2026 Fall / CS.59900
Special Topics in Computing: Advanced Data Visualization

Objectives

The primary objectives of this course include (1) exposure to important articles in data visualization research and (2) rethinking students’ research problems as visualization problems. Through this course, students will learn popular research methods and system development approaches, including empirical study, system evaluation, technical evaluation, design space/survey, user interface, and abstraction (grammar/formalization). Students will also practice visualization research methods and techniques in their final projects.

Overview

  • Instructor: Hyeok Kim (Email: hyeok.kim.work [at] gmail [dot] com; please use this email for course-related inquiries.)
  • Time: Tuesday/Thursday 13:00–14:30
  • Location: N1-#102
  • Office hours: TBD/By appointment (N1-#607)

Topics

  • Week 1–3: introduction to visualization research and perception & cognition
  • Week 4-6: visualization for communication
  • Week 7-15: application, programming, and user contexts

Assignments

Details are described below.

  • Weekly reading report (2 papers, 4 paragraphs), except Week 1.
  • In-class presentation (on 1 paper, once in the course).
  • Detailed reading report (2 papers, 2 pages) and online discussion for Week 11 in replacement of the physical classes.
  • Final project (including mid-term progress report): Students can choose one of the four options (detailed project proposal, interactive visualization system, data story, and survey paper).
  • Students are highly encouraged to skim optional readings.

Weekly Plans

All time and dates are based on the Korea Standard Time (KST). Plans can be adjusted. PDF files will be uploaded for the readings.

Week 1: Introduction to Visualization Research

  • Day 1 (Sep. 1): Introduction to data visualization research (Lecture)
    • Students are expected to prepare a short self-introduction like an elevator pitch.
    • While reading reports are not assigned this week, students are strongly encouraged to read the required readings.
  • Day 2 (Sep. 3): Data visualization models (Lecture)
Requred readings
  • Card, S. K., Mackinlay, J., and Shneiderman, B.. (1999). Chapter 1. Information Visualization. Readings in information visualization: using vision to think. PDF.
  • Amar, R., Eagan, J., and Stasko, J.. (1999). Low-level components of analytic activity in information visualization. Readings in information visualization: using vision to think. PDF.
Optional readings

Week 2: Perception & Cognition 1—Graphical Perception

  • Day 1 (Sep. 8): Empirical studies on graphical perception
  • Day 2 (Sep. 10): Applications of graphical perception studies
Requred readings
  • Cleveland, W. S. and McGill, R.. (1984). Graphical perception: Theory, experimentation, and application to the development of graphical methods. Journal of the American statistical association.
  • Szafir, D. A.. (2017). Modeling color difference for visualization design. IEEE TVCG.
Optional readings

Week 3: Perception & Cognition 2—Uncertainty Visualization

  • Day 1 (Sep. 15): Uncertainty visualization
  • Day 2 (Sep. 17): Perceptual studies on uncertainty visualization
Requred readings
  • MacEachren, A. M.. (1992). Visualizing uncertain information. Cartographic Perspectives.
  • Correll, M., Moritz, D., and Heer, J.. (2018). Value-suppressing uncertainty palettes. ACM CHI.
Optional readings

Week 4: Communication 1—Narrative Visualization

  • Day 1 (Sep. 22): Narrative visualization and systems
  • Day 2 (Sep. 24): No class due to the Chuseok (추석)
Requred readings
  • Segel, E. and Heer, J.. (2010). Narrative visualization: Telling stories with data. IEEE TVCG.
  • Hullman, J. and Diakopoulos, N.. (2011). Visualization rhetoric: Framing effects in narrative visualization. IEEE TVCG.
Optional readings

Week 5: Communication 2—Visualization Literacy and Deceptive Visualizations

  • Day 1 (Sep. 29): Measuring visualization literacy
  • Day 2 (Oct. 1): Deceptive visualizations
Requred readings
  • Lee, S., Kim, S. H., and Kwon, B. C.. (2016). Vlat: Development of a visualization literacy assessment test. IEEE TVCG.
  • Pandey, A. V., Rall, K., Satterthwaite, M. L., Nov, O., and Bertini, E.. (2015). How deceptive are deceptive visualizations? An empirical analysis of common distortion techniques. ACM CHI.
Optional readings

Week 6: Communication 3—Interactive Visualization

  • Day 1 (Oct. 6): Interaction in visualization
  • Day 2 (Oct. 8): Interactive visualization systems
Requred readings
  • Yi, J. S., Kang, Y. A., Stasko, J., and Jacko, J. A.. (2007). Toward a deeper understanding of the role of interaction in information visualization. IEEE TVCG.
  • Heer, J. and Bostock, M.. (2010). Declarative language design for interactive visualization. IEEE TVCG.
Optional readings

