CSC 444 - Data Visualization

Fall 2025

Meets: Mon./Wed. 2:00-3:15pm, Saguaro Hall, Rm 101
Instructor: Joshua A. Levine
Office: GS 754
Office Hours: Mon./Wed. 3:30-4:30pm, or by appointment

TAs:

Md Asiful Islam, asifulislam@arizona.edu
James Shen, sjwjames@arizona.edu

TA Office Hours (primarily for issues with grading):

Md Asiful Islam, Mon. 12:00-1:00pm, GS 942
James Shen, TBD

Course Syllabus
D2L
Campuswire

Course Calendar

(tentative, subject to change)

Week	Date	Monday	Date	Wednesday

1	Aug 25	Introduction	Aug 27	HTML/CSS/SVG Basics
2	Sep 01	-- Labor Day (Off) --	Sep 03	Javascript Basics
3	Sep 08	Javascript + DOM, SVG	Sep 10	d3 Intro
4	Sep 15	d3 Joins and Scales	Sep 17	Design Principles
5	Sep 22	Perception	Sep 24	Data Abstraction
6	Sep 29	Color	Oct 01	Color in d3
7	Oct 06	Visual Encoding	Oct 08	Tasks and Interaction
8	Oct 13	Views, Focus+Context	Oct 15	Tabular Arrangements
9	Oct 20	Hierarchies/Trees	Oct 22	Graphs
10	Oct 27	-- Midterm Exam --	Oct 29	-- IEEE VIS --
11	Nov 03	-- IEEE VIS --	Nov 05	-- IEEE VIS --
12	Nov 10	Cartography	Nov 12	Interpolation
13	Nov 17	Isosurfaces	Nov 19	Volumetric Data
14	Nov 24	Volume Rendering	Nov 26	Transfer Function Design
15	Dec 01	Flow Visualization	Dec 03	Text and Sets
16	Dec 08	Retrospective	Dec 10	Final Exam Review

Final Exam: Dec. 12, 2025 01:00 PM, released on Gradescope.
Highlighted dates have an assignment due by midnight.

Boxed dates correspond to the nearest class day to the deadlines for dropping without a W (Sep. 07, 2025) and withdrawing (Nov. 02, 2025) for this semester. See Fall 2025 Graduate Dates and Deadlines for complete details.

Link to Google drive folder with all lecture slides

Lecture 01 - Introduction (slides)

Date: August 25, 2025

Required Reading:

Optional Reading:

Hans Rosling, TED 2006
A Tour through the Visualization Zoo., Jeffrey Heer, Michael Bostock, Vadim Ogievetsky. Communications of the ACM, 53(6) pp. 59-67, Jun 2010.
A Tour of Visualizations, Good, Bad, and Ugly Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).

Lecture 02 - HTML/CSS/SVG Basics (slides)

Date: August 27, 2025

Required Reading:

The Basics of the Web Stack - Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).
Murray, Chapter 3, pgs. 17-36, 52-62 (all pages except for the section on Javascript) (Note: the textbook is available electronically through the UA Library for those on campus)

Optional Reading:

Example Code from Class - use `git clone https://github.com/UA-CSC444-Fall2025/l02_examples` to download (updated after class)

Lecture 03 - Javascript Basics (slides)

Date: September 03, 2025

Required Reading:

Javascript - Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).
Murray, Chapter 3, pgs. 36-52 (the remaining section on Javascript) (Note: the textbook is available electronically through the UA Library for those on campus)

Optional Reading:

Speaking JavaScript: An In-Depth Guide for Programmers - Chapter 1. Basic JavaScript (note, most chapters of this book cover Javascript in great detail, but the focus of the book is ES5)
Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd Edition: A Modern Introduction to Programming (note, this is included as a reference. The book is a great way to learn ES6, but you need not read it all at once)
Advice on Learning Javascript - Michael Gleicher (Wisconsin). Other than the textbook links, check out the video lectures at the bottom of this page for more repetition on the basics of the language, closures, and more
Lecture 3 Activities - Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).
Example Code from Class - use `git clone https://github.com/UA-CSC444-Fall2025/l03_examples` to download (updated after class)

Lecture 04 - Javascript + DOM, SVG (draft slides)

Date: September 08, 2025

Required Reading:

DOM Manipulation - Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).

