Week06

Week 6


 * CCT434 Lesson #6 In Class Assignment: Lecture with Peter Wehrspann, **
 * The Case of the Hockey Stick Graph in ‘The Inconvenient Truth’, Information Visualization in Sustainable Design, and Learning how to make 3-Dimensional Graphs in Illustrator **
 * Professor Littlejohn **


 * Lesson 6 In Class Assignment Part 1 Theory: 35 minutes (Most done as homework) **


 * Lesson 6 In Class Assignment Part 2 Illustrator Tutorial: 55 minutes **
 * Illustrator Tutorial Go to [] and go through the steps with Jeremy. The source files are part of your zipped folder as Charts and Graphs. **


 * Overview: **This tutorial is to help you with theoretical and technical ideas for your first assignment, particularly in relation to information visualization, and to learn corresponding technical tools in Illustrator for three-dimensional graphs and objects. I have enclosed all the most important articles as pdfs in your folder as well.


 * Part 1: View 'Al Gore and the Global Warming Errors' at []- 5:09. **


 * Read the article 'Seeing is Believing' at [] very carefully, and answer the following questions. **

 This chart is Figure 1(b) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report, (c) 2001 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The source of this image is a PDF file that can be downloaded here: [] ___________________________________________________________________________ Al Gore’s “hockey stick” infographic has received a large amount of criticism for its manipulation of scientific history. The graph depicts trends in temperature changes in the past thousand years (year 1000 to 2000) in correlation to the increase in carbon emissions in the atmosphere. The graphic itself takes on a hockey stick form with an alarming visual of the current trend (specifically 1990 – 2000) while disregarding past environmental trends on the global scale (i.e the Medieval Warm Period throughout 1000-1400 is nonexistent in the data). The main concern discussed in the article “Seeing is Believing: Information Visualization and the debate over global warming” is in the use of infographics to skew information and create a spectacle while communicating the facts.
 * Why has the “hockey stick graph” as it has been nicknamed because of its characteristic shape, shown by Al Gore in 'The Inconvenient Truth', one of the most contested examples of information visualization in the history of science? (2 paragraphs) **

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Reference [] and John Daly's refutation of the hockey stick graph [] to compare and contrast their points of view with Al Gore’s use of the graph. Why do you think there has there been such a pushback from people regarding Al Gore’s use of the ‘hockey stick graph’ in ‘The Inconvenient Truth’? (3 paragraphs, opinion, no right or wrong answer.) **

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Read Edward Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 1983. **
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">by John Corbett at []. What are his four principles on how make effective graphics, (which he called the Theory of Data Graphics): **

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">What does Edward Tufte say about the strengths of showing multiple images side by side for more accurate information visualization? (2 paragraphs) **

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Reference the website [] for reference on how to visualize sustainable principles in datasets. **


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Look carefully at Visualizing your Waterfootprint at [] and analyze how we are using water in North America in three points. **

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Note the technical tools the two creators used. What are they? List them: **

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Find three other information visualization graphics from [] List their URLs and titles, and write a comment about how each of the developers designed the interfaces to reflect datasets about sustainability for the user graphically in terms of form and content: **

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 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Go to [] and go through the steps with Jeremy. The source files are part of your zipped folder as Charts and Graphs. **


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Please feel free to email me at profelizlit@gmail.com regarding your first assignment this week. **


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Reminder: Due Next Week **


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Individual Project (October 20, 30%) **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">For your individual research project, you must select a good or service and present a 5-page portfolio describing a new, more sustainable design as an advocacy case study.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Pages should follow the following format:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">1. Identify your good or service and provide background information (function, diffusion, etc.) <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">2. Describe a typical design and life cycle. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">3. Explain how these are unsatisfactory from the perspective of sustainability. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">4. Offer a better design and life cycle. Explain the key features of your sustainable design and lifecycle: e.g. materials, relationship to ecosystem, energy supply, water supply, waste management, production, operation, decommissioning and so on. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">5. Discuss implementation of your design as well as any potential obstacles to development. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">6. Redesign the object in the form of an information graphic for lo fi prototype to show how you would optimize its sustainability.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">You are encouraged to use information graphics and to be creative. Your project should be submitted as an 8 1/2 x 11 portfolio of five pages (which should be formatted as .pdf file, rather than as a Microsoft Word document).