DV

Assignment

Color and accessible data graphics

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1. Design a Sankey diagram

This task requires you to design a Sankey diagram using a choice of your data. You can start by finding a local company in St. Louis or a national/international company based in St. Louis and collecting its income statement for a recent year. Next, draw a Sankey diagram summarising the financial data. You are welcome to use any online tool or data visualization software. Your submission should include a detailed discussion of how you collected the data, which tools or websites you used, and how you designed the diagram. For example, the Sankey diagram below summarizes Apple’s 2022 income statement.

2. Design a treemap or a circle packing

This Wikipedia page summarizes the top languages spoken in the world in the form of a table. Design a circle packing diagram or a treemap displaying/summarizing the data in the table.

You are welcome to use any online tool or data visualization software. Your submission should include a detailed discussion of how you collected the data, which tools or websites you used, and how you designed the diagram.

For example, the circle packing diagram below shows the world population by country/continent.

Similarly, the treemap diagram below shows product expenses.

3. Explain the “for loop” in C programming

Learning from the “Pythagoras theorem proof explained in colors”, explain visually how the for loop in C programming language works. Your visual explanation should use at least four or five distinct colors.

for (initialization statement; test expression; update statement)c{
    // statements inside the body of loop
}

for (int i = 1; i < 10; ++i) {
    printf("%d ", i);
}

4. RGB, CMYK, & HSV models

Describe the differences between the RGB, CMYK, & HSV models of creating colors. You are welcome to use appropriate pictures, icons, or images in your description.

5. Color for layering and separation

Using examples, describe how color can be used for layering and separation.

6. Using Color Brewer

In the diagram below, is the choice of colors colorblind safe? Is it printer-friendly? Is it LCD screen friendly? Explain in a few sentences.

7. Data graphics with low accessibility

Find one example of data visualizations with low accessibility. Outline the accessibility issues with the visualization and suggest how the accessibility can be improved. You can collect the visualizations from anywhere on the Internet, but sources should be cited along with URLs.

8. Your own data graphics with low accessibility

From all the data graphics you have designed so far, pick the one you think has the lowest accessibility. Outline the accessibility issues with the visualization and suggest how the accessibility can be improved.

9. Additional ideas to make data visualization accessible

The topic of accessible data visualization is under-researched/under-explored. Besides the ideas we discussed in class (i.e., the reading materials), what other techniques can you suggest to make visualizations accessible? Hint: If you want to avoid searching, watching this panel discussion should help you develop ideas.

10. Peer reviews of UMSL tables

Review two of your peers’ tables (in the class) and submit your two reviews. In addition to the presentation sessions in the class, your peers’ tables are available on the Canvas discussion board. The document “A template for writing a review of a data table” outlines several ideas to evaluate a table design critically. In addition to submitting your review to Canvas (for receiving grades), you are also welcome to email your review to the author or post it as a reply in the Canvas discussion board.

11. Final version of the UMSL table

This homework is a follow-up on the previous week’s table design homework and the peer-review homework just before this. After the classroom discussions and your own experiences of peer reviews, you now may have several ideas to improve the UMSL table you designed. Improve your table design based on your observations of others’ tables, your peer-review experiences, and the peer-reviews you received (if you did).

Submit all three:

1. The original UMSL table and the appropriate reference for finding the table.
2. The table you initially designed.
3. Final version of the table.