Winter 2005: CS 558 Visualization

Schedule

Papers and articles available on the web will not be handed out in class. Pointers to the online versions of papers are included by the reference. You are expected to download and print these papers yourselves. One reason for doing this is that many visualization papers contain pictures that do not reproduce well when copied. Note that some of the papers come from digital libraries that are accessible online only from machines on the UW network.
Jan 4 The Purpose of Visualization
Readings
Chapter 1, In Readings in Information Visualization. Card, Mackinlay & Shneiderman. (handout)
          Decision to launch the Challenger, In Visual Explanations. Tufte. (handout)
Optional Readings
Spatial schemas in depictions, Chapter 3 in Spatial Schemas in Abstract Thought. Tversky. (cognet)
Jan 6 Data and Image Models
Readings
The eyes have it, Schneiderman. (html)
The structure of the information visualization design space. Card & Mackinlay. (ieee)
Toward a perceptual science of multidimensional data visualization: Bertin and beyond. Green.
Optional Readings
On the theory of scales of measurement. Stevens. (jstor)
Chapter II: The Properties of the Graphic System. In Semiology of Graphics. Bertin. (handout)
 
Jan 11 Discussion of examples of good and bad visualizations  (Assignment 1 due)
Readings
Chapter 3: Layering and Separation, In Envisioning Information. Tufte.
Chapter 4: Small Multiples, In Envisioning Information. Tufte.
Jan 13 Perception
Readings
Graphical perception.Cleveland & McGill. (jstor)
Perception in visualization. Healey. (html)
Integral vs. separable dimensions, In Vision Science. Palmer. (handout)
Optional Readings
Gestalt and composition. In Course #13, SIGGRAPH 2002. Durand. (1-up pdf) (6-up pdf)
The psychophysics of sensory function. Stevens. (pdf)
Demonstrations
Healey's preattentive vision applet
Rensink's change blindness applet
The Game of Set, Adrien Treuille's applet
 
Jan 18 Visualization Domains: Molecular Visualization (Jack Schonbrun), UrbanSim (Alan Borning)
Readings
Chapter 1: Escaping Flatland, In Envisioning Information. Tufte.
Chapter 6: Narratives of Space and Time, In Envisioning Information. Tufte.
Jan 20 Spatial Layout
Readings
Chapter 8: Marginal Distortions. In The Psychology of Perspective and Renaissance Art. Kubovy (pdf)
Postmortem of an example, Bertin (handout) 
The visual design and control of the trellis display. Becker, Cleveland and Shyu. (ps)
Optional Readings
Chapter 10: The Cartogram: Value-by-Area Mapping. In Cartography: Thematic Map Design. Dent (handout)
Cartogram central
Map projections in PDF
 
Jan 25 Visual Interfaces for Databases (Guest lecturers: Chris Stolte and Jock Mackinlay)
Readings
Automating the design of graphical presentations of relational information, Mackinlay (acm)
Data characterization for intelligent graphics presentation. Roth and Mattis (html)
Polaris (extended paper), Stolte, Tang and Hanrahan (pdf)
Optional Reading
Visage: A user interface environment for exploring information, Roth et al. (pdf)
Jan 27 Color (Guest lecturer: Maureen Stone)
Readings
Chapter 5: Color and Information. In Envisioning Information. Tufte
A rule-based tool for color map selection, Bergman, Treinish, Rogowitz (html)
Color guidelines, Brewer (html)
Chapter 4: The Theory of Colors. In Cartographic Relief Presentation. Imhof (handout), Online example maps
Demonstrations
ColorBrewer, Brewer
Color calculators and demonstrations, Lindbloom
 
Feb 1 Visualization Domains: Interior Structure and Volume (Wilmot Li and Lincoln Ritter)
Feb 3 Interaction (Assignment 2 due)
Readings
Direct manipulation for comprehensible, predictable and controllable user interfaces, Shneiderman. (acm).
Visual information seeking: Tight coupling of dynamic query filters with starfield displays, Ahlberg & Shneiderman. (html)
Visual exploration of time-series data, Hochheiser & Schneiderman. (html) (pdf)
Table lens, Rao and Card, (acm)
Human guided search: Survey and recent results, Klau, Lesch, Marks & Mitzenmacher. (pdf)
Optional Readings
Dynamic queries, starfield displays, and the path to Spotfire. Schneiderman (html)
Visual exploration of large structured data sets. Wills. (html)
Demonstrations  
ggobi
Excentric labels
Homefinder
Cellphones
Fry's zipdecode
Table lens
 
Feb 8 Usability/Evaluation: Part 1 (Project proposals due)
Readings
Chapters 4-5: In Task-Centered User Interface Design. Lewis & Rieman. (html)
An empirical comparison of three commercial information visualization systems. Kobsa (pdf)
An evaluation of space-filling information visualizations for depicting hierarchical structures. Stasko, et al.(pdf)
Identification and validation of cognitive design principles for automated generation of assembly instructions. Heiser et al. (html)
Optional Readings
An initial examination of ease of use for 2D and 3D information visualizations of web content. Risden, et al.(pdf)
The challenge of information visualization evaluation. Plaisant. (pdf)
Feb 10 Visualization Domains: Music Visualization (Kevin Wampler), Video Game Visualization (Craig Prince)
 
Feb 15 Usability/Evaluation: Part 2
Feb 17 Visualization Domains: Trees and Graphs (Jiun-Hung), Social Networks (Mira Dontcheva)
 
Feb 22 Project Design Discussions
Jack Schonbrun, Pravin Bhat, Lincoln Ritter, Kevin Wampler
Feb 24 Project Design Discussions
Aseem Agarwala, Mira Dontcheva, Jiun-Hung Chen, Craig Prince, Wilmot Li
 
Mar 1 Conveying Shape: Line Drawings
Readings
Automatic illustration of 3D geometric models. Dooley & Cohen. (acm)
Suggestive contours. DeCarlo et al. (html)
Mar 3 Visualization Domains: Flow Visualization (Pravin Bhat), Sports and Motion (Aseem Agarwala)

Mar 8 Conveying Shape: Lighting Shading and Texture
Readings
Communicating shape. Gooch & Gooch (html)
Texture. Interrante (html)
Conveying shape with image-based relighting. Akers et al. (html)
Mar 10 Diagrammatic Depiction of Processes
Readings
Interactive intent-based illustration: A Visual language for 3D worlds. Seligmann (html)

Mar 14 Final Presentations