Lecture 10-28: Infoviz

For this unit, we will consider information visualization as a mode of inquiry. And we will use visualization as a means to study the world around us, as articulated by data.

Technically speaking, we will spend this week learning to use the D3 (Data Driven Documents) JavaScript visualization library. Created by Mike Bostock of the New York Times, D3.js is the library used for interactive information graphics online.

To begin learning D3, we will have a special workshop taught by David Newbury on Friday morning.

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D3.js & Resources

In-class materials:

• David Newbury’s workshop materials: http://d3.workergnome.com/
• David’s other workshop: https://github.com/workergnome/dataviz-workshop

Official links:

• D3 Official Website: https://d3js.org/
• D3 Gallery: https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki/Gallery
• Mike Bostock’s Blocks – Examples by the author of D3.

Some tutorials:

• D3 Tutorial landfill: https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki/Tutorials
• Scott Murray’s Tutorials – very helpful tutorial for learning D3.
• Interactive Data Visualization for the Web – expanded version of the previous tutorials.

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Information Visualization as Cultural Inquiry

• Ben Fry & Fathom:
  • Zipdecode (2004, 2014)
  • Fortune500 (2011)
  • Salary vs. Performance (2005)
  • Traces (2009)
• Laura Kurgan:
  • Million Dollar Blocks (2006)
• Jer Thorp:
  • Just Landed (2009)
  • Kepler Exoplanet Candidates (2010)
  • Kepler Exoplanet installation
• Fernanda Viegas & Martin Wattenberg:
  • Wind Map (2012)
  • History Flow (2003)
  • The Shape of Song (Wattenberg)
  • Baby Name Voyager (Wattenberg)
  • ColorCode (Wattenberg)
• Moritz Stefaner:
  • Map your moves (2010)
  • Stadtbilder (2013)
  • Selfie City (2014)
  • Ach Ingen Zell (2016)
• Amanda Cox & NYTimes:
  • Olympic Medals (2008)
  • Midterm Elections (2014)
  • How Birth Year Influences Political Views (2014)
  • Dissecting a Trailer (2013)
  • The Jobless Rate for People Like You (2009)
  • How Family Income Affects Children’s College Chances (2015)
  • The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up (2015)
• Kim Rees (Periscopic):
  • Gun Deaths (2013)
• Wes Grubbs (Pitch Interactive):
  • Out of Sight Out of Mind (2013)
• More
  • Age of Every Building In Manhattan
  • Age of Every Building in the Netherlands
  • Age of Every Building in Los Angeles

How to do this kind of work:

• Edward Tufte
• Taxonomy of Data Science (Hilary Mason):
• How to be a data journalist (Guardian)
• Ben Fry’s PhD thesis, 7 Steps: page 13