A literature seminar is not obligatory but it is highly recommended since it is an effective enquiry learning method.

This is how the literature seminar works in the Info Vis course

You arrive on time and we introduce a specific Information visualization example
We present the questions/perspectives that you should analyse by using literature - the coursebook
You work in a randomly assigned group(s) and prepare a written paragraph as an answer to the question/analytical perspective
You come back and present the paragraph - no more than 3 to 5 sentences
We discuss it.
Then, we do another round..

Information visualization examples:

Heuristics for visualization

- Perception: Avoid the rainbow colour map, do not use more than 7 colours, Data-ink ratio, ...

- Cognition: Provide organization of material, facilitate overview, use legends, do not deceive, use familiar visualizations, ...

- Usability: maximize effectiveness (i.e., task support), positive satisfaction, ...

- Interaction: Orientation & help, navigation &querying...

Tarrell, Alvin, et al. "Toward visualization-specific heuristic evaluation." Proceedings of the Fifth

Workshop on Beyond Time and Errors: Novel Evaluation Methods for Visualization. 2014.

https://www.oecdregionalwellbeing.org/NZ19.html

Effective visualization is ...

- Readable: does it allow for correct perception of information and provide access to all information I need to understand the data?

- Understandable: does it allow reasoning about the phenomena?

- Supportive: does it allow solving tasks?

- Truthful: is it showing data correctly?

- Insightful: does it provide meaningful insights for the viewer to solve their problem?

- Communicative: does it support clear communication?

Dr Benjamin Bach