DSCI 532 Quiz 2

Time: 30 minutes

Overall writing

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You have 30 minutes to complete the quiz, and there are 30 marks. The single mark in this section accounts for the overall quality of your writing across all the questions below.

Question 1: Spatial Aggregation

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Consider the side by side views of England showing two attributes: poverty on the left and school inadequacies on the right. Critique the ability of readers of this visualization design to compare these two attributes given that the spatial aggregation is different between the two views, incorporating a discussion of the Modifiable Aereal Unit Problem (MAUP) into your answer.

Your response here

Question 2: Cluttered Network

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Consider Fig 4 from the paper Effects of Space and Scale in the Food Web Structure of the Aleutian Archipelago

This network diagram suffers from serious visual clutter. Propose two specific, different alternatives from the suite of three possibilities for handling complexity covered in this module: manipulating the view through changes over time, faceting into multiple views, reducing the amount of data shown. Compare the scalability of your two alternatives.

Your response here

Question 3: Cars

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Consider the shiny app at [http://shiny.frenchkpi.com/carlabelling-viz/] which already incorporates some basic interactivity: the user can select which 2 of the 13 attributes to show on each axis of the single scatterplot, can filter the 700 points representing car models according to the levels of the categorical attbute car brand, and can obtain details on demand with a popup when hovering over each point.

Q3a Faceted redesign

Suggest an appropriate redesign using faceting into multiple linked views and provide a rationale for your choice that includes an argument for what limitations of the current design that you address.

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Your response here

Q3b Aggregation redesign

Suggest an appropriate redesign using aggregation, and provide a rationale as above.

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Your response here

Question 4: Focus+Context

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Consider the fisheye lens at [http://bl.ocks.org/enjalot/a50efa43ec84aba00e33349c8da7fc9a]. List at least one benefit and at least one disadvantage of using geometric distortion to provide focus+context interaction.

Your response here

Question 6 (OPTIONAL): Animation Sliders

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Consider this visual explanation of a construction algorithm for Watts-Strogatz networks that incorporates interactivity through sliders:

Scientific Communication As Sequential Art, by Bret Victor

Critique the use of interactive animation: if you think this approach is appropriate then explain why this design choice is effective, or if not then propose an alternative approach that uses a different strategy for handling complexity.

Your response here