In this project you will work independently to collect data and then produce a visualization of the data. You will collect the following data: the buildings on campus you visit each day for a week, the time you enter and leave building, and the reason you were in the building. You can collect the data anyway you want, once collected it needs to be digitized. You will produce at least five visualization prototypes (these should be simple hand-drawings sketches), you will then self-critique the prototypes and pick a final visualization that you will produce using visualization software (python, excel, photoshop, tableau, ...) of the data for grading.
- Lynda.com for tools
- Sketching with Data Opens the Mind’s Eye
- Attended the Observe, Collect, Draw Workshop
- Dear Data
- The process of collecting and organizing data.
- Evaluation data and benefits of prototyping in visualization.
- Application of visualization best practices.
There are multiple required components to the class project (and 2 phases), phase 1 is described in more detail below.
- Project Prototypes [60%]
- Project Execution [30%]
- Project Report [10%]
This effort represents 50% of project00 grade, phase 2 will be announced in a few weeks.
Projects requires the collection of a weeks worth of data, it is assumed that you will have at least two building visits (attending this class). Data will be collected from 12:01AM Sunday (02/03/2019) through 11:59PM Saturday (02/09/2019).
Example Data Collection (gathered in notebook, on phone in app, spreadsheet on computer)
| Building | Day | In | Out | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Psych/Math | Monday | 16:45 | 18:15 | CSCI627 |
| Faraday | 01/22/19 | 9:10AM | 9:45AM | Meet with CSCI340 TA |
| Holmes | 1/23 | 11:12 morning | noon | coffee |
You can start sketching ideas in your notebook 📓 before you finish the data collection, it might even help shape your thinking about how and what data you want to collect (that is how you in encode your data and what you capture in the reason category).
Once you have collected your data and decided based on prototypes which visualization you plan to produce you will produce the final visualization for phase 1 using a computer based tool, be it photoshop or d3.js, it can be any tool you want to use but it must produce a single static visualization that is of sufficient resolution to see detail and reproduce in print form.
You will write a phase 1 project report, this report need not be long but should answer questions such as:
- What did you learn as part of this exercise?
- How did the prototyping help you, did it influence your data collection?
- What would you do different the next time?
- What was the biggest challenge translating from sketch to final result?
This can be as short as one paragraph to as long as one page and you must use good grammar and spelling.