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Design for Understanding

Overview

Mapping data to visual features is a powerful method for communicating information by leveraging the rapid perceptual pathways in our brain. In this design sprint, you will use visual methods to communicate data - but for different end goals. Your job is to use two different lenses to approach the same dataset:

Since you’ll be working in teams of four (4) for this project, I recommend that you split your team into pairs, with each pair tackling one lens (analyze versus persuade). However, depending on your design, you may choose to allocate your resources in the way you see best.

Examples: Here are some example submissions the Hall of Fame:

Choose a Dataset

Before you begin, choose a dataset. While you may use any dataset, be aware that cleaning the datasets into a usable format can be a major headache. You can use any dataset that you find online. Here are a few good starting points.

You will need to describe your dataset in your write-up, including any data cleaning you performed, anomalies you discovered, and how the data affected your visualization design choices.

You may NOT use a dataset that’s been used in tutorials. For example, the IMDB dataset, the Les Mis dataset, and iris dataset may not be used. If you can Google “name of dataset data visualization” and see results from Kaggle or articles with “student work” in the body, then this dataset has been visualized to death and it will be difficult to bring a new angle to the visualizations.

Your Technology

Both logical reasoning and persuasive storytelling are valuable perspectives for communicating information, and there are tradeoffs. To help match your tools with your objectives, here are some possible tools.

Your Two Visualizations

Each visualization should be sufficiently complex, whether that means including sophisticated storytelling techinques or by including several linked charts. See below for more details.

Your Design Process

Before you got to this class, you should have read about the five design-sheet (FdS) approach for information visualization. You should walk through all five stages of FdS during your design process and you should write about this process in your Design Doc Medium post. Make sure to get feedback from other students in the class as part of your design process!

Over the course of the semester, I am going to give fewer and fewer detailed instructions about how to run your design process. This is intentional! As we become more familiar with it, I expect you to be able to apply it yourself to any new technological domain.

Build it.

Just build it! You may use AI (like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini) to assist with writing the code. Note that you may run into tension between your imagined visualization and the one that you have time to create. That’s okay! Technical tradeoffs are a reality that any designer must encounter. Adjust your design (as needed), and be sure to discuss these tradeoffs in your design document. Remember, the implementation is only about 20% of your grade and bugs are allowed – it’s far more important to be a contributing team member and to write an excellent design document about the process.

Deliverables

Grading: Grading will be based on a Design Sprint #2 variation of the the design rubric. Be sure to complete the peer feedback forms linked at the end of the design document guide, which will be a large part of your grade.