Week 7: Application 1—ML/AI/Quantum Computing

  • Day 1 (Oct. 13): AI and ML for VIS
  • Day 2 (Oct. 15): VIS for AI/ML/Quantum computing
Requred readings
  • Wu, A., Wang, Y., Shu, X., Moritz, D., Cui, W., Zhang, H., Zhang, D., and Qu, H.. (2021). Ai4vis: Survey on artificial intelligence approaches for data visualization. IEEE TVCG.
  • Kim, H., Jeng, M. J., and Smith, K. N.. (2025). Toward human-quantum computer interaction: Interface techniques for usable quantum computing. ACM CHI.
Optional readings

Week 8: Mid-term Project Review

  • Day 1 ( (Oct. 20, 13:00–15:45)): In-class project progress presentation

No required readings this week

Week 9: System Development and User Testing

  • Day 1 (Oct. 27): Visualization systems
  • Day 2 (Oct. 29): User testing in visualization research
Requred readings
  • Satyanarayan, A., Lee, B., Ren, D., Heer, J., Stasko, J., Thompson, J., Brehmer, M., and Liu, Z.. (2019). Critical reflections on visualization authoring systems. IEEE TVCG.
  • Isenberg, T., Isenberg, P., Chen, J., Sedlmair, M., and Möller, T.. (2013). A systematic review on the practice of evaluating visualization. IEEE TVCG.
Optional readings

Week 10: Visualization Programming 1—D3.js

  • Day 1 (Nov. 3): Programming in visualization (lecture) and D3.js (lab)
  • Day 2 (Nov. 5): D3.js (lab)
Requred readings
  • Bostock, M., Ogievetsky, V., and Heer, J.. (2011). D³ data-driven documents. IEEE TVCG.
  • Liu, Z., Chen, C., and Hooker, J.. (2024). Manipulable semantic components: a computational representation of data visualization scenes. IEEE TVCG.
Optional readings

Week 11: Application 2—Network & Map Visualization

  • Day 1 (Nov. 10): No class
    • Submit a 2-page reading report
  • Day 2 (Nov. 12): No class
    • Engage in online discussion by making comments to at least three other reports.
Requred readings
  • Herman, I., Melançon, G., and Marshall, M. S.. (2000). Graph visualization and navigation in information visualization: A survey. IEEE TVCG.
  • Peña-Araya, V., Bezerianos, A., and Pietriga, E.. (2020). A comparison of geographical propagation visualizations. ACM CHI.
Optional readings

Week 12: Visualization Programming 2—Declarative Grammars

  • Day 1 (Nov. 17): Declarative Grammars
  • Day 2 (Nov. 19): Vega-Lite (lab)
Requred readings
  • Wilkinson, L.. (2011). The grammar of graphics. Handbook of Computational Statistics.
  • Satyanarayan, A., Moritz, D., Wongsuphasawat, K., and Heer, J.. (2016). Vega-lite: A grammar of interactive graphics. IEEE TVCG.
Optional readings

Week 13: User 1—Accessibility and Multimodality

  • Day 1 (Nov. 24): Accessibility and Multimodality
  • Day 2 (Nov. 26): No class due to undergraduate admission interviews
Requred readings
  • Seo, J., Xia, Y., Lee, B., Mccurry, S., and Yam, Y. J.. (2024). Maidr: Making statistical visualizations accessible with multimodal data representation. ACM CHI.
  • Bae, S. S., Zheng, C., West, M. E., Do, E. Y. L., Huron, S., and Szafir, D. A.. (2022). Making data tangible: A cross-disciplinary design space for data physicalization. ACM CHI.
Optional readings

Week 14: Application 3—Data Analytics and Dashboard

  • Day 1 (Dec. 1): Visualization and data analysis
  • Day 2 (Dec. 3): Dashboard + Tableau (lab)
Requred readings
  • Crisan, A., Fiore-Gartland, B., and Tory, M.. (2020). Passing the data baton: A retrospective analysis on data science work and workers. IEEE TVCG.
  • Becker, R. A., Cleveland, W. S., and Shyu, M. J.. (1996). The visual design and control of trellis display. JCGS.
Optional readings

Week 15: Responsive Design and Non-desktop Visualizations

  • Day 1 (Dec. 8): Responsive design
  • Day 2 (Dec. 10): Non-desktop visualizations
Requred readings
  • Kim, H., Moritz, D., and Hullman, J.. (2021). Design patterns and trade‐offs in responsive visualization for communication. CGF.
  • Ens, B., Goodwin, S., Prouzeau, A., Anderson, F., Wang, F. Y., Gratzl, S., Lucarelli, Z, Moyle, B., Smiley, J, and Dwyer, T.. (2020). Uplift: A tangible and immersive tabletop system for casual collaborative visual analytics. IEEE TVCG.
Optional readings

Week 16: Finals

  • Day 1 (Dec. 15, 13:00–15:45): Final project presentation

No required readings this week

Assignments

All assignments are due by the EOD (the end of the day) of the specified dates. Students can request extensions up to two (2) days.

