How long does it take to get to a specific floor in the elevator vs. climbing the stairs based on multiple tries?
This exercise asks you to collect data and create a data visualization that communicates that data graphically. By gathering your own data and using it to create a visual you can see that data is all around you and visuals help make that data meaningful.
Step 1 – Collect data
At home, or wherever you are working, collect a set of quantitative (numerical) data. Consider various types of data, for example:
How long does it take to get to a specific floor in the elevator vs. climbing the stairs based on multiple tries?
What’s the ratio of books to other stuff on your shelves?
How much time do ducks spend foraging vs. just wandering around?
Think about the various processes that take time or require resources (e.g., how many almonds you eat in an hour, or the average time it takes to drink a bubbly water). Think about the items you have around you and what they are used for (e.g., what apps do you check on your phone in an hour). Quantitative data is all around you–every time you do something, check something, or observe something, you are generating data. And so are the things around you–e.g., stoplights, phones, dogs, and squirrels. Select an item or items around you (including yourself) and collect the data it generates.Once you have your data, you will create a data visualization that represents your data. To pick the type of data visualization, go back to the Design chapter you read and review the visualization types. You can also use the site The Data Visualization Catalogue1 to help you narrow down the type of visual you may want to use.
You will create your visual digitally using Excel. Take some time to review the following LinkedIn Learning tutorials for more information on how to sort data, as well as how to create charts and visuals in Excel:
Sort data in Excel (LinkedIn LearningLinks to an external site.)
Create and work with charts
Assigment 2
Visual Analysis Activity
This exercise asks you to analyze a quantitative visual to develop your ability to think critically about the visuals you’re designing for your project. You will use purpose, audience, and design (PAD) to determine whether the visual is effective and how it might be improved.
Look on the internet to find a data visualization to analyze that you find interesting. The visual should represent quantitative (numerical/statistical) data. The visual can be one you think is good or one you think has problems. Once you’ve found one you’d like to work with, analyze the visual by answering the following questions:
What type of visual is it?
Is the visual appropriate for the type of data? Why do you think so?
What is the purpose of the visual and who is the audience? How do you know? What specific elements of the visual led you to your conclusion?
Is the color use effective? Distracting? Does the color use make the visual more or less effective? Why?
Does the design of the visual contribute to or detract from the clarity and accuracy of the visual? What specific elements support your conclusion?
Assignment 3 5 points
Working with/ Analyzing Data
In this exercise, you will work with some of the data within Project 2. The goal of the exercise is to help you familiarize yourself with the data—what it says and how you will use it to support your argument. You should understand the data before you start creating visuals.
To begin, choose one of the two scenarios and examine it with the following question in mind:
Which scenario did you pick and why?
Look at the data for your selected scenario and answer the following questions:
The data is arranged by tables. For each of the tables you see, look at the columns and rows.
What type of information is listed in the columns and rows?
What units or metrics are used for the columns and rows?
Describe the data being presented in a few sentences.
What information jumps out at you as significant? List at least three insights you have?
If told a friend that you looked at this data today, what would you tell them you learned from the data?
The above questions should give you some idea of what the data says and what you think is most important about it. Now consider the report you can write using that data.
Who is the intended audience?
What do you know about them?
What do they value?
Considering your scenario, what argument would you like to make?
What data will help you make that argument? List at least three data points.
Describe the ways in which the data points you have chosen are important to the audience.
Do you think that the data points you have chosen will support the main point you’re trying to make for the audience you have identified? Why or why not?
Using this analysis, you can begin to plan your report—both argument and the data visualizations you will use to support your main point. Save this analysis to help you draft.Visuals represent real people and real-world situations so it is important to pay attention to and consider the ethical implications of creating a visual out of a data set. Read the following material on ethically creating data visualizations and then do your own analysis of ethics and visual design.
Submit your visual and analysis.
Preview/download PDF: Design ethics worksheetDownload Design ethics worksheet
Assigment 4 5 points
Choose one of the following scenarios and produce a one to two-page, informative, visually interesting report that uses the dataset provided to address the scenario. This report should incorporate at least three visuals that you have created along with a discussion/analysis of the data in your figures.
In working on this project, you will engage with different types of visuals, as well as the conventions of writing with data and numbers. To achieve these goals, you will select one of the scenarios listed below. After reviewing the data set provided, you will write about and analyze that data in a brief, informative, visual report.
Preview/download: Information Design Project RubricDownload Information Design Project Rubric
Submit your draft of the Information Design Report to DRAFT–Information Design in USF WritesLinks to an external site..
