Assignment 1: Visualization Critiques
Due Wednesday, September 21
Turn in Assignment 1 here
Description
In this assignment you will critically analyze a visualization of your choice, applying lessons from the course to understand and critique its design. The goal is to demonstrate an understanding of the construction of visual representations of information and to practice applying visualization principles to improve an existing design.
Choose a Visualization
There are numerous existing visualization designs you can choose from for this project — on the web, in your readings, and in any number of software packages. Though the focus of this course is largely on computer-mediated visualization, you are free to choose a non-computer-based visualization if you find it sufficiently compelling. Feel free to ask Jeff or Marti if you are unsure about your choice of visualization.
Analysis and Critique
After selecting a visualization, you should analyze its construction. Identify the tasks the visualization was designed to support and who the target user population is. Characterize both the data being visualized and the visual mappings applied. Some of the questions to answer:
- What is the structure of the data being visualized?
- Characterize each dimension of the data.
- Is it quantitative, nominal, ordinal, hierarchical, ... ?
- How large is the data set?
- In what regards does the data vary?
- What visual mappings have been applied?
- Characterize each mapping you note. What might position, size, shape, color, orientation, etc be encoding?
- Are there any uninformative visual elements? Do they serve an aesthetic purpose, or are they merely "chart junk"?
- What information task(s) has the visualization been designed to facilitate? Is it primarily an analysis or communication task?
- Who is the intended audience? What might we expect about their culture and aptitudes?
Now offer a critique of the visualization. Do you find it effective? How so? Are the visual mappings appropriate? Are there any shortcomings? Does the visualization either uphold or violate any important principles? What aspects of the data are made clear? What aspects of the data are downplayed or even outright obscured? Are these design decisions appropriate given the design goals?
Offer some suggestions for improving the design (or, if you find the design impeccable, elaborate on what it does so well). In conducting your analysis, you are encouraged to apply not only perceptual principles, but aesthetic, cultural, and social criteria as well. For example, arguing that a visualization uses color in a perceptually effective yet culturally inappropriate fashion, or that though principled, it is overly complex for its target audience, might both be fair criticisms.
Throughout this assignment, assume that you are evaluating the design with respect to its intended audience and task, not just your own response to it.
Deliverables
Please submit a 1-2 page (excluding images) write-up of your analysis and critique in a common document editing format (e.g., HTML, Microsoft Word). Include images and/or links as appropriate. The assignment is due before the beginning of class on Wednesday, September 21. Details will appear later about how to turn it in.