DE705 Interactive Data Visualization & DE303 Information Graphics and Visualization

DE705 Interactive Data Visualization
DE303 Information Graphics and Visualization

Instructor: Prof. Venkatesh Rajamanickam

Autumn 2025: 8th to 26th Sep 2025
Venue: BDes 3 Classroom & Mini Theatre, RBTIC

Course Overview

Information graphics reveal the hidden, explain the complex and illuminate the obscure. Constructing visual representation of information is not mere translation of what can be read to what can be seen. It entails filtering the information, establishing relationships, discerning patterns and representing them in a manner that enables a consumer of that information construct meaningful knowledge.

Recent advances in technology have enabled us with means for creating, recording and analysing incredible amounts of data. Where once data was scarce, it is now available in abundance. The field of Computer Science has made great strides in creating capabilities for data handling and analysis. However the techniques required to most effectively display and communicate data are somewhat neglected. This design course aims to fill the gap by teaching techniques for creating effective visualizations based on principles from graphic design, visual art, perceptual psychology, and cognitive science.

Course Objectives

This course will provide students with the foundations necessary for understanding and extending the current state of the art in data visualization. By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Gain an understanding of the key techniques and theory used in visualization, including data models, graphical perception and techniques for visual encoding and interaction.
Plan for data-based storytelling through charts, maps, and diagrams.
Gain practical experience building and evaluating visualization systems.
Gain the ability to read and discuss research papers from the visualization literature.

Course Contents

Information visualization overview, historical perspective
Vision, perception and cognition principles of information visualization
Data principles, models, dimensions and analysis
Information taxonomy
Visual encoding of data
Mapping, cartography, geo-visualization
Visualization tools and strategies
Data stories and presentation
Short exercises and a mini project in visual representation of data

Schedule

Week	Content	Assignment	Additional Readings/Resources
Day 01	Lecture 01: Introduction to Data Visualization	Assignment 1: Visualization Critique	A Tour through the Visualization Zoo. Jeffrey Heer, Michael Bostock, Vadim Ogievetsky. Communications of the ACM, 53(6), pp. 59-67, Jun 2010. The Value of Information Visualization. Jarke van Wijk. Proceedings of the IEEE Visualization Conference, pp. 79-86, 2005.
Day 02	Lecture 02: Visualization Typology Review of Assignment 1	Assignment 2: Chart Deconstruction & Redesign	Visualization Typology proposed by Scott Berinato. From Viz to Data. A periodic table of visualization methods.
Day 03	Lecture 03: Data Review of Assignment 2	Assignment 3: Comparative Visualizations	On the Theory of Scales of Measurement. S. S. Stevens. Science New Series, Vol. 103, No. 2684, pp. 677-680. Jun 1946. Reflections on how designers design with data. Alex Bigelow, Steven Druckery, Danyel Fishery, Miriah Meyer. AVI '14 Proceedings of the 2014 International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, pp. 17-24. The eyes have it: a task by data type taxonomy for information visualizations.
Day 04	Lecture 04: Data Abstraction Lecture 05: Task Abstraction Review of Assignment 3	Assignment 4: Visualizing Burtin’s Antibiotic Data	Visualization Analysis and Design By Tamara Munzner. Her lecture video of Data Abstraction chapter. Her lecture video of Task Abstraction chapter.
Day 05	Lecture 06: Geo Visualization Review of Assignment 4	Assignment 5: Schematic Hometown Map	How Maps Work Denis Wood, Cartographica, Vol 29 Numbers 3 & 4 Autumn/Winter 1992, pp 66-74. The Image of The City Kevin Lynch, 1960. Getting There: The science of driving directions Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 24 April 2006. Rendering effective route maps: improving usability through generalization Maneesh Agrawala and Chris Stolte, SIGGRAPH '01 Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques. Pages 241-249.
Day 06	Lecture 08: Visual Encoding Review of Assignment 5	Assignment 6 (Group): Exploratory Data Analysis & Visualization	Nature Methods Points of View columns on Data Visualization
Day 07	Continuation of Lecture 08: Visual Encoding Review of Assignments 5 & 6
Day 08	Lecture 09: Design Hueristics Presentation of Assignment 6
Day 09-12	Dataviz Tools	Activity: Data Visualization Tools	This is a collection of some of the many data visualisation (and related) tools, applications, toolkits, libraries, platforms, and packages Another well curated list of dataviz tools

Assessment

For this course, you will be assessed as follows:

Assignment 1: Visualization Critique - 10%
Assignment 2: Chart Deconstruction & Redesign - 10%
Assignment 3: Comparative Visualizations - 15%
Assignment 4: Visualizing Burtin’s Antibiotic Data - 15%
Assignment 5: Schematic Hometown Map - 20%
Assignment 6 (Group): Exploratory Data Analysis & Visualization - 30%

Textbook

There is no recommended text for the course. All lecture slides are made available as PDFs for your reference.

Reference Books

Bertin, Jacques (1967). Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps. Esri Press.
Cairo, Alberto (2013). The Functional Art. New Riders
Few, Stephen (2012). Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten. Analytics Press.
Fry, Ben (2012). Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment. O'Reilly Media.
Harmon, Katherine (2003). You Are Here. Princeton Architectural Press.
Harris, Robert L. (2000). Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference. Oxford University Press.
Helfand, Jessica (2002). Reinventing the Wheel. Princeton Architectural Press.
Holmes, Nigel (1991). Designer's Guide to Creating Charts and Diagrams. Watson-Guptill.
Holmes, Nigel (2005). Wordless Diagrams. Bloomsbury.
Institute for Information Design Japan (2005). Information Design Source Book. Graphics-Sha.
Jacobson, Robert (2000). Information Design. The MIT Press.
McCloud, Scott (1994). McCloud, Scott (1994). Understanding Comics Understanding Comics. Harper . Harper.
Mijksenaar, Paul and Westendorp, Piet. Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design.
Mijksenaar, Paul (1997). Visual Function: An Introduction to Information Design. Princeton Architectural Press.
Munzner, Tamara (2015). Visualization Analysis and Design. A K Peters/CRC Press.
Myer, Eric. K. (1997). Designing Infographics. Hayden Books.
Tufte, Edward (1990). Envisioning Information. Graphics Press.
Tufte, Edward (1997). Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Graphics Press.
Tufte, Edward (2001). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press.
Ware, Colin (2012). Information Visualization, Third Edition: Perception for Design. Morgan Kaufmann.
Yau, Nathan (2011). Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics. Wiley.
Yau, Nathan (2013). Data Points: Visualization That Means Something. Wiley.

Contact

You can reach Prof. Venkatesh Rajamanickam via email