Week 1

Introduction to the Course

In Class

• Assessment of student skills, levels, and interests
  • What do you want to learn in this class?
  • What sorts of data/information graphics work have you done previously?
  • Any coding or stats experience?
• Introduction to course goals and expectations
• Warm-up Exercise
  • Visualization telephone
• Intro talk
• Begin Assignment 1

Assignment

• Complete Assignment 1: Catalog & Classify
• Prepare for Assignment 2:
  • Over the course of the week, collect ten numbers from different subject areas that interests you and thinking about how the scale of that value could be communicated formally
  • Next week we’ll begin working with these single numbers as we explore the ways in which they can be transformed into graphics and identify what additional contextual information each requires in order to be meaningful
  • Bring them to class as a list, making sure that for each number you also identify:
    1. the units it is measured in (e.g., people, dollars, percent of global carbon emissions, etc.)
    2. the source where you found the information (either a URL, or in the case of a personal observation, details of where you encountered the data)