Due February 12 CS 4460/7450 - Information Visualization Spring 2009

Homework 3: Visualization with Many Eyes

The purpose of this assignment is to give you exposure to the visualization system Many Eyes, its visualization generation pipeline, and the visualization techniques it provides. You should load two different data sets into the Many Eyes system and create interesting, informative visualizations of them. You should provide a thought-provoking title to each visualization and choose clear, meaningful names for categories, variables, etc. Include your name and provide a few sentences of explanation about the data and graphic. Try to find interesting data sets from your life and your interests. Also, many different data sets are linked on the web, for instance, see the list of data collections from our class resources webpage or see the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Place a link to your two visualizations on our class wiki page for HW 3. In addition, write a one page critique of Many Eyes, highlighting both the positive aspects that you really liked and other aspects that you feel could be improved. Imagine handing this document to the system's creators as constructive, helpful feedback about it.

What to turn in: Simply turn in your one page critique of the system (two copies). There's no need to turn in anything about your visualization on paper, but remember to add the two links to your visualizations to the wiki page!

Grading: We will evaluate the thoughtful of your critique and the comments you include there. In addition, data and visualizations that we find particularly interesting, clever, insightful, and thought-provoking will earn higher scores.