Class Projects

The class project will consist in creating an interactive visualization with Processing for a specific dataset. As a source of inspiration and to have a better idea of what we expect from you, you can find a sample of projects from previous years with some feedback here.

Datasets

Datasets and instructions on how to load them are here.

Each student will choose a dataset among the datasets proposed above. Students can also propose their own data set (csv or tsv format recommended) provided they inform the instructors before Thurs 05/12/2015. Email information about your dataset to lonni.besancon@gmail.com and we will tell you if your data set can be used for the class project.

If you are wondering what to show try and think about what is, according to you, interesting to see in your dataset. Think of a question or a set a questions (not more than 3 though) that your visualization(s) should provides answers to. Remember to include these questions in your final presentations as well as your findings.

Visualization

Students will be free to use whichever visualization(s) they deem the most appropriate for the data they wish to explore and for the questions they want to investigate on that data. They are advised to pick an existing visualization (e.g, seen during one of the lectures), implement it, and once it works, make it interactive and possibly extend it with innovative features. However, only picking an existing visualization and reimplementing it, even if complex, is not a good choice. Your project will be evaluated according to:

  • Originality (just re-implementing a scatterplot matrix or standard parallel coordinates is NOT original)
  • Dataset difficulty
  • Choice/appropriateness and implementation of interactions
  • Choice of data encoding (particularly the use of color)
  • Quality of the documentation

Most of the coding will be done at home and some of it will be done during lab work sessions, during which students are encouraged to show their progress and ask questions. Try to include in your projects what you learn during the lectures as it will help you to provide better visualisations.

The end users you will be targeting are random Internet users, so make sure they will quickly understand how to read your visualization and how to interact with it. Also make sure that they will understand what the data is about.

Documentation

You are asked to provide a pdf file containing the description of your project and instructions for using your program.

Do not put your name in the documentation if you feel unconfortable with it being online, because we may add it to the previous year's projects page.

You also need to submit a high resolution representative screenshot of your project.

Handing in projects

The project must be finished and handed in before 01/02/2016, 23:59. Students will present their work by doing a 5-minute demo. Detailed instructions here.

License

You can reuse this content for your class if you acknowledge us (Petra Isenberg, Jean-Daniel Fekete, Pierre Dragicevic, Wesley Willett and Frédéric Vernier). For student projects and assignments, please acknowledge the student.