In these assignments, you will be asked to find an example of a visualization (usually with some more specific requirements). You will need to turn in an image (e.g. a JPEG, PNG, SVG or PDF file), a web link, and some writing (answering the questions in the assignment).
Pedagogical Goal: We want you to see that the concepts we discuss in class appear “in the real world” and appreciate the context for what we’re doing. We want you to be exposed to a range of examples and to think about them. So, it will help if you choose examples from contexts that you care about (things you would read anyway). That will also help the diversity (next paragraph).
Practical Goal: We want to assemble a diverse and interesting set of examples for people to look at. With the entire class searching for examples, we’re likely to see a wider range of things. We’ll still want to do a little curation (with so many students, we’ll likely have too many examples for everyone to look at)
Often with these assignments, we will select a few of the best examples, and use them for other things. For example, we might show them in class, or use them in a critique assignment. Therefore, it is important that you pick things that are easily available on the web, and that you provide both a link to the page where they exist (so we can see them in context) as well as an image (so we can look at it easily). Learn to use the “save image” feature in your web browser, the screen capture tool on your computer (like the PrintScreen button on Windows), and the cutout tool in acrobat.
Usually, we will not ask you to critique what you turn in. Generally, we want to curate the selections before asking you to do a critique exercise. We’ll probably pick 10-12 of the ones turned in to have the class critique.
Also, try not to pick things from visualization papers or resources. So, for example, if you’re looking for an example of a scatterplot, don’t pick one from a paper about scatterplots, or the documentation of how to make a scatterplot in some program. Try to find one in the newspaper or a technical paper in your own field or …
This assignment is most fun (for you doing it, for us looking it over, and for the class later when we use the examples) if people try to find different examples than others (with so many people, we’re bound to get duplicates). Also, try to pick things where the topic of the visualization is interesting (at least to you), and preferably understandable to the rest of class.
Grading: Not Turned In / Late / No Check / Check / Above and Beyond
Late Policy: the late policy will usually be strict: we need to look at these to select the ones to use for the next assignment.
Mechanism: we will turn these in on Canvas. Sometimes we’ll try to turn them in as assignments, sometimes we’ll try to turn them in as assignments, some times we’ll turn them in as discussions (so you can see what everyone else did).
Other assignment types:
- Online Discussions
- Readings
- Seek and Find
