Welcome Introduction to InformationVisualization: transforming data into meaningful information

About InfoVis The literature of Information Visualization ranges from texts that focus on the biological responses people have to visual stimuli through social uses of imagery and information. Longer works, such as those by Edmund Tufte, are wonderful explanations of aspects of the use of visuals + data but aren’t quite suited for a course for information professionals who need to learn the art + science of visualizing data. Our goal is to be exposed to most aspects of the topic: the ethics, the aesthetics, computer technology, and applications of InfoVis.

How to use the text Teaching InfoVis is a combination of learning hands-on skills in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript history and practices in graphic design theories of human-visual interaction - how data become informative building a design that links the audience + the tasks at hand + data, and experience building one’s own interactive visualizations … for research, administration practices, and information services.

How to use the text A plan for teaching the class combines stimulating interest in the surface representation of the data (the presentation layer) and the data themselves. Start with student-provided examples they find. Class discussion about what makes the InfoVis a good one. Introduce the topic for the week - draw associations between the data source and the domain of work that generated the data. Make associations, too, to the visual language - symbols, arrangement of symbols, color pallet and color transparency as representations of the values of the data. Provide plenty of time for students to draw on paper a visual solution to an information question, breaking down the image into functional areas, and then translate those areas into computer code.

How to use the text As students master HTML, CSS, and JavaScript introduce hands-on practice creating SVG objects. This solidifies their knowledge of tagging, foreground/background color, x,y coordinates, and controlling attributes. Having created the SVG objects in the browser, integrate mouse events (such as on- focus, mouse-over) to cause the image to change or revealing/hiding text. Introduce d3.js Introduce Tableau and other tools. Many of the commercial and data science visualization tools emphasize the data, not the user experience or graphic design. Finally, focus the student work into a final presentation project - something that the students can use for a job interview!

Thanks Thanks for choosing this text! Feel encouraged to share your experiences on the website and your ideas. Cordially, Gerry Benoît