Week 2: Designing

Introduction to Data Visualization

W4995.003 Spring 2025

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00 Reading Quiz

01 Who are we?

02 Diverge: generating ideas

03 Converge: how we see, form/function

04 Case Study: Tufte Challenger

05 For next class

Quiz reminders

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• 5min.
• Closed book honor system
• Include your UNI

01

Who are we?

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Some cool clocks!

Who are we?

Who are we?

Who are we?

Who are we?

Who are we?

Who are we?

01

Generating ideas

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Activity: Visualize Two Numbers

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Pick up a pad of sticky-notes and a pen then form groups of 4 people and find somewhere to sit together.

Activity: Visualize Two Numbers

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One visualization per sticky note.

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Overlap within group is fine!

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Sketch as many ideas as you can in 3min.

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Team with the most ideas wins!

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Activity: Visualize Two Numbers

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15, 37

From your reading “How to design”

Divergent Thinking and Convergent Thinking

https://www.ideo.org/approach

Design Phases (from Google)

https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/

Design Phases: Diverge + Converge

https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/

diverge

converge

diverge

converge

diverge

converge

Design Phases

The problem

users, data sources, domain research

The goal

what is your message, what are you trying to optimize

Today’s focus

https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/

02

Diverge: explore diverse possibilities

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Why diverge? Stanford tested this...

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spdow/files/PrototypingParallel-TOCHI10.pdf

Stanford: Divergence leads to better results

https://hci.stanford.edu/research/prototyping/

SERIAL

PARALLEL

Another way to think about it...

Ko: Dig into the subject matter for inspiration…

Amy Ko’s Example, http://faculty.washington.edu/ajko/books/design-methods/how-to-be-creative.html

…and find inspiration from visuals in daily life

Rob Weychert, https://v6.robweychert.com/blog/2018/03/design-doesnt-care/

“Dear Data” Project: Sketching the personal

“Dear Data”

“Dear Data” Project

“Dear Data”

Sketching

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“Dear Data”

Sketching as externalization

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Via Jonathan Corum

Sketching as externalization

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Matthew Bloch, Keith Collins, Robert Gebeloff, Marco Hernandez, Malika Khurana and Zach Levitt

Activity: Visualize Two Numbers

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Same groups of 4.

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One idea per sticky note.

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3min. to add more ideas

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Team with the most ideas wins 1 bonus quiz point

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Activity: Visualize Two Numbers

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15, 37

Activity: Visualize Two Numbers

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Final 3min.

Find a section of wall to tile your group’s sketches on and take a photo.

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Post the photo to #participation on slack and include your UNIs in the message

03.1

Converge: consider how we see

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What do you see first?

Scott Berinato, “Good Charts”, HBR

What do you see first?

Scott Berinato, “Good Charts”, HBR

What do you see first?

Scott Berinato, “Good Charts”, HBR

What do you see first?

Scott Berinato, “Good Charts”, HBR

How we see

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• We don’t view in a fixed order
• We see first what stands out
• We see only a few things at once
• We seek meaning and make connections
• We rely on conventions and metaphors

Scott Berinato, “Good Charts”, HBR

How we see

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• We don’t view in a fixed order
• We see first what stands out
• We see only a few things at once
• We seek meaning and make connections
• We rely on conventions and metaphors

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Start becoming aware of how you see

Scott Berinato, “Good Charts”, HBR

Ingredients of a good critique, via Amy Ko

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• Encourage the designer to clarify their thought process.
• Challenge the designer's assumptions.
• Encourage the designer to consider alternative perspectives.
• Help the designer spell out the implications and consequences of their design.

Critique in practice: I Like... / I Wish... / What If?

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• I Like...
• Praise for design ideas and/or well-executed implementation details.
• e.g. "I like that the blue is very bright and captures my attention, which fits what you are trying to say”
• I Wish...
• Constructive statements on how the design can be improved or refined.
• e.g. "I wish I could see outage status as this is happening because I suspect those are related.”
• What if?
• Suggest alternative design directions, or even wacky half-baked ideas.
• e.g. "What if we erase the call center volume entirely? If the point is that satisfaction ratings continue to decline that might make it pop more."

Activity: Help each other improve census sketches

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Form new 4-person group (2+ new people)

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2m. per person to present (top 3 sketches)

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3m. give feedback to each person

03.2

Converge: form vs. function

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Let’s say we have this data...

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Example: Bloomberg 2009 Story

After crash, J.P. Morgan suffered less of a decline than all but one bank: Santander.

Stephen Few, http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/our_fascination_with_all_things_circular.pdf

Stephen Few, http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/our_fascination_with_all_things_circular.pdf

Abela, Advanced Presentations by Design, 2013 redrawn by Berinato in Good Charts

Form vs. function: what is your goal?

https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/

informs

04.1

Tufte Challenger

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Tufte Criticisms

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Tufte Criticisms

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Tufte Criticisms

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Redesigned with causality in mind

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Data may require pre-processing to be intelligible

Outliers mean nothing without an understood baseline

Tufte:

“Numbers become evidence by being in relation to.”

04.2

Putting it all together

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Activity: Crazy 8

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https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/sketch/crazy-8s/

Dataset: Someone’s Monthly Budget

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Activity: Crazy 8

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Form new group. Each person take one piece

of paper and four strips of dot stickers.

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Fold paper into 8 sections. Set the timer for 8 min.

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Sketch one idea in each rectangle.

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When the timer goes off, put your pens down.

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Dataset: Someone’s Monthly Budget

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Vote & Synthesize: 3 dots per person

https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/sketch/crazy-8-sharing-and-voting/

Activity: Vote & Synthesize

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1m. per person to present

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3m. vote on your favorites

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10m. draw one final group submission

use one full sheet of paper,

post final viz (and your UNIs) to #participation on Slack for 2 bonus quiz points.

Summary: How to practice design

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Summary: How to practice design

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Summary: How to practice design

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• Define the goal of the graphic
• What story you want to tell
• The key points to be made
• What readers will be able to understand/accomplish with the viz

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• Diversify
• Gather inspiration
• Sketch or storyboard ideas

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• Refine
• Move design to the computer and complete it

Don’t climb the nearest hill. Start big!

Don’t climb the nearest hill. Start big!

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Questions?

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Announcements & Next Week…

General Policies

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• All questions on Slack

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• If you will be absent, go to IA office hours before
• If you miss that, there will be extra credit opportunities
• IA office hours and signup links are on the course website

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• All #discoveries on Slack
• Inspiration, helpful resources, asking for feedback, etc. etc.
• Part of your participation grade

Teaching Team

Emily Xia

Nipun Agarwal

Christian Swinehart

Bookkeeping: Account setup

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• Slack
• for class announcements, Q&A, inspo, etc.

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• Observable
• for labs and D3-based projects

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If you haven’t received an invite for either, email me today

Topics Next Week

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• Data models
• How understanding structure helps you design visualizations more efficiently

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• Visualization Tasks

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• Categorizing visualization tools
• The right tool for the right task

Checklist For Next Week

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• Lab 1
• Done individually, follow instructions
• Readings
• Bertin: Semiology Excerpt
• Heer: Tour of Visualization Zoo
• Munzer: Chp. 2.1–2.5 Data Abstraction
• Assignment 1: form groups & sign up
• You may not duplicate studio/people (hint: sign up early; hint #2: A2 inspiration!)
• 5% bonus for going next week
• Assignment 2: complete
• Meet your team, (redraw sketches if you like), discuss, refine
• Due Wednesday 2/5 11:59pm ET