Note: You do not need to submit your reflective memo to the DRAFT assignment.
Click each accordion to view more details about the scenarios and the deliverables associated with them. You will also find resources that will help you with the deliverables.
Scenario 1
You are an engineering student at USF. Your mentor has asked you to design a report that will recruit students to the engineering major. Your mentor observes that prospective students can range from freshmen to older transfer students. Your mentor has tasked you with creating an informative report that will communicate the range of interests and salaries that students have open to them if they pursue a degree in Engineering. You have found data on engineering degrees, which highlight degrees attained in Engineering, those attained within STEM fields, and the different BA degrees earned at post-secondary institutions. You also have found data on salaries for various engineering positions.
The datasets can be found here:
Preview/download Excel file: Table 1Download Table 1
Preview/download Excel file: Table 2Download Table 2
Preview/download Excel file: Table 3Download Table 3
SalariesDownload Salaries
Take time to familiarize yourself with the data set—identifying trends and/or areas of interest to you. You may wish to consider relationships between degrees and salaries by making connections between the degrees students can earn and what they can do with the degree. Or you may wish to consider how gender and ethnicity impact recruitment.
Then, write a short report that includes data visualizations that can be used to recruit engineering students. Your goal is to recruit students to your program by providing them with an informative, visual report on the topic based on the dataset. Consider what it is you want the audience to know and how you can best visualize the information for them. Additionally, make sure to communicate the data you select from your data set in a way that maximizes Visual, informational report that
introduces the topic and its importance
explains the meaning of the three visuals you created
points to the conclusions suggested by the data.
A short 250- to 500-word note to the instructor that explains the following (use headings to identify each of the topics listed below):
Why you selected your scenario
How you selected which data to visualize and why you visualized it in the form you did
What decisions you made to tailor your report to your audience and your purpose
How you ensured that your visualizations of the data were fair, accurate, and clearthe impact of the data.
Main ASSIGNMENT 100 points
Choose one of the following scenarios and produce a one to two-page, informative, visually interesting report that uses the dataset provided to address the scenario. This report should incorporate at least three visuals that you have created along with a discussion/analysis of the data in your figures.
In working on this project, you will engage with different types of visuals, as well as the conventions of writing with data and numbers. To achieve these goals, you will select one of the scenarios listed below. After reviewing the data set provided, you will write about and analyze that data in a brief, informative, visual report.
Preview/download: Information Design Project RubricDownload Information Design Project Rubric
Submit your final draft of the Information Design Report to FINAL–Information Design in USF WritesLinks to an external site..
Submit your reflective memo to FINAL–Information Design–Reflective Memo in USF Writes.Links to an external site.
Click each accordion to view more details about the scenarios and the deliverables associated with them. You will also find resources that will help you with the deliverables.
Scenario 1
You are an engineering student at USF. Your mentor has asked you to design a report that will recruit students to the engineering major. Your mentor observes that prospective students can range from freshmen to older transfer students. Your mentor has tasked you with creating an informative report that will communicate the range of interests and salaries that students have open to them if they pursue a degree in Engineering. You have found data on engineering degrees, which highlight degrees attained in Engineering, those attained within STEM fields, and the different BA degrees earned at post-secondary institutions. You also have found data on salaries for various engineering positions.
The datasets can be found here:
Preview/download Excel file: Table 1Download Table 1
Preview/download Excel file: Table 2Download Table 2
Preview/download Excel file: Table 3Download Table 3
SalariesDownload Salaries
Take time to familiarize yourself with the data set—identifying trends and/or areas of interest to you. You may wish to consider relationships between degrees and salaries by making connections between the degrees students can earn and what they can do with the degree. Or you may wish to consider how gender and ethnicity impact recruitment.
Then, write a short report that includes data visualizations that can be used to recruit engineering students. Your goal is to recruit students to your program by providing them with an informative, visual report on the topic based on the dataset. Consider what it is you want the audience to know and how you can best visualize the information for them. Additionally, make sure to communicate the data you select from your data set in a way that maximizes the impact of the data.
Scenario 2
Resources
Deliverables
Visual, informational report that
introduces the topic and its importance
explains the meaning of the three visuals you created
points to the conclusions suggested by the data.
A short 250- to 500-word note to the instructor that explains the following (use headings to identify each of the topics listed below):
Why you selected your scenario
How you selected which data to visualize and why you visualized it in the form you did
What decisions you made to tailor your report to your audience and your purpose
How you ensured that your visualizations of the data were fair, accurate, and clear
Requirements: 10
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