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, 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." When students construct their data maps, they should not simply copy the methods of any of these examples and put in different data. These examples use strategies appropriate to their specific purposes.

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, depending upon what is appropriate for a student's purpose. All projects must be organized, accessible, and professional.

Project Deliverables:

  • thorough design plan
  • data map
  • postmortem

Due Dates:

  • Design plan first drafts due by the beginning of class on Friday, Jan. 25
  • Data map first drafts due by the beginning of class on Monday, Jan. 28
  • Revised design plan due by the beginning of class on Wednesday, Jan. 30
  • Revised data map due by the beginning of class on Friday, Feb. 1
  • Project 1 final draft (design plan, data map, postmortem) due Wednesday, Feb. 6

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
  • 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

Process
Grading is done holistically. This means that there is not a set point value corresponding to the severity and frequency of individual errors. Projects are evaluated upon their overall rhetorical effectiveness based upon the provided rubrics. I use the criteria in the rubrics as a checklist for each project. Projects are then assigned a letter score based upon this evaluation. These letter scores are translated to a percentage for the overall project grade.

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