Design Critique

In this course you are learning about basic visualization design principles and guidelines. The goal of this assignment is to apply your knowledge to visualizations you find. On May 7th each team will will present a visualization and critique it.

Your Mission

Get together with your current project team. For your critique, find an interesting visualization from one of the following types of sources:

  • textbook
  • science magazine (Nature, Science, Scientific American, ...)
  • magazine or newspaper (Newsweek, The Economist, NY Times, USA Today, ...)

The visualization may be labelled in French or English.

You may not use papers or textbooks on visualization and you cannot reuse visualizations we have already critiqued in class. Go to original sources used by practitioners and researchers. For this assignment, please do not use examples pulled from the web except from sites in the above categories.

On May 7th you will present a 5-10 minute presentation on your visualization and lead a 5 minute discussion on it. To prepare:

  • Join the #design-critique channel on slack and post a link to the visualization you plan to present. You cannot use the same visualization another team has already posted. First-come, first-serve.
  • Create a slide deck where you:
    • Show the visualization - or a video (you can also add a link there to an interactive version of the visualization)
    • explain the data being shown (type and semantics) and the visual encodings used -- explain what the visualization is trying to show.
    • Next, critique the visualization: what works and what doesn't? Is the visualization clear or is it misleading? Do you like it (or not), and why? What could be improved? Your comments should be thoughtful; a single sentence saying "I like it" is not enough!
    • End with a slide that lists a few questions to be discussed with your class members. Lead a discussion with them.

Grading

Your grade will be based on how well you describe and critique the visualization you post based on the language and concepts we have covered in class. We will also check that each team member participates in a part of the presentation and that you do not use the same visualization as another team.

Deliverables

  • WHAT - Post the visualization you will critique to the Slack channel, give the presentation, and send your presentation slides in *pdf* format
  • WHERE - You should email the presentation to petra.isenberg@inria.fr and Yujiro.Okuya@lri.fr with the subject G&V-Design Critique.
  • WHEN - The deadline for handing in the slides is end of the day May 6th - note the late policy on the starting page.