COMP 150-02 Visualization

Creative visualizations have been proposed to present and improve understanding of data, processes, structures, and concepts in a wide range of fields. Well-designed visualizations are powerful tools for communication and support recall, inference, and decision-making. While authoring visualizations often requires considerable effort by trained designers, active research has given us a growing toolbox for visual description and presentation. This course is an introduction to visualization techniques and technology. It targets students interested in building novel visualization tools, as well as those interested in applying visualization techniques to their own work. We will study techniques for creating effective visualizations, incorporating principles of graphic design, cognitive and perceptual psychology, data analysis, and human factors evaluations. Readings will include research papers representing the state of the art in visual communication technology.