Structure and objectives

This class can be seen as an extension of J464 (Infographics) into making graphics interactive — and making the presentation of information a richer, more in-depth and engaging experience for the reader/user. The primary limitation of print, apart from its cost, is that it by definition requires all information to be presented at once. Unlike a print graphic, an interactive graphic be multimodal and feature either linear or non-linear interactivity, can incorporate animation and sound as well as provide the user with the means to navigate her own path through the information, and to access details on demand. The storytelling potential of interactive graphics — data visualizations — is dramatically higher than that of the standard, static print graphic, limited as it is by time (it exists as a single instance) and space (everything must fit within a prescribed boundary).

Data visualization, as a definition, involves the exploration of data where the individual uses the graphic itself as a means to discover, rather than simply observe, informative content. Our class will focus on the use of technologies to enable this added complexity, where the graphic itself becomes a kind of tool rather than a simple means of presentation. That does not mean, however, that we are not concerned with presentation in this course. On the contrary, we will use Illustrator and CSS (and to an extent, Javascipt) to create visual presentations that are visually compelling as well as being informative.

Our work

Beginning on the second day of class, you will begin to build your class website, which you will use to present your work on exercises throughout the semester. Lectures will feature in many classes, but the focus of IDV460 will be hands-on making. At the end of each week, there will be some form of deliverable — some piece of data visualization that you will be adding to your website. You will use the Pages/Mercury account you have free as an IU student for your IDV460 site, although you may adopt other hosting if you prefer. (I’ll ask you to send me a link to your site at the end of the first week.)

We will produce two major projects during the semester, and each counts 30 percent toward your final grade. For the first, you can research and create a visualization for any topic you care to, and use any means you choose to create the content, which will have its own page on your site. You will also add a reflection on the creative process (much as you would on my other classes), and help describe the means by which you created this visualization. The final project will be built through code, accessing jQuery and D3 libraries to help create interactive effects. It will be due on Star Wars day, 2016 (which is May the Fourth, as in in “May the Fourth be with you.”)

What you’ll need

You will be adding quite a bit of software and pieces of code throughout the semester, but as a baseline before we begin, you will need to make sure you have the following. (All of these are available on the computers in Ernie Pyle Hall.)