IR13s Project domains and organization

The visualization you will produce will be the result of the interaction between a number of domains, in which you will specialize. This theoretical knowledge will be then implemented into software to produce the visualization tool.

Organization

Participants and their roles:

• Client - provides us with data and a task which he visualization should perform
• Students - collaborate on a common project, each having a number of specialization areas
• Instructors - help the students acquire visualization skills; organize the seminar

Student assignments:

• Expertise acquisition and solution proposal
• Implementation of expertise
• Communication of output

Theoretical domains

Project design - Finding the adequate strategy to solve given tasks and implement them; how to organize and manage the project team; integration of different work aspects. Reading: Martin & Hanington 2012, Spies 2012.

Task specificities - You will develop a visualization meant for exploration and another for communication. Find out what the differences are between the two.

Meaning communication - How to make sure that communication visualizations convey the intended message? How to detect and avoid bias and message deformation?

Design usability - Is the visualization usable by the client for its intended use?

Output evaluation - How to objectively evaluate the usability of the visualization? How to identify topics to improve?

Visual perception techniques:

Gestalt + Fashions - 1. The collection of features that define a visualization - color, layout, etc. - are integrated into a single entity with a specific visual personality - the Gestalt. What is a Gestalt from the point of view of human visual perception? 2. Visual Gestalts of scientific visualizations are undergoing transformation in time - an 18th century map is not like Google Map - due to cultural, technological and personal factors. Let us know more about these scientific fashions and their impact on the scientific knowledge conveyed by visualizations.

Layout + Style - How to decide the layout and style of a visualization? (Layout = location of entities; style: size, shape, color, texture, etc. of entities.)

Interaction + Navigation - Interaction mechanisms to be implemented in this project's visualization. (Interaction = navigation + physical interaction [clicks, 3D manipulation, etc.])

Implementation domains

These represent individual tasks that have to be distributed among the team members.

Items:

• website
• exploration visualization
• communication exploration

Domains:

• framework (website skeleton, modules communication...)
• layout
• style
• navigation + interaction
• textual content
• data preparation
• output evaluation

-- VladAtanasiu - 19 Sep 2013