Redesign Assignment

Find a recently published data visualization and improve it.

Due February 11

Find a recently published data visualization to redesign. Ideally, one published online in the past few weeks that cites a source for the data visualized. An online visualization is best so that you can easily provide a link to it in your blog post. You want to find a visualization that you feel does a poor job of representing its information clearly or has another problem you will aim to resolve.

Using the same data, create an improved visualization. Your redesign should be “from scratch”: don’t adjust the existing design, create a new one. In your redesign, focus on the meaning you want your visualization to convey. Your goal is to create a visualization that explains the data clearly and conveys the meaning you wish to highlight. If appropriate you may supplement the data with additional data from the same source or with data from another source for context.

Create a blog post for this assignment containing the following: a link to the visualization you are redesigning, a low resolution preview of your redesign (474px wide will fit in your post nicely), a full resolution version of your redesign (a .pdf probably would be appropriate), and a write up discussing the visualization, its problems, and how you addressed them in your redesign.

Note: The description above assumes that your redesign is a static graphic. If you go another way (interactive, aquarium, etc.), adjust your posting to taste.