Maximum marks Description Design skills in correctly designing and formatting all parts of a visualisation 5 Are Title, Axes, Legends, Data Sources, and all detailed parts of a visualisation present? Have all elements of a graph/visual been included properly? How effectively and clearly does the title explain the story? How effectively does the placement of the parts of the graph communicate overall meaning? Design skills required to develop an information 5 Is there evidence of a good and clear usage the exploratory data analysis process? Are the concepts clear? Architecture, Design and Planning visualisation prototype using real-world datasets, using existing visual graph/chart types, and the ability to develop new visual representations based on data Analytical skills on basic statistical and mathematical concepts for exploratory and explanatory data analysis and visualisation 10 Evidence for the correct use of statistical and mathematical analysis techniques taught in class, evidence for good, meaningful transformations of and computations over data, and its relationship to design choices and representation, Evidence of proper exploration of data. Reasoning skills to provide justification and design rationale for all aspects of a visualisation 6 How clearly have all choices been explained? Is there evidence of exploration of multiple methods and evolution to a final answer? Programming skills on tools and programming languages required to successfully produce final publication standard infovis 3 Evidence for proper use of Excel and Illustrator, covering the skills taught in class Assessment category and type Submitted work Assignment, design Individual or group: individual Length / duration Submit a single pdf file of upto 5 pages, YourName_unikey_A2_DECO3100.pdf. Weight 30% Due date & time 19 April 2020, 11:59 pm Learning outcomes assessed 1,2,3,4,5 (3) Assessment title Interactive visualisation Design Assessment description In this assessment, you will use web techniques taught in class to design an interactive visualisation. What interactions, transitions or animations have you designed that allow you to address specific design intentions: for example, (a) encode layers of data, (b) draw attention to proper places, or the principle of overview, zoom, filter, details on demand. Have a solid rationale and reasoning for incorporating specific interactions. Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning These elements MUST be there in all visualisations: – A title – The visualisation with any labels, text, annotations, axes, legends, interactions – Data source The visualisation must explain on its own the key message that you want to convey. Additionally, submit 2-5 (single) A4 pages as a pdf, using only 11pt font (Times or similar) or 10 pt font (Arial, Helvetica or similar), as Design Process Book: – Your description of the data and various exploratory analyses you performed on raw data to produce the indicator. Include descriptions of any calculations, transformations, formatting, or any other steps you performed on your data. – Your description of the intended audience who will interact with your data visualization (user persona) – Your description and justification of the interactions you designed, and how you think this clearly explains the main message you want to convey to users. – Your justification of the design choices, covering chart type, annotations, labels, visual encodings, interactions, transitions, animations, visual choices, fonts, colours, any cleaning/pruning of the data you did, what parts of the data you used, and what parts you did not use. How did your choices enable you to communicate the main message clearly and succinctly? Explicitly address how your choices allowed you achieve specific visualization goals like encoding layers of data, reducing cognitive load, direct the audience’s attention, or use the principle of overview, zoom, filter and details on demand. There is a mandatory but unmarked very short presentation at the end of the course on Assessment 3 by all students, presenting in groups to their tutors (25th of May, 2020). Doing the presentation is mandatory, but not doing it will result in penalties. The format and time for the presentation will be released closer to the date. Criteria/Learning outcome Maximum marks Description Design skills in correctly designing and formatting all parts of a visualisation 5 Are Title, Axes, Legends, Data Sources, and all detailed parts of a visualisation present? Have all elements of a graph/visual been included properly? How effectively and clearly does the title explain the story? How effectively does the placement of the parts of the graph communicate overall meaning? Design skills required to develop an information visualisation prototype using real-world datasets, using existing visual graph/chart types, and the ability to develop new visual representations based on data 6 Is there evidence of a good and clear usage of a standard graph type? Is there evidence of new work on a standard graph type? How clearly is the main message being communicated visually? How clear is the visual map between the data and representation? Design skills required to develop an information visualisation prototype using real-world datasets, using existing visual graph/chart types, and the ability to develop new visual 7 Is there evidence of a good and clear usage of the principles of interaction? Is there evidence of new work building on standard interactions? How clearly is the main message being communicated visually via the interactions, animations or transitions? How clear is the visual map between the data and representation? Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning representations based on data Analytical skills on basic statistical and mathematical concepts for exploratory and explanatory data analysis and visualisation 6 Evidence for the correct use of exploratory data analysis techniques taught in class, evidence for good, meaningful transformations of and computations over data, and its relationship to design choices and representation, Evidence of proper exploration of data. Reasoning skills to provide justification and design rationale for all aspects of a visualisation 6 How clearly have all design choices been explained? Is there evidence of exploration of multiple prototypes and evolution to a final form? Programming skills on tools and programming languages required to successfully produce final publication standard infovis 10 Code clarity and quality (Javascript/HTML/CSS/SVG). Evidence of original clear coding work, demonstrating the use of material taught in class. Assessment category and type Submitted work Assignment, design Individual or group: individual Length / duration To be announced Weight 40% Due date & time 24 May 2020, 11:59 pm Learning outcomes assessed 1,2,3,4,5 (4) Assessment title Tutorials and Class Participation Assessment description Tutorials and class participation account for 10% of the total marks awarded in the unit. Assessment category and type In-class assessments Individual or group: individual Length / duration Varies, check Canvas Weight 10% Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning Due date & time Weekly, 11:59 pm Learning outcomes assessed 1,2,3,4 Grade Description High Distinction 85 – 100 Work of outstanding
