Due September 13 CS 4460 - Intro. to Information Visualization Fall 2017

Homework 2: Table and Graph Design

The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with practice and experience designing the appearance of data tables and graphs. Below are two Excel spreadsheets. For the first, you should create a table that presents its information as clearly and informatively as possible. For the second, design a graph that does the same. Think about the data in each spreadsheet and what an analyst looking at that data would care about. You are allowed to derive new variables (attributes) that are combinations of the given ones, but you cannot make up totally new variables and values.

To create and render your designs, you can use colored pencils/markers if you'd like. You can also design, lay out, and draw your ideas in a computer tool such as Illustrator, PowerPoint, etc., but you cannot use those tools to do any of the design for you. They should just be used as drawing tools -- The ideas behind the design should be yours.

Turn in: Simply turn in two hardcopies of your table and your graph designs.

Grading: We will evaluate the effectiveness and design aspects of your creations, how well and how clearly they can answer a variety of questions about the data. Of course this is subjective, but we will look for tables and graphs that apply the design recommendations discussed in class and in our readings.

Performance of sales representatives (xls format)
Performance of different company departments over year (xls format)