Data Visualization and Communication (DA 6233)

Prof. Ashwin Malsh ([email protected])

MSDA, fall 2017

Office: BB 4.06.20
Office Hours: Tuesday Thursday 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (Daytime cohort)
Tuesday Thursday 5:00 pm - 5:45 pm (Evening cohort)

Teaching Assistant: Mr. Archit Saxena ([email protected])

Learning Objectives:

1. Fundamentals of visualization
2. Visualization for cross-sectional, time-series, and spatial data
a. Using R packages such as ggplot2
b. Using Tableau Public
3. Visualization and communication for marketing applications
a. Using Rstudio Shiny app

Course Description:

This course is designed to teach students the principles of visualizations and acquaint them with tools for
more effective visualization and communication. Whereas data analytics methods are gaining
prominence, how to communicate that analysis to decision makers remains a major challenge.
Visualization tools such as graphs, dashboards, and websites, are helpful in such communication.
However, without systematic knowledge of the best practices in visualization, its easy to mislead
audience with incorrect object sizes, color shading, excessive cluttering, or arbitrarily truncated scales. At
the end of the syllabus I reproduce three images downloaded from the subreddit r/dataisugly which make
this point amply clear.

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The course will use R and Tableau Public to create visualizations. R has several libraries, which
specialize in plotting. We will in particular use ggplot2 and many other libraries that depend on ggplot2.
These libraries are related to each other and have similar syntax for the functions, which will make things
easier. Tableau is arguably one of the most popular visualization software among practitioners. We will
use Tableau Public, which is a limited-capability but free version of the software. Alternatively you can
get a full version with student registration.

The Required Textbooks:

Visual Thinking for Design (Ebook available through UTSA Library)

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/lib/utsa/detail.action?docID=405649

ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis

Build your own pdf: https://github.com/hadley/ggplot2-book
Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0387981403/ref=cm_sw_su_dp?tag=ggplot2-20

Tableau: Creating Interactive Data Visualizations (Ebook available through UTSA Library)
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/lib/utsa/detail.action?docID=4662963

Additional Reading:

Ramnath Vaidyas book: https://ramnathv.github.io/pycon2014-r/visualize/base_graphics.html

ggplot2 book website: http://ggplot2.org/book/
Htmlwidgets for R: http://www.htmlwidgets.org/
Flowing Data: https://flowingdata.com/

Grading:

Grading is based on group and individual assignments

Individual homework assignments 60%

Final project presentation 40%

Homework Assignments

There will be 4 individual homework assignments, each with a 1 week deadline. The homework
will involve creating a visualization. You will submit your code and output combined as an
Rmarkdown file along with the output html file.

Final Project:

The final project will require you to answer a business problem using publicly available data set
and visualize the results. The final project will be entirely graded on the presentation. The

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criteria for grading the presentation in isolation are as follows: presentation skills, the quality of
the presentation, the ease with which the audience can understand your research. The content of
the presentation will be graded on the relevance of the topic to practitioners (purely academic
visualizations for the sake of it will be graded low), attention to details, and insight discovery.
Pretty visualizations that dont tell us about anything interesting are meaningless.

Course Schedule (Subject to change):

The course schedule is subject to change because this is the first time I am teaching this course at
the beginning of the MSDA program. I taught it in summer recently but it was at the end of the
program. Therefore the pacing of the content is not calibrated based on comparable prior
experience.

Week Day Topic Book chapters

1 August 22 Introduction Chapter 1 Visual Thinking
1 August 24 What we can easily see and Chapter 2, 4 Visual Thinking
Colors
2 August 29 Visual and verbal narrative Chapter 7 Visual Thinking
2 August 31 The grammar of graphics Chapter 4 ggplot2
3 September 5 The grammar of graphics Chapter 5 ggplot2
3 September 7 The grammar of graphics Chapter 6 ggplot2
4 September 12 The grammar of graphics Chapter 7 and 8 ggplot2
4 September 14 Visualizing time series
5 https://cran.r-
September 19 Visualizing spatial data project.org/doc/contrib/intro-
spatial-rl.pdf
5 September 21 Interactive graphs with R https://shiny.rstudio.com/
6 September 26 using Shiny
6 September 28
7 October 3 Getting started with Tableau Module 3, chapter 1-2, Tableau
Public
7 October 5 Dashboards Module 3, chapter 7-8, Tableau
8 October 10 Presentations
8 October 12 Presentations

Homework Deadlines
Homework Made Available Submission Deadline
1 September 5 September 12
2 September 12 September 19
3 September 19 September 26
4 September 26 October 3

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Late Submissions:
No late submissions are allowed.
Policy on Cheating:
Students are expected to be above reproach in scholastic activities. Students who violate
University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the
possibility of failure in the course and dismissal from the University. "Scholastic dishonesty
includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any
work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an exam for
another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit
such acts." From The University of Texas System Rules and Regulations of the Board of
Regents, Rule: 50101. (www.utsystem.edu/BOR/rules.htm).

Right to Privacy:
Except under specific exceptions provided in the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of
1974, I will not give information concerning your grades, academic progress, attendance,
address, phone, or e-mail to anyone outside the UTSA system unless you give your prior written
permission. In addition, I will not give or discuss grade information over the phone or by e-mail.

Special Needs:
If you feel that you are eligible for or may be helped by accommodations in the class due to a
disability or special need, contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS). Students with
disabilities must be registered with the ODS located in MS 2.03.18 (458 4157 voice; 458 4981
TRY) or UTSA Downtown in FS 1.526 (458-2816), in order to receive support services. To
see if you are eligible for these services and privileges, visit the website below:
http://www.utsa.edu/disability/studeligibility.htm

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Examples of bad visualizations:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisugly/comments/6br7jo/i_found_a_partsofthewhole_graph_that
_is_even_more/

Note: In this graph there are several problems. But most importantly, its misleading. For
example, look at the top two levels of the pyramid where both the sections are labeled $8 but
they are clearly different in sizes.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisugly/comments/6aaep3/found_on_business_insider/

Note: In this graph, the X axis arbitrarily starts from 590 calories, thereby exhaggerating the
differences in the calorie content in different foods items.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisugly/comments/67pcnw/global_climate_trends_explained/

Note: This graph is highly cluttered and does a horrible job of communicating its underlying
message.