quality, demonstrating mastery of the learning outcomes assessed. The work shows significant innovation, experimentation, critical analysis, synthesis, insight, creativity, and/or exceptional skill. Distinction 75 – 84 Work of excellent quality, demonstrating a sound grasp of the learning outcomes assessed. The work shows innovation, experimentation, critical analysis, synthesis, insight, creativity, and/or superior skill. Credit 65 – 74 Work of good quality, demonstrating more than satisfactory achievement of the learning outcomes assessed, or work of excellent quality for a majority of the learning outcomes assessed. Pass 50 – 64 Work demonstrating satisfactory achievement of the learning outcomes assessed. Fail 1 – 49 Work that does not demonstrate satisfactory achievement of one or more of the learning outcomes assessed. Assessment Results and Feedback Assessment results and feedback will be provided within 2-3 weeks of the submission date. • Readings and Electronic Resources There are two textbooks used for this unit of study, and we will be heavily using them for the unit. It is expected that you will read these and work your way through the chapters, especially using the learning in your assessments. These are electronically available through the library: – Knaflic, C.N. (2015). Storytelling with data, Wiley. – Murray, S. (2017) Interactive Data Visualisation for the Web, 2nd Edition, O’Reilly. • Aims and Learning Outcomes The aim of this unit of study is to teach students to successfully work with data and design visualisations that enable expressive and effective communication of meaning. After successful completion of this unit of study, students will have acquired: 1 Design skills in correctly designing and formatting all parts of a visualisation 2 Design skills required to develop an information visualisation prototype using real-world datasets, using existing visual graph/chart types, and the ability to develop new visual representations based on data 3 Reasoning skills to provide justification and design rationale for all aspects of a visualisation 4 Analytical skills on basic statistical and mathematical concepts for exploratory and explanatory data analysis and visualisation 5 Programming skills on tools and programming languages required to successfully
produce final publication standard infovis Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning These learning outcomes support your development of the University’s graduate qualities. You can read about the qualities of University of Sydney graduates in the Learning and Teaching Policy 2015, which can be found at http://sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum= PDOC2015/401&RendNum=0. • Learning and Teaching Policies Penalties for late submission of work and related policies are included in the Resolutions of the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, which are available at http://sydney.edu.au/handbooks/architecture/rules/faculty_resolutions.shtml. It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with these policies. Applications for special consideration must be lodged online at http://sydney.edu.au/current_students/special_consideration/apply.shtml. Academic honesty is very important to the University of Sydney. You are responsible for ensuring that all of your University work is academically honest. Visit http://sydney.edu.au/policies/ showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2012/254&RendNum=0 to read the University of Sydney Academic Honesty in Coursework Policy. To foster academic honesty, the University uses Turnitin® as similarity detecting software. You should note that all of assignments submitted in this unit of study may be submitted to similarity detecting software. An online Academic Honesty Education module and Learning Centre workshops are available to help you learn how to avoid plagiarism. Visit http://sydney.edu.au/elearning/student/EI/index.shtml to learn about these resources. • Concerns About Teaching and Assessment There is a three-step process to appeal an academic decision. 1. Informal appeal: approach the original decision maker to discuss your concerns about the academic decision (e.g. your mark). University policy requires you to raise concerns within 15 working days of the academic decision (e.g. release of mark). 2. Faculty-level appeal: if you feel that your appeal has not been adequately addressed at the informal level, you can submit a formal written appeal to the School of Architecture, Design and Planning’s Academic Support Unit at [email protected]. Your appeal should include a letter outlining the grounds for your appeal and any evidence you have to support your appeal. The Associate Dean Education or a delegate will assess the appeal and a formal outcome will be sent to you in writing. University policy requires you to file a faculty-level appeal within 20 working days of learning the outcome of the informal appeal. 3. University-level appeal: If you are dissatisfied with the findings of the formal appeal and believe that due academic process was not followed, you can submit an appeal to the Student Appeals Body within 15 days of receiving the outcome of the faculty-level appeal. For more details on Academic Appeals, see: http://sydney.edu.au/student_affairs/academic_appeals/process.shtml There is a two-step process to complain about a non-academic decision. 1. Informal resolution: approach the person that you believe is responsible for the issue, explain the problem, and ask that they behave differently. 2. Make a complaint: if a problem cannot be resolved through informal resolution, or if informal resolution is not appropriate, you can refer your complaint to the Student Affairs Unit of the University. For more details on the complaint procedures, see: http://sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2015/408&RendNum=0 • Support Services and Resources Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning The Learning Centre runs many workshops on academic skills, free of charge to all students. Learn more at http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/learning_centre/. The Write Site provides online support to help you develop academic and professional writing skills and can be accessed at http://writesite.elearn.usyd.edu.au/. Disability Services is located on Level 5 of the Jane Foss Russell Building. For further information, visit http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/disability/. Counselling and Psychological Services is located on Level 5 of the Jane Foss Russell Building. For further information, visit their website at http://sydney.edu.au/current_students/counselling/. The Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme is available to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students with their studies. To find out more, visit https://sydney.edu.au/students/indigenous-tutorial-assistance-scheme.html.
