Module 1 - Developing a Critical Eye
Overview and Deliverables
- 8/31: Attend the initial course meetup at 8:00PM Eastern
- Introduce yourself on the course Slack and in the Brightspace discussion forum
- Story 1 is assigned this week and due Sunday 9/13 (end of week 2)
- Make sure your software toolkit is set up (see the software page)
Learning Objectives
- Understand a data practitioner’s role as a storyteller
- Understand the importance of each of the “Who”, “What”, “Why”, “When”, and “How” of a data visualization story
- Begin developing a “Critical Eye”: the ability to discern poor quality and misleading visualizations from those of high quality
Readings
- Storytelling with Data: Chapter 1
- Fundamentals of Data Visualization (Wilke): Chapters 1 and 2
- A Data Practitioner’s Guide to Telling Stories with Data Visualizations: Slides 1-11 (everything up to Tufte’s Principles)
Background/Optional
- Friendly - History of Data Visualization - excellent background
- History of Data Visualization Presentation
- Handbook of Data Visualization (comprehensive reference work)
Meetup
Slides: Meetup 1 - Developing a Critical Eye (PDF)
In this meetup we show a case study of how a visualization can tell a more powerful message when improved, talk about the course structure, list considerations and tools to use to craft a data story, introduce the neuroscience behind why storytelling is effective, and talk about quality issues for figures.