At the end of the semester, you should:

• know what "Information Design", "Information Visualization", and their main characteristics are;
• understand the main principles of human visual perception and visualization;
• be able to organize and present data using text, tables, and graphical representations in order to communicate information clearly and succinctly;
• be able to assess the quality of visual representations including the identification of flaws and manipulative designs of visual representations;
• have an overview of a variety of visual representation methods, know about their main characteristics, and in which contexts they can be applied;
• understand human-centered design and evaluation methods for visualizations;
• have knowledge about reference models and taxonomies for visualization and understand the role of interactivity.

"Solving a problem simply means representing it so that the solution is obvious." [Simon, 1996]

One of the most important challenges of the emerging information age is to effectively utilize the immense wealth of information and data acquired, computed and stored by modern information systems. By utilizing the powerful human perceptual system that is extremely efficient in processing visual input, Information Design & Visualization can help to make sense of data, explore complex information spaces or spot patterns and relationships within the data.

In this course, you will get to know principles, methods, and techniques to visually represent data and information in order to make complex information structures more comprehensible, facilitate new insights, and enable knowledge discovery. At this, we do not primarily aim to design "beautiful pictures", but investigate visual and interactive methods to communicate information and gain new insights.

Contents

• Introduction to Information Design & Information Visualization: Definitions and Terms as well as Historical Background
• Perception and Cognition
• Graphic and Text Design Principles
• Visualization Design
• Basic Visualization Techniques
• Design Methodology, Taxonomies, Models & Evaluation Methods
• Basic Principles of Information Visualization
• Information Visualization Techniques
• Methods for Interactivity
• Application areas for Information Design and Information Visualization

Didactic Concept

• Lectures about concepts, methods, and techniques
• Providing references to primary and advanced literature
• Discussion of advantages and disadvantages of concepts, techniques, and scientific literature
• Connecting with examples of applications
• Practical application of concepts, methods, and techniques in the accompanying lab lecture

Preliminary Discussion

The preliminary discussion to this course takes place on March 7, 2016, 3pm c.t. in the lecture room EI 8 Pötzl HS.

Attendance    

Attending the lectures in person is mandatory and will be checked.

Material    

TUWEL will be used to provide slides and other relevant material for each lecture.    

There will be mandatory material that you HAVE TO study as well as additional material for those who are interested to learn more.

ECTS Breakdown (3 ECTS = 75h):    

Lectures: 20   

Readings: 18   

User Study: 2   

Design Project: 24  

Preparation for exam: 9   

Exam: 2   

SUMME: 75

The final grade for the course consists of two main parts:        

1. lecture part        
2. practical part    

The results of all tests and assignments will be combined to the final grade.

Lecture part        

Brief multiple choice tests are conducted at the beginning of each lecture about the content of the last lecture (on paper).        

Relevant content for the tests:            

• Lecture            
• Slides            
• Mandatory readings    

Practical part        

In the practical part, three assignments have to be carried out:            

• two design assignments in form of practical assignments and a semester project where the methods and theories of the lecture part are applied practically             
• user test of a information visualization prototype        

The results have to be handed in via TUWEL.    

• Programming
• Algorithms and data structures
• Computer  Graphics