DSCI 554: Data Visualization (Fall 2021)


Classes 2:00-3:50pm Monday, Wednesday, ZHS 252 (Zoom links in Blackboard under USC Zoom Pro Meeting)

Instructor

Luciano Nocera
Email: nocera@usc.edu
OH: Tue 2-4pm zoom

Assistant

Ankur Goyal
Email: akgoyal@usc.edu
OH: Thu 3-5pm zoom

Assistant

Mehak Piplani
Email: mpiplani@usc.edu
OH: Fri 10-12pm zoom

Assistant

Vidit Chitkara
Email: vchitkar@usc.edu
OH: Mon 10-12pm zoom

Textbooks


Murray S. Interactive Data Visualization for the Web, 2nd Edition. 2nd ed. O’Reilly Media, Inc; 2017. USC Libraries link

Alberto Cairo. The Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization. First. New Riders; 2012. USC Libraries link

Colin Ware. Visual Thinking: For Design. 1st ed. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc; 2008. USC Libraries link

Schedule


WEEK: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

WEEK 1 -- Mon 8/23 - 8/25
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Lecture 1 (8/23)

Course overview, introduction to data visualization. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 1 (8/25)

Tooling, creating line and pie charts with Google Sheets and Google Charts. #fall21-dsci-554-a1

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 2 -- 8/30 - 9/1
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Lecture 2 (8/30)

Survey of visualization techniques, introduction to web technologies. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 2 (9/1)

Debugging, bubble charts with Google Charts, Inkscape and javascript. #fall21-dsci-554-a2

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 3 -- 9/8
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Lecture 3 (9/8)

Design space of visualizations, graphing in the browser, introduction to D3 and VEGA. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 4 -- 9/13 - 9/15
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Lab 3 (9/13)

Bar charts and scatterplots using HTML, CSS, SVG, D3 and Vega, diagrams with Mermaid #fall21-dsci-554-a3

Lecture 4 (9/15)

Designing infographics and dashboards, D3 data join basics and loading data. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 5 -- 9/20 - 9/22
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Lab 4 (9/20)

Tables and charts with D3, more plots with VEGA. #fall21-dsci-554-a4

Lecture 5 (9/22)

The eye and the visual brain; visual queries; implications for design; scales; using scales in scatter plot and bar charts; using scales with axes; rendering axes. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 6 -- 9/27 - 9/29
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Lab 5 (9/27)

D3 scales and axes, PechaKucha presentation with Sozi. #fall21-dsci-554-a5

Lab X (9/29)

Accessibility, UX, responsive visualizations, frameworks. Set-up for projects. #fall21-dsci-554-ax #fall21-dsci-554-project

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 7 -- 10/4 - 10/6
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Lecture 6 (10/4)

Preattentive features. Updating D3 visualizations; changing data and updating the visuals; smooth transitions and animations. Updating the axes; adding and removing data values. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 6 (10/6)

Animated transitions. #fall21-dsci-554-a6

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 8 -- 10/11 - 10/13
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Lecture 7 (10/11)

Colors and color vision; trichromatic theory; opponent process theory; color channels; color coding information. Color models. Emphasis and highlighting; color sequences, semantics of color. D3 color generators; D3 layouts. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 7 (10/13)

D3 colors and complex graphs. #fall21-dsci-554-a7

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 9 -- 10/18 - 10/20
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Lecture 8 (10/18)

Depth perception and cue theory: different ways to perceive depth. 2.5D design; showing data in maps; map layers; map projections; working with geospatial data. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 8 (10/20)

Maps. #fall21-dsci-554-a8

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 10 -- 10/25 - 10/27
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Lecture 9 (10/25)

Statistics and statistical graphics. Python and R basics and major graphing libraries, notebooks. Part I. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 9 (10/27)

Graphing in notebooks. #fall21-dsci-554-a9

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 11 -- 11/1 - 11/3
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Lab 9 (continued) (11/1)

Graphing in notebooks. #fall21-dsci-554-a9

Lab 9 (continued) (11/3)

Project repositories and project artifacts, graphing with notebooks.

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 12 -- 11/8 - 11/10
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Lecture 10 (11/8)

Patterns, memory, visual encodings, semiology and Gestalt. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 10 (11/15)

Creating the final project presentation. Writing a paper for the final project. Project progress, resolving technical issues. #fall21-dsci-554-project

Assignments

WEEK 13 -- 11/15 - 11/17
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Lecture 11 (11/15)

3D visualizations. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lecture 12 (11/15)

Study guide. #fall21-dsci-554-lectures

Lab 11 (11/15)

Writing a paper for the final project. Resolving technical issues. #fall21-dsci-554-project

Readings

Assignments

WEEK 14 -- 11/22
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Lab 13 (11/22)

Lab on projects #fall21-dsci-554-project

Assignments

WEEK 15 -- 11/29 - 12/1
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Lab 14 (11/29)

Lab on projects. Final projects feedback. #fall21-dsci-554-project

Project presentations (12/1)

Assignments

Final examination -- Friday, December 10, 2-4 p.m.