CS-GY 6313: Information Visualization - Fall 2025

Instructor: Claudio Silva (csilva@nyu.edu) TA (Labs): Ryan Kim (rkim.dev) Grader: Hashmmath Shaik (hs5544@nyu.edu) Meeting Times: Fridays 11:00 AM - 1:30 PM Classroom: Jacobs Hall, Room 215, Brooklyn Campus

Announcements

Course materials will be posted as the semester progresses

Upcoming Classes

Week 1 (Sept 5) - Introduction and Evaluation

• Slides: Course Introduction & Syllabus

  Lab: Observable & Vega-Lite

• Topics: Course overview, What is visualization?, Evaluation frameworks
• Lab: Setup Observable accounts, Create first Vega-Lite charts
• Assignment: Exercise 1 - Visualization critique and basic Vega-Lite charts (due Sept 11)
• Readings: Card & Mackinlay (1999) - Using Vision to Think

Week 2 (Sept 12) - Analytical Questions and Data Transformation

• Slides: Analytical Questions and Data Transformation

  Lab: Intro to Vega-Lite Data Transformations…

• Topics: Visual queries, Data types, Transformation operations
• Lab: Vega-Lite data transformations, Working with real datasets
• Assignment: Exercise 2 - Data questions and transformations (due Sept 18)
• Readings: Shneiderman (1996) - The Eyes Have It; Wickham (2014) - Tidy Data

Week 3 (Sept 19) - Fundamental Graphs and Visual Encoding

• Slides: Fundamental Graphs and Visual Encoding

  Lab: Fundamental Graphs and Visual Encoding

• Topics: Five fundamental chart types, Marks and channels, Expressiveness and effectiveness, Scale choices
• Lab: Chart comparison and design exercises, Scale choice scenarios
• Assignment: Exercise 3 - Chart design and encoding alternatives (due Sept 25)
• Readings: Tufte Ch 1-2 (Graphical Excellence & Integrity)

Week 4 (Sept 26) - Visual Perception and D3 Foundations (Draft)

• Slides: Visual Perception and D3 Foundations

  Lab: First D3 programming session, DOM manipulation, Data binding

• Topics: Pre-attentive processing, Gestalt principles, Perceptual accuracy, D3.js introduction
• Lab: First D3 programming session, DOM manipulation, Data binding
• Assignment: Exercise 4 - Perception-based design + D3 implementation (due Oct 2)
• Readings: Franconeri et al. (2021); Kennedy Elliott - 39 Studies

Assignments

Exercises (35% of grade)

• Exercise 1: Visualization critique and basic Vega-Lite charts - Due Sept 11
• Exercise 2: Data questions and transformations - Due Sept 18
• Exercise 3: Chart design and encoding alternatives - Due Sept 25
• More exercises TBA

Mini-Projects (35% of grade)

• Mini-Project 1: Geographic data visualization - Details TBA
• Mini-Project 2: Temporal data visualization - Details TBA
• Mini-Project 3: Network data visualization - Details TBA

Group Project (25% of grade)

• Team formation - Week 3
• Project milestones - Throughout semester
• Final presentations - Weeks 14-15

Quick Links

• Discord: Join Course Discord
• Brightspace: [Course materials and submissions]
• Observable: [Create account at observablehq.com]
• Office Hours:
  • Ryan Kim (TA): Wednesdays @ 2-3pm, 8th floor common area @ 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn (also Online @ Zoom)
  • Hashmmath Shaik (Grading TA): Mondays @ 1-2pm, only Online @ Zoom