Formatting

  • For reflection reports, there is no specific formatting requirement, but avoid using bullet points.
  • For written parts of the project, use any kinds of recognized conference paper formats.

1. Weekly reading

Due: Before the first class of each week unless specified otherwise

Students are expected to do the required reading (2-4 papers) by the first class of each week unless specified otherwise. This course involves lots of in-class discussion. Students need to submit reflection reports (at least 4 paragraphs) before the first class of each week. Reflection reports must not be a summary, but should describe their reactions to the reading materials. Example approaches include a future study idea (extensions or applications), potential counter examples of the papers’ arguments, how AI would impact the findings, criticism, and so on. This assignment is designed to be a practice for critical reading of research papers. There are no format requirements.

2. A paper presentation

Due: In class

Each student will pick a paper or two in the below reading list and present them during the class. Each presentation must be shorter than 15 minutes and must not summarize the chosen papers but include their reflections and discussion topics for the class. This presentation will be initiating thoughts for that week’s discussion during the class. This assignment is also designed to be a presentation practice.

3. Extended reading report & online discussion

Due: Nov. 10 (report), Nov. 12 (discussion)

For the week of Nov. 10/12, the instructor is traveling for the VIS conference, so there will be no physical classes. Instead, students are required to submit a 2-page reading report by November 10 (by the end of the day) and leave discussion comments to at least three other reports by November 12. There are no format requirements.

4. Project

Due: See below

Students will choose one of the following options as their final assignment. In doing so, students are welcome to incorporate their own research projects.

Options
  1. A detailed research project proposal. Choosing this option, students will need to submit a 5- to 6-page detailed research proposal. Proposals must discuss their relevance as visualization research. Proposals can be considered as a full paper without the result sections.
  2. An interactive visualization system. Choosing this option, students will need to design and implement an interactive visualization system. Students will also need to submit a short essay that describes the objectives of the project and how the system (up to 2 pages).
  3. An interactive data story. Choosing this option, students will need to design and implement an interactive data story (like those from news outlets). The final outcome must be accessible and responsive.
  4. A survey paper on a topic. Choosing this option, students will need to submit a 4-page survey paper on a specific topic in relation to visualization. For example, students can survey papers that cover the use of visualization in their own field.
Steps
  1. Mid-term report
    In-class date: Oct. 20, Tuesday, 13:00–15:45
    Report due date: Oct. 25
    Each team will give a 5-minute presentation about their final project along with 3-minute Q&A. Students are expected to present any progress they have been making by then. If needed, students can make a separate appointment for feedback before or after the mid-term report. By the end of that week (Oct. 25, Sunday, EOD), students must submit a 2-page proposal for their final project and progress report (formats and rubrics will be announced later).
  2. Final-term report
    In-class date: Dec. 15, Tuesday, 13:00-15:45
    Report due date: Dec. 20
    Each team will give a 7-minute presentation with 3-minute Q&A. Based on the feedback and Q&A, students are required to submit the final, updated materials as specified above by the end of the finals week (Sunday). Extensions for the final project may not be possible depending on the grading schedule.

Policies

Failure to meet the following policies may result in deduction in grading and/or disciplinary actions.

No hate, no discrimination, and no violence allowed

Including assignment, discussion, and final project, there is no room for hate, discrimination, and violence against classmates and certain demographics.

Use of AI

Students are not restrained from using AI but the following exceptions.
1. Students must do readings on their own. Do NOT use AI for summarizing the reading materials.
2. Students can get minor assistance from AI for writing (e.g., English, checking flows), but the ideas and writing must be original.
3. If AI is used in any part of assignments, students must submit a detailed report on how they have used AI.

No plagiarism

In any kind of activity in this course, plagiarism is strictly forbidden. Students are responsible for plagiarism due to the use of AI.

Citation

Students are required to check citations/references thoroughly. Students will be responsible for fake/wrong citations due to AI hallucination.

Accessibility Support

When needing accessibility support, please contact the Student Affairs Team and the instructor via e-mail as well.