The task description of this homework starts further below.
In this assignment you will create visualizations using tools that automate some of the construction process and use many of the proper visual encoding techniques by default.
Many desktop tools now also have Online/Cloud versions. You can choose whichever version works best in your environment. In all cases, you should be able to obtain free versions, sometimes with limitation to academic use.
Here are a few examples from Tableau Public (Click to open the Tableau Public site):
Drivers in case you have data sources that are not already supported.
Tableau content that is published to Tableau Public on the web can be viewed in your web browser regardless of your operating system. However, to author and publish views and workbooks, you use Tableau Desktop Public and Professional Editions.
The first part of your assignment is to develop a single interactive Tableau dashboard with several views, that would allow manipulation and exploration of the City of Urbana arrests dataset in various ways. A view is a single graphical representation of the data (i.e. a chart) and a dashboard connects multiple views in a meaningful way. Any dashboards after the first will not be counted towards your grade.
To make the experience of navigating through data more effective, you will need to use techniques mentioned in the lecture (e.g. drill-down, cross-filtering). Your solution should also provide a coherent overview of your personal findings. Here are some tips to help you with your data analysis. Look for logical connections between several data fields and possible patterns within each. Think of the questions that may be answered and include those as examples in your write-up.
The second part of your assignment includes a short write-up (1-2 pages) that describes the reasoning process that led to your final visualizations. This write-up should discuss alternative ideas you had, insights you gained from the data, and why you went with your final design choices. Try to incorporate the things you learned from the design principles class. This write-up will be a major part of the grade for this assignment so try to explain your ideas clearly. Please also include screenshots or sketches where necessary to make your point. You can also include a short reflection on your experiences with Tableau or whichever tool you chose to use. For example, any difficulties you had with making exactly the view you wanted or the ease of prototyping.
This is a big dataset including sensitive information like age or race.
Data: [Official website] or from our server as a [csv file].
To publish with Tableau, you will have to sign up for a free Tableau Public account and when you are finished with your dashboard in Tableau Desktop, publish it to the web by following: Server -> Tableau Public -> Save to Tableau Public...
Please also submit your assignment as a zip file containing both your (Tableau) dashboard and a short write-up essay (as pdf). For this, you will have to save your visualization as a "Packaged Workbook" (File -> Export Packaged Workbook). This will save the data with the workbook so that both visualizations and data are packed up in one file. The write-up should include a link to your public dashboard or interactive report on the web. In Tableau there is a share button for each dashboard, use this link. Please note: If you only submit to one of two place (e.g. Tableau public) the assignment will not be counted as submitted!
The report (including the link to the public dashboard) and worksheet should be uploaded to CourSys. Use the following naming scheme for your submission: "HW1.zip". Late Submissions are possible, yet they will be penalized.
We will evaluate your Tableau visualization based on the quality of communicating the fundamental aspects of the given dataset. Does it give the viewer a good understanding of the different characteristics of the data and exploratory insights? Here, we are looking for both effectiveness and creativity. We do realize that people have differing levels of design ability and experience. Therefore, we are also looking for a good effort, not necessarily some conference paper-worthy new idea. The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with experience in the analysis of data like this and the design of visualizations to present the data.
We will grade your submission and presentation with the following scheme: