Project 1: Data Mapping
For Project 1, we will explore how information is transmitted through visual representation. Data mapping or data visualization comprises a wide range of methods, but their focus is the same: to communicate something to a specific audience for a particular purpose.
Each student will produce a data map. The choice of what data to present, what audience to target, and what purpose to accomplish is up to the student. Examples of data maps include INA's Interactive Mapping, INA's Iconographics, Worldmapper, The Shape of Song, and Joseph Jacinto Mora's "Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula."
To produce their maps, students will do critical research over visual rhetoric. Students also will analyze the work of others and their own work.
A student's data map may be delivered in a print, digital, or other format, but all projects must be organized, accessible, and professional.
Project Deliverables:
- thorough design plan
- data map
- postmortem
Due Dates:
- Data map first drafts due by the beginning of class on Tuesday, Sept. 11, to the Project 1 First Drafts gallery
- Data map second drafts due by the beginning of class on Thursday, Sept. 13, to the Project 1 Second Drafts gallery
- Project 1 final draft (design plan, data map, postmortem) due Tuesday, Sept. 18
Grading:
Breakdown
- Design Plan = 10%
- Data Map = 80%
- Postmortem = 10%
Rubrics
Excellent design plans will:
- account for all the design plan elements outlined in Compose, Design, Advocate
- proceed through a structure based on the sequence of design plan elements in Compose, Design, Advocate
- provide a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts
- speak in third person about the data map and how it functions, not in first person about the designer's process of creation
- speak in present tense about how the data map works, not in the future tense about what it will or might do
- demonstrate thoroughly what rhetorical purpose the data map intends, who is targeted, and how the message is to be delivered
- demonstrate coherence between the design plan and the resulting data map
- be in a finished, polished format appropriate for an academic/professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics
Excellent data maps will:
- communicate data in a clear and organized way through a primarily visual format
- reveal information not easily transmitted in another format
- achieve a specific rhetorical purpose by targeting a specific audience
- have an appearance appropriate to the audience and situation, including appropriate grammar and mechanics
Excellent postmortems will:
- account thoroughly for all the sections of the postmortem form
- focus on the designer's process of creating the data map
- provide valuable insight into project successes, difficulties, and what lessons have been learned going forward
- provide documentation that would be necessary in a professional setting
- be in a finished, polished format appropriate for an academic/professional reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics
Applicable Resources:
- Beyond Words excerpt 1
- Beyond Words excerpt 2
- Compose, Design, Advocate excerpt 1
- Compose, Design, Advocate excerpt 2
- Design plan tips
- Design plan rhetorical elements
- Project 1 postmortem
Applicable Links: