Over the course of the semester, students will develop the critical capacity to assess and develop accurate, engaging information visualizations for journalism. In addition to readings about the art and science of information visualization, students will complete a series of critiques of published graphics, in the form of rationalized redesigns of the original work. For these assignments, students will be given a range of acceptable media (physical or digital) in which their solution may be executed; each revision will also be accompanied by a written justification of the design choices it includes. Weekly readings should be summarized either in paragraph or bullet-point form; these summaries are due in aggregate at the end of the semester, though students are expected to complete the readings in advance of the class session for which they have been assigned. Students will also have weekly individual programming assignments and a group final project which will be reviewed in an industry critique at the end of the semester.
Weekly class sessions will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Students are expected to arrive promptly for all class meetings and trainings, and will be graded on both their attendance and participation. Students are encouraged to engage their prior knowledge and experience in all aspects of the class, including readings summaries and critiques, as well as in-class and online discussions. Students must complete all readings summaries, programming and design assignments, as well as their final project, in order to pass the class.
Week 1
Lab
Introductions, expectations and class overview, the purpose of programming.
Installing & configuring Aptana Studio 3, FileZilla, introduction to github
Publishing your first webpage to your CUIT server space; overview of webpage structure.
Videos: HTML Basics
Readings due:
- Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age by Douglas Rushkoff. Soft Skull Press, 2011.
Preface
Seminar
Visualization as communication, visual shorthand.
First design assignment outlined.
“In the news/room” group problem-solving exercise.
Readings due:
- Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton. Princeton Architectural Press, 2010.
Text: Linearity, Birth of the User
Week 2
Lab
Programming basics and data format familiarity
Readings due: JSON, XML, Programming Parts of Speech
Videos: The browser console, data types, and getting started with GitHub
In-class resources: Unix & GitHub Quick Reference
Seminar
Visual understanding as science and influence. “In the news/room” group problem-solving exercise.
Readings due:
- Information Visualization: Perception for Design by Colin Ware. Morgan Kaufman, 2004.
Chapter 1: Foundation for a Science of Information Visualization - “Visualization” by Tamara Munzer, in Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, 3rd. ed. A K Peters/CRC Press, 2009.
Chapter 27: Visualization
Week 3
Lab
More programming basics: functions, conditionals and loops.
Readings due: Understanding Functions, AJAX
Videos: Loops, conditionals and functions
Seminar
Visualization for inference & drawing conclusions from visual information: histograms, chloropleth maps.
Readings due:
- Visual Explanations by Edward Tufte. Graphics Press, 1997.
Chapter 2: Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions - Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis by Stephen Few. Analytics Press, 2009.
Chapter 5: Analytical Techniques and Practices
Week 4
Lab
Basic HTML + CSS sizing and positioning; Bootstrap style framework.
Readings due: API, CSS
Videos:API data, jQuery, AJAX & divs
Seminar
Basic best practices in visualization for journalism
Readings due:
- The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics by Dona Wong. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.
Chapter 2: Chart Smart, Chapter 3: Ready Reference, Chapter 4: Tricky Situations
Week 5
Lab
Hitting the playground, getting to “ready” with the Google Charts API
Readings due: Google Line Chart documentation: Overview, Example, Loading
Videos:Page configuration & data formatting for Google Visualization; chart rendering.
Seminar
Principles of data journalism and information design
“In the news/room” group problem-solving exercise
Week 6
Lab
Using Google Fusion Tables as a data source
Readings due: Google Line Chart documentation: Configuration Options
Videos: Using Google Fusion Tables with SQL queries as a dynamic data source for Google Visualizations.
Seminar
In the newsroom
Readings due:
- Interview with Amanda Cox. Substratum, Issue 6.
- Principles for Making Things for the Web, Noah Veltman
Week 7
Lab
Customizing interaction with annotations and rollovers
Readings due: KML
Videos: Mapping with Google Fusion Tables
Seminar
Lessons from professional practice
Readings due:
- The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization by Alberto Cairo. New Riders, 2012.
Profile 3: Steve Duenes, Profile 4: Hannah Fairfield, Profile 5: Jan Schwochow
Spring break
Week 8
Lab
Basics of data analysis.
Readings due: mean, median, outlier, normal distribution, histogram
Videos: Data analysis essentials with spreadsheets and OpenRefine.
Seminar
Final project pitch discussions
Week 9
Lab
Basic page interactivity and layout with jQuery and CSS
Seminar
Designing the design process
Readings due:
- The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. Basic Books, 2002.
Chapter 6: The Design Challenge, Chapter 7: User-Centered Design - Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis by Stephen Few. Analytics Press, 2009.
Chapter 4: Analytical Interaction and Navigation
Week 10
Lab
Responsive designs with Twitter Bootstrap
Seminar
Essentials of information layout and design.
Readings due:
- Thinking With Type Ellen Lupton. Princeton Architectural Press, 2010.
Letter: Anatomy, Size, Scale, Type Classification, Type Families, Superfamilies; Text: Tracking, Line Spacing, Alignment, Hierarchy; Grid: Grid as Program, Grid as Table, Multicolumn Grid, Modular Grid - Content-Out Layout by Nathan Ford. A List Apart, 2014.
Week 11
Lab
Optimizing code with the principles of DRY (“Don’t Repeat Yourself”) and “convention over configuration”. Using these to have data selections respond to user input.
Videos: Revising and editing your code for efficiency and modularity by applying conventions and the “DRY” (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle. Adding responsiveness to user actions.
Seminar
Interaction and navigation, designing for users at different levels of experience
Readings due:
- “Five Common but Questionable Principles of Multimedia Learning” by Richard E. Clark & David F. Feldon, in The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, 1st Ed. Cambridge University Press, 2005
Week 12
Lab
Updating the URL for sharing user-selected content; adding annotations and customized tooltips.
Videos: “Stateful” URLs for sharing particular views of an interactive; adding annotations for context.
Seminar
Q&A with Lam Thuy Vo, Al Jazeera America
Lam Thuy Vo is a multi-platform reporter and editor currently leading Al Jazeera America’s interactive team where she produces and edits multi-platform stories. She started her journalism career at the Wall Street Journal as a videographer, spearheading the publication’s video operations in Asia, and has also worked as a producer and reporter for Planet Money, telling economic stories with charts, videos and other visuals.
Q&A with Rani Molla, WSJ Visual Journalist and CUJ ’12 graduate.
Week 13
Lab
Targeted final project assistance.
Seminar
Open work day
Week 14
Lab
Final project open lab
Seminar
Final project in-class critique, feedback from instructors and guests
Week 15
Lab
Final project open lab
Seminar
Final project presentations to industry; final project reflections due