Assignment

iJ Data Visualization Assignment

Instructors: 

Taylor Owen: taylor.owen(at)ubc.ca

France Bula: francesbula(at)gmail.com

Due Dates:

Assignment 1 (5%) One data set on the topic of your beat, imported, cleaned and 1 visualization. Due 5pm Sunday March 1st.

Assignment 2 (10%) 300 word data story including 3 visualization (at least one of them a map, and at least one map made in Fusion Tables), and a process tracing document. Due 10pm Sunday March 8th.

Marking:

  • Initial data set, cleaned and visualized (5%)
  • Story and Visualizations (7%)
  • Process Document (3%)

Overview:

You will write a story on the topic of your beat in that includes 300 words of text and three data visualizations.  This will be done in two steps. The first assignment is exploratory, and it meant to be the first stage in the reporting, and a practice at creating a meaningful visualization.  On Monday, you will have the chance to workshop your data source and story proposal, and to then revisit your data sources. In the second part of the assignment you will report the story and create three visualizations. You will also keep a detailed process tracing document for the second part of the assignment.

Deliverables:

Assignment 1:

  1. One data set on the topic of your beat and a short explanation of why you chose it.
  2. A screenshot of the data cleaned, and details of what you did to clean it.
  3. At least One Fusion Table visualization using the data.
  4. A short description of what the story might be.
  5. Email to Frances and Taylor (emails above) by 5pm Sunday
  6. Come to class prepared to discuss your story idea.

Assignment 2:

  1. One Google Map with added data and formatting, and two other data visualizations made with Fusion Tables, Many Eyes, or another visualization tool such as datawrapper or infogr.am.
  2. 300 words outlining what these visualizations add to the story. This can be a single overall piece of text, or divided amongst the visualizations.
  3. A process tracing document which includes:
    • Explanation of data sources
    • Step by step details of the data cleaning that you undertook
    • A list of the various hypotheses that you explored
    • Screen grabs for each of the principle visualizations attempted and considered for your sidebar.
    • The rationale for choosing the visualizations that you did

Note: Be careful to use data that is from the appropriate time period to the story.