Optional Reading:

Example Code from Class - use `git clone https://github.com/UA-CSC444-Fall2025/l04_examples` to download (updated after class)

Lecture 05 - d3 Intro

Date: September 10, 2025

Required Reading:

Murray, Chapter 5,6 (Note: the textbook is available electronically through the UA Library for those on campus)
Welcome to d3 - Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).

Optional Reading:

Bostock, Three Little Circles
Bostock, Thinking with Joins
Bostock, How Selections Work
Example Code from Class - use `git clone https://github.com/UA-CSC444-Fall2025/l05_examples` to download (updated after class)

Lecture 06 - d3 Joins and Scales

Date: September 15, 2025

Required Reading:

Murray, Chapter 7 (Note: the textbook is available electronically through the UA Library for those on campus)
d3 Scales - Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).

Optional Reading:

d3 Drills - Carlos Scheidegger (CSC 444 Fall 2019).
Example Code from Class - use `git clone https://github.com/UA-CSC444-Fall2025/l06_examples` to download (updated after class)

Lecture 07 - Design Principles

Date: September 17, 2025

Required Reading:

Munzner, Chapter 1, 6.10 (Note: the textbook is available electronically through the UA Library for those on campus)

Optional Reading:

99% Details. Podcast from 99% Invisible, Sep 2010. Full transcript if you prefer to read rather than listen.
Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2001.

Lecture 08 - Perception

Date: September 22, 2025

Required Reading:

Ware, Information Visualization, Chapter 3. Note that this book is free to access on campus (the above link will not work off campus).
Attention and Visual Memory in Visualization and Computer Graphics. Christopher G. Healey, James T. Enns. IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph. 18(7): 1170-1188 (2012)

Optional Reading:

Gestalt principles (Part 1) Bang Wong. Nature Methods 7, pp. 863, Nov 2010.
Gestalt principles (Part 2) Bang Wong. Nature Methods 7, pp. 941, Dec 2010.

Lecture 09 - Data Abstraction

Date: September 24, 2025

Required Reading:

Munzner, Chapter 2 (Note: the textbook is available electronically through the UA Library for those on campus)

Optional Reading:

On the Theory of Scales of Measurement. S. S. Stevens. Science, 103(2684), pp. 677-680, June 1946.

A00 - Survey
Assigned: Aug 25
Due: Sep 03 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Sep 10

A01 - HTML + SVG
Assigned: Sep 03
Due: Sep 10 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Sep 17

A02 - Javascript
Assigned: Sep 10
Due: Sep 17 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Sep 24

A03 - D3
Assigned: Sep 17
Due: Sep 24 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Oct 01

A04 - Scales, Axes, Transitions
Assigned: Sep 24
Due: Oct 01 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Oct 08

A05 - Color Spaces
Assigned: Oct 01
Due: Oct 08 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Oct 17

A06 - Linked Views, Brushing
Assigned: Oct 08
Due: Oct 20 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Oct 27

A07 - Parallel Coordinates
Assigned: Oct 15
Due: Nov 05 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Nov 12

A08 - Treemaps
Assigned: Oct 22
Due: Nov 17 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Nov 24

A09 - Marching Squares
Assigned: Nov 17
Due: Nov 26 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Dec 03

A10 - Transfer Functions
Assigned: Nov 26
Due: Dec 08 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Dec 12

A11 - Review (Extra Credit)
Assigned: Dec 03
Due: Dec 10 11:59:59 PM
Graded: Dec 12