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 by identifying a specific context, audience, and purpose for the work. Examples of data maps include INA's Iconographics, the map of high school romantic relationships, Bungie's Halo 3 heat maps, the relationship chart among scientific paradigms, Worldmapper, The Shape of Song, Megan Jaegerman's iconographics, and Joseph Jacinto Mora's "Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula." (Examples from previous students will be shown in class.) When students construct their data maps, they should not simply copy the methods of any of these examples and put in different data. Students' design choices should be guided by the specific context, audience, and purpose they identify.

To produce their maps, students will do critical research over visual rhetoric. Students also will analyze their work and the work of others.

A student's data map may be delivered in a print, digital, or other format. The map's final format should be appropriate to the student's context, audience, and purpose. All projects must be organized, accessible, and professional.

Project Deliverables:

• design plan
• data map
• postmortem

Due Dates:

• Design plan first drafts due by the beginning of class on Friday, Sept. 12
• Data map first drafts due by the beginning of class on Monday, Sept. 15
• Design plan second drafts due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, Sept. 17
• Data map second drafts due by the beginning of class on Friday, Sept. 19
• Project 1 final draft (design plan, data map, postmortem) due Wednesday, Sept. 24

Grading:
Grading is done holistically. This means that the rhetorical effectiveness of all three deliverables is judged as a whole. There is not a set point value corresponding to the severity and frequency of individual errors. Projects are assigned a letter grade based upon the following criteria.

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 how the data map functions, not in first person about the designer's process of creation
• speak about how the data map works, not about what it will or might do
• demonstrate thoroughly what rhetorical purpose the data map intends, who is targeted, what the context is, 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
• be in their intended final format
• reveal information not easily transmitted in another format
• reveal information that is complex and/or specialized rather than mundane
• accomplish a legitimate, specific rhetorical purpose not already accomplished by an existing text
• target a legitimate, specific audience other than the map creator
• have an appearance appropriate to the audience and situation, including appropriate grammar and visual style

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, including appropriate grammar and mechanics, such that the postmortem could be given as-is to a professional superior

Applicable Resources:

• Compose, Design, Advocate excerpt 1
• Compose, Design, Advocate excerpt 2
• Beyond Words excerpt 1
• Beyond Words excerpt 2
• This American Life "Mapping" episode
• Design plan tips
• Project 1 initial questions
• Project 1 more questions
• Project 1 postmortem

Applicable Links:

• Google search for "data visualization"
• Del.icio.us links tagged with "mapping"