Data Visualization

Course Overview

Through today's fog of overwhelming data, visualizations provide meaning. This course trains students to collect, organize, interpret, and communicate massive amounts of information. Students will begin wrangling data into spreadsheets, learning the basic ways professionals translate information into comprehensible formats. They will explore charts, distinguishing between effective and misleading visualizations. Employing principles from information graphics, graphic design, visual art, and cognitive science, students will then create their own stunning and informative visualizations. From spreadsheets to graphics, students in this course will practice the crucial skills of using data to decide, inform, and convince. There is no computer science, math or statistics prerequisite for this course, though students with backgrounds in those areas will certainly find avenues to flex their knowledge in this course.