Course Description

The design and presentation of digital information. Use of graphics, animation, sound, visualization software, and hypermedia in presenting information to the user. Methods of presenting complex information to enhance comprehension and analysis. Incorporation of visualization techniques into human-computer interfaces.

Computer visualization is used widely in scientific and engineering disciplines to help people understand the systems they study, but has only recently begun to be applied to general information. This course will focus on the use of visualization to enhance comprehension and analysis of structured information such as text collections, networked systems like the Web, work processes, etc. For examples of what computerized visualization is see: http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/casa/martin/atlas/atlas.html

Much of the relevant work is new and still being researched. For this reason, many of the lectures will be given by guest speakers with expertise in specialized subareas.

Readings and lectures will cover basic visualization principles and tools, and relevant work in the new field of information visualization. Students will gain hands-on experience with existing tools.

All students are expected to participate in class discussion, write a short survey paper or design a graphical presentation, and do a project. The project will consist either of creating or enhancing a visualization system or technique, or conducting a user study to evaluate a system or technique.

This course is targeted to both SIMS and computer science students. Students must be willing to read papers that contain some advanced math and must be willing to augment existing programs (using either a scripting language or a standard programming language).

Catalog type: General
Units: 3
Prerequisites: IS 213, CS 160, or consent of instructor.

Course History

Spring 2008  |   Instructor(s): Hearst   |  Website

Fall 2005  |   Instructor(s): Hearst   |  Website