Data Visualization

About the Course

This course is for working professionals who are interested in learning the key concepts and techniques for creating effective visualizations based on principles from graphic design, visual art, perceptual psychology, and cognitive science to create graphical displays for summarizing and reasoning quantitative information. It is a 6 day course offered as a synchronous online course delivered over 6 weekends. The course counts towards 6 credits in the ePGD programme in Interaction Design offered by IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay.

Who should attend?

This programme is for you if you are:

A data scientist or analyst who works with data and are looking to effective visualization to analyse data and derive insights
An UI designer or software engineer who creates digital displays and interactive dashboards to help people
A communicator who is looking to convey quantitative information, explain complex ideas, and persuade people
A researcher who needs to communicate your findings in the most convincing manner
A journalist interested in telling data based stories
A teacher in a design, management or engineering college who would like to teach a data visualization course

After attending this course

By the end of the module learners will be able to:

Gain an understanding of the key techniques and theory used in visualization, including data models, graphical perception and techniques for visual encoding
Use visualization tools to transform quantitative information to visual representation
Gain practical experience building and evaluating visualizations
Plan for data-based storytelling through charts, maps, and diagrams

Contents and Schedule

The table below shows the planned contents for the 6 day online course. The course can be conducted either as one full day (either Sat or Sun) or as two half days (both Sat & Sun) depending on the majority preference of the course participants. There are no prerequisites, however fluency with spreadsheet (Excel or Google Sheet) and familiarity with any of the free and/or open source visualization tools such as Tableau, Flourish, Google Data Studio, Datawrapper, Chart.js etc., is highly desirable. Datasets required for exercises and assignments will be provided.

Day

Topics (Lectures, demonstrations or tutorials)

Learning activities, assignments

Week 1

Overview, historical perspective and principles of information visualization

Visualization critique exercise, presentation & discussion. Assignment 1

Week 2

Visualization frameworks

Assignment 1 review & feedback. Assignment 2

Week 3

Data principles and information taxonomy

Assignment 2 review & feedback.

Week 4

Visualization design

Final project

Week 5

Visualization tools

Final project review & feedback.

Week 6

Heuristics and Data stories

Final project presentation & evaluation
(in-person in the IITB campus)

Course instructor(s)

Venkatesh Rajamanickam

Eligibility Criteria

You have an undergraduate degree (or equivalent) from a recognised university in any of these disciplines: design, engineering, architecture, fine arts, applied arts, information architecture, ergonomics / human factors, writing and communication.
OR
You have any other undergraduate degree from a university recognised by IIT Bombay and if you have work experience in the industry of 3 years or more in any of these roles: user interface designer, user experience designer, web developer, information architect, graphic designer, visual designer, copywriter, product manager, brand manager.

Credits and Certification

Participants get 6 credits after passing this course which count towards the ePGD in Interaction Design from IIT Bombay. Please refer to the Credits / Certification section of the FAQs for more details.