News

Please make an account on the Fall’16 CS 424 Piazza account: https://piazza.com/uic/fall2016/cs424.

The required textbook, Visualization Analysis and Design, by Tamara Munzner (CRC Press, 2014), is available in the bookstore. Interactive Data Visualization for the Web, by Scott Murray (O'Reilly, 2013) is available for free online.

Description

Data visualization facilitates reasoning effectively about information, allowing users to formulate and test hypotheses, to find patterns and meaning in data, and to easily explore the contours of a data collection from different perspectives and at varying scales. This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of both information visualization (representations of abstract data sets) and visual analytics (analytical reasoning supported by visual interfaces). We will explore fundamental and contemporary topics in visualization, including: the use of visual modalities to represent different types of data; emphasizing salient data through the design and implementation of effective visual metaphors; how to create compelling narratives from data; how perception informs information design; handling uncertainty and ambiguity; and the representation of spatiotemporal data. In particular, we will focus on exploring interaction techniques to filter, sort, query, navigate, arrange, and analyze data. Students will work with real-world data sets, both static and streaming, and will learn to use contemporary programming frameworks for information visualization. We will read widely from both seminal work in the field of visualization as well as from recent papers from top-tier conferences (VIS, EuroVis, CHI) and journals (Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics Forum). In addition to the completion of weekly assignments, students will be responsible for a series of projects that involve the creation, demonstration, and documentation of novel interactive visualization techniques.

Schedule

Week 1

— Course overview & policies
— Goals of visualization
— Information Visualization vs. Visual Analytics
— Programming assessment quiz
— Slides: Tu  Th

Assignments:

— Complete survey & quiz
— Read Munzner, chapters 1 & 2
— Set up D3.js environment and pick one example of your choice from bl.ocks.org to explain in class 8/30
— Begin data collection for Project 1

---

Week 2

— Introduction to Javascript and D3.js
— Data abstraction, data types

Links:

— JS Bin examples: Basic D3v4 template    SVG example    Shapes from data    Scatterplots    Scaling    Dynamic Axes   
- Standalone javascript/JSON examples .zip (requires a webserver: e.g. "python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8080"): Bar chart    Donut chart    Interactive world map    Data binding
- w3schools.com SVG tutorial
- w3schools.com Javascript tutorial
- Mozilla Developers Network's Javascript reference
- Learn JS Data tutorial
- Bl.ock Builder
- D3 tutorials

Assignments:

— Munzner, chapter 3
— Murray, chapters 2,3, and 4 (if you aren't familiar with web basics); chapters 5,6,7, and 8 (for a more detailed introduction to D3)
— Finish tasks 2a and 2b for Project 1

---

Week 3

— Visual communication
— Dataset types and data types
— Slides: Tu  Th

Assignments:

— Munzner, chapter 5
— Finish tasks 3 and 4 for Project 1, due Wed, 9/14 at 11:59pm. Detailed instructions are posted on Piazza.
— Study for quiz in Tuesday’s class

---

Week 4

— Marks and channels
— Slides: Th

Assignments:

— Munzner, chapters 4 and 6

---

Week 5

— “Nested” evaluation
— Slides: Tu  Th

Assignments:

— Form groups & describe your initial ideas for Project 2 (see Piazza post for details)

---

Week 6

— D3.js programming lab (led by Shiwangi, with help from Andrew and Kristine)
— Text visualization
— Project 2 proposals
— Slides: Tu:D3 examples   Tu:SVG-pt1   Tu:SVG-pt2   Th

Assignments:

— Literature review exercise for Project 2

---

Week 7

— Dr. Tony Fast, a materials data scientist from Georgia Tech, will visit the class on Tuesday.
— Project 2 literature review presentations
— Temporal visualizations
— Links/examples: Andy Kirk’s The Design of Time    Xarene Eskandar’s Time Pieces    Nick Feltron’s PhotoViz    Giorgia Lupi’s projects    Space-time cube literature survey

---

Week 8

— Network visualization
— Colorspaces and colormaps
— Project 2 reports
— Slides: Tu  Th

Assignments:

— Munzner, chapters 9 and 10
— Study for quiz in Tuesday’s class
— The Project 2 description, list of requirements, and grading rubric is now available. All materials for Project 2 are due by 11/1 at 3:30pm.

