Data visualization

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Exercise 1 (20 minutes)

In this exercise you will select one project listed below and answer several questions.

Pedro Cruz, John Wihbey, Avni Ghael, and Felipe Shibuya. A tree for U.S. immigration
MIT Senseable City Lab. Treepedia
Google News Lab and Truth & Beauty. The Rhythm of Food

Questions to Consider

What is the story that the author(s) appear to be trying to convey?
Is the design effective for the story?
What is the underlying data source?
What goal or research question does this visualization addresses? Is it clear?
Is it interactive, if so, how?
How was the visualization created? Do you know which software, tools, methods, etc. were used?
Is it user-friendly? If not, why and what would you improve?
Any other observations?

Exercise 2 (15 minutes)

Consider your own research or pedagogical needs. What type of question(s) or arguments can you make with a spatial visualization? Reflect on these and other questions while drawing or sketching out a dataset, map, or other visualization.

What type of data source(s) would you need?
Would you create your own data or require an existing dataset?
What kind of resources might you need access to?
What type of visualization would help you answer this question?
What kind of visualization tools might you need?