Visualization in the wild

For your visualization in the wild presentations, you are going to find a visualization that you like from an outside source. You may want to look at the following websites:

r/dataisbeautiful
FlowingData, particularly his best-of tag
Any journalistic source, particularly The Upshot, ProPublica, The Washington Post, and 538. The StarTribune has a small data team, too! The library has some subscriptions to newspapers, which you can learn how to access here.
The Pudding
Instagram pages like Mona Chalabi and Matt Surelee
Visual Capitalist (good social media)
Data Visualization Society newsletter/Nightingale
Information is Beautiful, particularly their yearly awards

You can find a visualization elsewhere if you would like. Digital visualizations are typically easiest, but if you find something on paper you can bring it in and show it to the class or scan it to make it possible to show on the projector.

You will do a 2-5 minute presentation on your visualization, in front of the whole class. In your presentation, you will need to describe what the visualization shows, describe the variables and mappings in the visualization, and highlight at least one design decision you like. Typically, this is a presentation without slides– you will bring the visualization up on the screen by using a weblink, and talk us through the visualization. You may want to zoom in on elements or scroll around. If you wish to use slides, you may. Keep the time limit in mind.

Everyone should discuss a different visualization. Since this is a small class, I think that will be relatively straightforward, but to be sure, please claim your visualization in this Excel spreadsheet. Your decision is due the week before you do your presentation.

This is a short presentation, so I want it to be low-key. That being said, you should practice your presentation several times in advance of presenting live. You will be assigned a partner for a peer review, who you should practice with at least once. They will give you feedback on your presentation, and perhaps point out things you did not notice. I suggest meeting up in person, but you could also practice over Zoom. You will provide feedback to them in real time, and then write up something brief to submit to me, which will tell me what you discussed. This peer review assignment is due the week you do your presentation.

The initial idea and peer review assignments are scaffolding assignments for the mini-project. Those pieces do not contribute directly to your grade, but each one that is missing will result in a 10-point deduction from the mini-project. (In other words, if you miss both scaffolding assignments your top score possible will be 80%.)