---

Week 9 - IEEE VIS in Baltimore

— IEEE VIS
— VISAP’16
— Guest talks from Kyle Almryde and Shi Yin
— Finalize Project 2

---

Week 10 - Project 2 Presentations

— Sing a Happy Tune, Brian, Xing, Mac, and Cody

— VizBooks, Nishant, Sai Priya, Sreeraj, and Vishnusri

— Global Warming Visualized, Aditi, Aryadip, and Hai

— Airport Wait Times to Enter the US, Surbhi, Minu, Pooja, and Shreyas

— Flight Delays, Federico and Nicolas

— Musical Moods, Ishta, Jae, James, and Kristine

— US Incarceration Rates from 1978-2014, Sneja and Laith

— Chicago Schools, Libraries, Crimes, Randy, Francisco, and Mario

— Exoplanets, Andy, Patrick, and Louis

— Visualizing Fuel Economy, Roldan, Denis, and Oscar

— Chicago Crime and School Suspensions, Jamie, Jacky, and Noah

— Socioeconomic Status in Relation to Electricity Usage in Chicago, Stephanie, Lubna, and Anthony

— Chicago Crime and Socio-economic Data, Sergio, Himalay, Dhrumin, and Arkadiusz

---

Week 11

— Options for Project 3 are introduced.

Required materials & texts

— The required texts for this course are: Visualization Analysis and Design, by Tamara Munzner, CRC Press, 2014; and Interactive Data Visualization for the Web, by Scott Murray, O'Reilly, 2013.

— Recommended texts for the course are: Sketching User Experiences: The Workbook, by Saul Greenberg, et al., Morgan Kaufmann, 2011 and Information Visualization: Perception for Design, by Colin Ware, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012.

— Bring your laptop to class.

— Use a git repo to back-up your files and make your projects/assignments available online.

— Set up a user account on Piazza and join CS 424: https://piazza.com/uic/fall2016/cs424.

Evaluation & requirements

Your final grade will be based on your performance on the group project, evaluations of team member performance (peer evaluation), attendance and participation.

On-time class attendance is mandatory. It is not possible to make up or compensate for missed class sessions. More than two unexcused absences will result in a reduction of the final grade by one letter grade; with every additional unexcused absence, the final grade will drop by an additional grade. Some of the discussions and exercises are done and graded in-class so you must attend class to receive these points.

You must submit all assignments via UIC Box unless otherwise instructed on the deadline specified for each assignment. Assignments must be professionally prepared with recommended computer applications. Unless otherwise stated, assignments must be submitted electronically via UIC Box.

A = Consistent growth as well as excellent work that consistently goes above and beyond what is required.
B = Above average growth as well as above average work.
C = Average growth as well as average work.
D = Dissatisfactory growth and incomplete work.
E = Dissatisfactory growth, incomplete work, and poor attendance.

The numeric breakdown for the final grade follows:

— Project 1: 10%
— Project 2: 20%
— Project 3: 30%
— Shorter assignments: 15%
— Quizzes: 15%
— Participation: 10%

Resources

D3.js: d3js.org
D3 v4, what's new?: https://iros.github.io/d3-v4-whats-new
JS Bin: jsbin.com
Bl.ocks: bl.ocks.org
Three.js: threejs.org
Lynda.com@UIC: accc.uic.edu/service/training
Box@UIC, accc.uic.edu/service/box

Websites:
IEEE VIS   Visual Complexity   Flowing Data   Data Stories   FILWD   Dataisnature   VISAP   Lev Manovich's home page   Stamen Design   infosthetics   reddit's Data is Beautiful   Vintage Visualizations   Ben Fry's home page   Fathom Information Design   Interrogating Methodolgies   Dear Data   Martin Wattenberg's home page   HINT.FM   University of Washington's IDL   Isabel Meirelles' home page   Edward Tufte's home page   Kiln  

Journals:
Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG)   Computer Graphics Forum   Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI)   Information Visualization   Computer Graphics & Applications   

Visualization Surveys:
spacetimecubevis.com    dynamicgraphs.fbeck.com    treevis.net    setviz.net    aviz.fr/physvis    financevis.net    textvis.lnu.se    multivis.net   

Policies

No cell phone usage in the lab. No eating during class (coffee or gum, etc, is fine though).

Any individuals with learning disabilities or special needs must make the instructor aware of them prior to the due date of the first major assignment. Those who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the UIC Disability Resource Center.

If you wish to observe your religious holiday that is in the conflict with mandatory academic attendance, you must notify the instructor in advance.

You are responsible for understanding what constitutes academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty is an extremely serious offense. All cases of academic dishonesty will be dealt with in accordance with the policies of the University.