1 Week Unit: Data Vis Principles

Data Visualization Principles, Techniques, and Best Practices

Information

Duration: One (1) Week

Course Title:
Data Vis Principles and Techniques

Course Description:
This course will introduce students to the data visualization process, principles and best practices for creating visualizations.

Materials Needed:
Computers (either provided or students can bring their own), Paper, Pens

Software:
Microsoft Excel, Tableau

Intended Audience:
Data Visualization novices

Skill level: Beginner

Assessment Method: Pass/Fail

Overview

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, students will:

Define, in their own words, the purpose of data visualization
Apply basic graphic techniques and data visualization principles
Demonstrate best practices in data visualization for basic graphs

Course Overview

Day 1: Data Visualization
Day 2: Data Vis Do's and Don'ts
Day 3: Data Visualization Best Practices
Day 4: Storytelling with Data
Day 5: Bringing it all Together

Day 1: Data Visualization

Schedule

Time Topic

9:00 AM Introductions, Course Outline, Dear Data [Slides]

9:10 AM What is Data Visualization and why do we need it? [Slides]

9:20 AM What does data look like?

Students will be given datasets to work with to introduce each stage of the data visualization process throughout the week. Hands-on activities are designed to allow students to work independently and in groups preparing and visualizing the data.

[Dataset]

9:25 AM Acquiring Data: Search Strategies

Hands-on Activity: Parse Activity Worksheets (provided).

[Acquire Worksheet]

9:30 AM You’ve got data now what? [Slides]

9:45 AM Parsing Data: Pre- & Post- Processing: Cleaning up the data [Slides]

Hands-on Activity: Clean a simple dataset. A small dataset that needs to be cleaned will be provided. Students will be asked to clean the dataset while documenting along the way. Can be done using Google Sheets or Excel. Parse Activity Worksheet provided.

[Parse Worksheet]
[Dataset]

10:00 AM Break

10:10 AM Discussion: What were some trends that you noticed in the data set that you had to address in cleaning? What were so me of the challenges you encountered? Where did those challenges originate (dataset, tool, skills, etc.)?

Hands-on Activity: Students will identify a question(s) they would like to answer with the data and provide a sketch of what a visualization of the data would look like, using pen and paper (no software).

[Slides]

10:30 AM Representing Data: How to Design Charts and Graphs

Hands-on Activity: Students will use Excel to create the sketch they created.

10:45 AM Dear Data Take Home Assignment: Students will create postcards based on a theme of their choosing (favorite movies, hobbies, time spent on tasks, etc.) but they can not use words, they must communicate through hand-drawn pictures.

[Dear Data Postcards]
[Gallery]

11:00 AM Adjourn

Day 2: Data Visualization Do's and Don'ts

Schedule

Time Topic

9:00 AM Class Participation: Dear Data Take Home Assignment (Think/Pair/Share)

9:10 AM Color and Perception [Slides]

9:20 AM Data Vis Best Practices [Slides]

9:25 AM Class Participation: Critique Visualizations created on Day 1

Students will share their sketches and visualizations from Day 1, receive and give constructive feedback on how the visualizations can be improved.

9:30 AM Hands-on Activity: Refine: Update data visualizations based on feedback (critique)

10:00 AM Break

10:10 AM Hands-on Activity: Students will be given data sets to clean and visualize.

[Dataset]

10:45 AM Recap + Day 3 Preview

11:00 AM Adjourn

Day 3: Data Visualization Best Practices Revisited

Schedule

Time Topic

9:00 AM Data Visualization Best Practices Revisited [Slides]

9:10 AM Good to Great Data Visualizations [Slides]

9:30 AM Hands-on Activity: Creating Dashboards with Microsoft Excel

[Data]

10:00 AM Break

10:10 AM Hands-on Activity: Creating Dashboards with Microsoft Excel continued.

10:45 AM Form teams and identify topic of interest for a small data visualization project.

11:00 AM Adjourn

Day 4: Storytelling with Data

Schedule

Time Topic

9:00 AM Pitch small project ideas.

9:30 AM Hands-on Activity - Makeover a chart: Students are given a visualization and the data that was used to generate it.
Part 1: students will discuss the features of the visualization (what’s good, what could be improved).
Part 2: Students will redesign the chart using any tool they are familiar with.
Part 3: students share before/after with the wider group and explain why they made the decisions they did.

[Data]

10:00 AM Break

10:10 AM Hands-on Activity: Students will work on small project idea in teams, can use any visualization tool familiar with.

10:45 AM Recap from the week + Day 5 Preview

11:00 AM Adjourn

Day 5: Bringing it all together Student Showcase

Schedule

Time Topic

9:00 AM Agenda Review

9:10 AM Student Presentations

10:00 AM Break

10:10 AM Student Presentations

10:45 AM Presentation of Certificates of Completion

11:00 AM Adjourn