Ready or Not…
After our beginning warm-up week, we’re going to start having a more typical workload this week. That means multiple readings and more complex assignments (at least most of the time). Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you start feeling overwhelmed or like you’re falling behind.
Lecture: The History of Visualization
Collecting data has always been about making sense of our world — someone had a question, and made observations to answer it. Visualization techniques developed to help make sense of that collected data, and to share it. In this lesson, we’re going to take a brief look at the history of data visualization and when different chart forms were invented.
Link for the slides: Influential Early Information Graphics
Video not showing up? Watch on YouTube here.
Readings
• The Surprising History of the Infographic (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Choose one biographical feature: William Playfair, Florence Nightingale, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marie Neurath
• A Brief History of Data Visualization (This is part of the discussion question, so it’s fine to skim it)
Discussion
One of this week’s readings (A Brief History of Data Visualization) is a thorough and well-cited history of data visualization, but it’s also a bit dense. So for this discussion, we’ll split up the timeline and everyone can share highlights from a particular era. Along with that reading, this “Map of Firsts” may also be useful, as well as this summary of the long paper. You’re also welcome to use any other sources.
Dataviz History Highlights: Answer these questions for the era you’re assigned (list below):
- In summary, what was new or interesting during that time period?
- What is one example of a visualization from that time period? (Include an image)
For including images in the Canvas discussion forum, please use the option to display the image directly in your response (rather than as a file attachment) so it’s easy for everyone to view it.
Two or three of you are assigned to each era, and it’s fine if there’s some overlap. You don’t need to coordinate responses or work together for this. Please try to choose a different example if others have already posted from the same era.
Assigned eras:
Before 1700: Alyssa V.
1700-1799: Brad C., Jake J.
1800-1850: Kylie F.
1850-1900: Riley R., Gabbie T.
1900-1950: Andy R.
1950-1975: Jo W.
Assignment 3: Charting WSU Demographics
In this assignment, you’ll organize data from WSU about student demographics and then create charts using Google Sheets. This is our first assignment making use of spreadsheets, which we’ll continue all semester.