Description

    This class introduces information visualization techniques and their applications in a variety of fields. After taking the lectures and doing the homework assignments, the students will learn fundamental visualization techniques as well as programming skills and how to derive a visualization solution by integrating data analysis techniques together with visualization designs. This is an introductory course for beginners who are interested in the visualization field. A textbook is provided and the students still need to read some papers in the area to help them better understand some critical concepts. Although it is not required, we expect the students who take course have some basic experience in web programming and have taken fundamental computer science courses such as data structure and algorithm. In addition, you will be able to pursue advanced topics for your final project if you have taken data mining and machine learning (or equivalent) courses before.

    Reference Book:

    Tamara Munzner, Visualization Analysis and Design, CRC Press, 2014.
    http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~tmm/vadbook

Schedule

Week Topic Readings & Assignments
Week 1
Sep 3
Course Overview
Introduction to Visualization
Data Types
Required Reading:
Visualization Analysis and Design, by Tamara Munzner
Chapter 1: What's Vis, and Why Do It?
Week 2
Sep 10
Tutorial I: D3.js Foundations
(1) Document Objective Model (DOM)
(2) Selections;
(3) Dynamic properties
(4) Data binding & Dynamic Elements
(5) SVG;
(6) Scale & Axis

In Class Practice:
Try to design and implement your own visualization to illustrate a small simple data table use D3.js.
Summarize the design problems that you met, and think about how to solve them. Solutions will be introduced in the next lecture.
Assignment I:
Write a scatter plot using D3.js to visualize a small multidimensional dataset stored in a CSV file based on the requirements.
Week 3
Sep 17

Week 4
Sep 24
Visual Encoding & Design
(1) Perception and Cognition
(2) Channels & Marks
(3) Color Coding

In Class Practice:
(1) Given a set of selected visualization designs, identify the potential design issues.
(2) Think about the visualization you designed in the last class, can you improve it based on what you have learnt today?
Required Reading:
Visualization Analysis and Design, by Tamara Munzner
Chapter 2: What: Data Abstraction
Chapter 5: Marks and Channels
Week 5
Oct 1

National Holiday, NO CLASS
Week 6
Oct 8

Interaction & Animation Techniques
(1) Typical Interaction Techniques. High-Level: Overview + Detail (Linking-Brushing), Focus + Context (Distortion); Low-level: Search, Dynamic Query, Filtering
(2) Animated Transition: (a) Pacing the time; (b) Choosing the path; (c) Grouping the action
(3) Animation and Interaction in D3.js

In Class Practice:
Given a set of moving objects in a visualization view can you design a strategy by scheduling both timing and moving path to guiding their movements in purpose of (1) illustrating their moving trend; (2) avoiding collision.
Required Reading:
J.S. Yi, Y.A. Kang, J.T. Stasko and J.A. Jacko, "Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Role of Interaction in Information Visualization", IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, Vol. 13, No. 6, Nov/Dec 2007, pp. 1224-1231.
J. Heer and G. Robertson. "Animated Transitions in Statistical Data Graphics," IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics Vol. 13, No. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2007, pp. 1240-1247

Assignment II:
Implement your animation design in the scatter plot visualization that you built in Assignment I.

Due of Assignment I
Week 7
Oct 15

Multidimensional Data Visualization
(1) Scatter Plot Matrix
(2) Parallel Coordinates
(3) Pixel Oriented Techniques
(4) Glyph based techniques
Required Reading:
Daniel Keim, Information visualization and visual data mining, IEEE Transactions on Computer Graphics and Visualization, Vol 8(1), pp.1--8,2002
Week 8
Oct 22

Mid-Term Exam
Week 9
Oct 29

Visualizing Time Oriented Data
(1) Time oriented data
(2) Time series visualization
(3) Event Sequence Visualization

Spatiotemporal Data Visualization
(1) Animation based approached: The Wind Map (Flow Visualization)
(2) Multi-view based approaches: Visual Analysis Systems
(3) Interactive Exploration
Required Reading:
Visualization of Time-Oriented Data, By W Aigner, S Miksch, H Schumann, C Tominski
Chapter 3: Time & Time-Oriented Data
Chapter 4: Visualization Aspects
Visual Exploration of Big Spatio-Temporal Urban Data: A Study of New York City Taxi Trips IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, v. 19 (12), p. 2149-2158, 2013. http://vgc.poly.edu/projects/taxivis/

Due of Assignment II
Week 10
Nov 5

Tree/Graph Visualization & Layout Algorithm
(1) Treemap & Layout algorithm
(2) Force Directed Layout
(3) Stress Majorization

In Class Practice:
(1) Implement a graph visualization based on D3.js force simulator.
(2) Implement a treemap visualization based on D3.js
Assignment III
Implement the FR-force directed layout algorithm using D3.js based on the following paper:
J. Heer and G. Robertson. "Animated Transitions in Statistical Data Graphics," IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics Vol. 13, No. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2007, pp. 1240-1247

Assignment II:
Implement your animation design in the scatter plot visualization that you built in Assignment I.
Fruchterman, Thomas MJ and Reingold, Edward M, Graph drawing by force-directed placement, Software: Practice and experience, Vol 21(11), 1129 – 1164, 1991
Week 11
Nov 12

Tutorial II: Developing a Multi-View Visualization System
(1) Object-Oriented Programing in JavaScript
(2) A framework for multi-view system

In Class Practice:
Refactoring the given code snippets of individual visualization views into a multi-view visualization system and use interactions to link them together.
Required Reading:
Visualization Analysis and Design, by Tamara Munzner
Chapter 11: Manipulate View
Chapter 12: Facet into Multiple Views

Final project topics and datasets are released

Due of the Assignment III
Week 12
Nov 19

Text Visualization & Data Journalism
(1) TextVIs: showing the text Content; showing the document relationships; visualizing sentiments derived from text;
(2) Data journalism
(3) Useful tools
Required Reading:
Introduction to Text Visualization, by Nan Cao, Weiwei Cui
Chapter 2: Overview of Text Visualization Techniques
Week 13
Nov 26

Evaluation
(1) Controlled User Study
(2) Expert Interview (formulate the interview questions)
(3) Case Study

In Class Practice:
Design a controlled user study
Required Reading:
N Cao, YR Lin, D. Gotz, F. Du, Z-Glyph: Visualizing outliers in multivariate data, Information Visualization, Vol 8(1), 2018
Week 14
Dec 3

Advanced Topic
Human Computer Interaction & VIS OR

Final Exam
Week 15
Dec 10

Final Project Presentation
Final project due (submit source code & report)