HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION AND INFORMATION VISUALIZATION

The teaching is part of the teaching activities characterizing the master degree in Computer Science.
The aim of the course is to allow students to master information visualization techniques, in order to allow the creation of a mental model of a given information domain.
During the course the students will be guided to know the different techniques of representation and presentation of information starting from raw data, and to understand how interactivity can contribute significantly to the success of the visualization.
Besides, the students will be guided to get acquainted with a set of web tools for creating different types of visualization.
The acquired knowledge will be used as a starting point to develop skills and competences for the creation of effective representations and presentations of data.
The project work of the course, focused on different domains such as the visualization of environmental, medical or cultural heritage data, will be the fundamental tool for a first exploitation of these skills.

Knowledge and understanding.
The student will learn a set of techniques of representation and presentation of information, together with the knowledge of the additional potential provided by the interactive approach.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding.
The knowledge of the techniques of representation, presentation and interaction will constitute a fundamental repertoire to be critically applied to different types of data and information domains.
The course project work will be the first major opportunity to experiment and refine these skills.

Knowledge of the basic mechanisms for creating data in textual form and for using web interfaces is required.
English language proficiency is required for the comprehension of texts, publication excerpts and audio-video contributions that the teacher will show in class.

- Introduction to information visualization
- Data representation techniques
- Data presentation techniques
- Data interaction techniques
- Techniques for visualizing data in augmented and virtual reality
- Web tools for data presentation
- Case studies

Mandatory texts
Bob Spence, Information visualization. An Introduction, Springer, 2014 (3rd ed.)
Articles from conferences and scientific journals
Slides of the course

The assessment of learning will take place through a project work to be carried out in small work groups and focused on the conceptual design of a system for visualizing information. The project will start from the definition of an information domain and a set of initial requirements. The project proposal will then be validated with intermediate checks, to be held in the classroom where the project drafts will be presented and discussed with the teacher and the peers.
A complementary individual exam, aimed at measuring the student's knowledge of the course's topics, is required.
The project work has a fundamental role in defining the final score, which can be increased or decreased up to two points based on the results of the individual exam. Passing the exam requires to obtain at least the passing mark in both tests.
For those attending 100% of the lessons of the course (in presence or online), the individual test can be replaced by a seminar, aimed at expanding the knowledge of representation techniques. The seminar will be presented to the teacher and to the peers at the end of the course.
In the initial phase of the course, students will have the opportunity to take part, on a voluntary basis, to one or more exercises limited in size and scope; the exercises performed in a satisfactory way will entitle the students to gain a bonus (up to 1 point) to be added to the final result deriving from the project work and the individual exam/seminar.
While attending the course and complying with the intermediate checks is strongly encouraged, an alternate individual option is offered to those who can't comply with the aforementioned activities. This individual path will be characterized by the same design activity, but focused on a different topic selected by the teacher and performed autonomously by the student. A complementary individual exam, based on open questions and aimed at measuring the student's knowledge of the course's topics, is required as well.

The course takes place through lectures and collaborative methods for conducting the course's project work.

English

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Climate change and energy" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development