Homework 6: Map Mania
Due date: Thursday, March 25th at 11:59pm EST
For example, perhaps I create a hand drawn map of my apartment, and I want to show the places that my cat prefers to sleep. I collect data by taking pictures of her napping in these locations, and rank her preference for that location on a scale of 1 to 5 based on the amount of cat fur I find.
Or maybe I just went to the Boston MFA and saw the new exhibit on Glorious Beasts in Persian Painting, and want to create a visualization of the exhibit that shows which pieces I enjoyed the most. I scan in the floor layout from the MFA brochure, and find images online for some of the pieces on display, and create quick sketches of the others. I then rank all the pieces in the exhibit based on which I liked the most.
Or I have a noisy office. I could draw an office map and collect sound data with a recording device or my laptop at various locations. The visualization then becomes a map with sound sources and recorded sound exemplars.
The possibilities are endless!
Grading
Part 1: The Place (10%)
Part 2: Data Collection (10%)
Part 3: Registering the Locations to your Map (30%)
Part 4: Tell Your Story (50%)
Submission Instructions
To submit your homework, create a folder named lastname_firstinitial_hw6 and place your webpage write-up and your other files in this folder. Your webpage writeup should be a single .html page. Please make sure that all of the links in your write-up are relative to this folder! Also include any code you've written (for example, Processing sketches, etc.). Compress the folder (please use .zip compression, thus your submitted file will be lastname_firstinitial_hw6.zip) and submit on the course iSite page in the appropriate dropbox. If we cannot access your work or links because these directions are not followed correctly, we will not grade your work. These instructions can also be found here. Please be certain to use .zip compression and to name your writeup "writeup.html." This is absolutely essential. We will dock one point for submissions that are not prepared properly.
Due date: Thursday, March 25th at 11:59pm EST
There are many indoor spaces we travel through each day -- our homes, classrooms, libraries, cafes, museums... the list is endless. Some of these spaces are meaningful to us, while others we simply pass through. In this assignment you will be creating an interactive map of an indoor space that you frequent, and telling a personally meaningful story about the space. Your visualization will contain three types of data:
- A map of the indoor space
- A list of locations on the map with accompanying pictures of those locations
- Some sort of data about each location (which can be nominal, ordinal, or quantitative)
The visualization will show the map with the data layered on top, and some sort of interaction, such as mouse rollovers, linked views to bar charts, or mouse hover interaction that will show an image of that particular location.
For example, perhaps I create a hand drawn map of my apartment, and I want to show the places that my cat prefers to sleep. I collect data by taking pictures of her napping in these locations, and rank her preference for that location on a scale of 1 to 5 based on the amount of cat fur I find.
Or maybe I just went to the Boston MFA and saw the new exhibit on Glorious Beasts in Persian Painting, and want to create a visualization of the exhibit that shows which pieces I enjoyed the most. I scan in the floor layout from the MFA brochure, and find images online for some of the pieces on display, and create quick sketches of the others. I then rank all the pieces in the exhibit based on which I liked the most.
Or I have a noisy office. I could draw an office map and collect sound data with a recording device or my laptop at various locations. The visualization then becomes a map with sound sources and recorded sound exemplars.
The possibilities are endless!
Grading
The homework will be graded according to the guidelines from the syllabus:
5 = Exceptional / above and beyond (we will only give out maybe 5-10 of these for each homework)
4 = Very Solid / no mistakes (or really minor)
3 = Good / some mistakes
2 = Fair / some major conceptual errors
1 = Poor / did not finish?
0 = Did not participate / did not hand in
A 4 constitutes a perfect grade, and a 4 is equivalent to an A. A combination of 4s and 3s end up being A- to B, and so on. TFs will evaluate your work holistically beyond mechanical correctness and focus on the overall quality of the work. In addition to the scores the TFs will give detailed written feedback. Please note the addition to the submission instructions at the end of this document. If your submission is not done properly, it will delay and lower your grade.
Part 1: The Place (10%)
Think of a space that you would like to explore and a story that you’d love share. Begin your write-up by telling us about your indoor space and why you chose it.
Part 2: Data Collection (10%)
Create a digital map of your space. You can do this in a variety of ways: digitize a hand drawn map or print version of your layout; create a diagram in PowerPoint, Keynote, etc; find an image of the layout online. The digital map must be in an image file format that Processing can read. Use good design principles when creating this map; if you are using a map that you did not draw yourself, think about what changes to the map you should make to follow best-practices!
Pick at least 8 locations within the space, and collect data at each location (you may include more if you wish!). Your data must include a a Processing-readable image of the location (digital photo that you take or find online, or a hand drawn sketch that you digitize if a photo is not possible), and at least one piece of data (nominal, ordinal, quantitative). Feel free to include anything else beyond these minimum requirements.
In your write-up, briefly describe your data and collection process. Make sure to cite online sources if you did not generate the data yourself!
Part 3: Registering the Locations to your Map (30%)
Reading Assignment: Chapter 3 of the Fry book on maps. Read this before continuing...
To register your data locations with places on your map, you’ll be using a Processing sketch from Chapter 3 of the Fry book. You can download the sketch here: Using_Your_Own_Data. This sketch displays a map of the US, and asks you to click on each state, the names of which are read in a from a file. The pixel coordinates are recorded for each click, and output to a file for each location. Read the chapter, look and through the code, and run the sketch (you’ll be clicking on the locations of states, each of which is prompted in the output window of the Processing editor). When you are done, look at the output file locations.tsv.
Next, you’ll be modifying this program to read in your own map and list of locations. To do this, modify the two files in the Using_Your_Own_Data/data/ directory to accommodate your data. You may need to also change the window size in the sketch. Run the sketch and create an output file of the registered locations of your indoor space.
Inlcude a link to this file in your write-up.
Part 4: Tell Your Story (50%)
Finally, you are ready to create your interactive map! Using Processing, write a program that:
- displays your map;
- overlays your data points at the proper locations with the data value encoded in some visual way (don’t forget to include a legend and/or linked views to explain the encoding!) --- you may want to use the Table.pde file from the Using_Your_Own_Data sketch to read in the data;
- using an interactive method, shows the image of each location, along with anything else you’d like to include to explain the space, when the user interacts with the visualization.
Beyond these basic requirements, you are free to add any additional features to your map (sounds, video clips, other quantifiable data, etc). In your write-up, include an applet of your interactive map, and description of your design process and decisions. Also, briefly explain what story your visualization tells about the space you chose.
Submission Instructions
To submit your homework, create a folder named lastname_firstinitial_hw6 and place your webpage write-up and your other files in this folder. Your webpage writeup should be a single .html page. Please make sure that all of the links in your write-up are relative to this folder! Also include any code you've written (for example, Processing sketches, etc.). Compress the folder (please use .zip compression, thus your submitted file will be lastname_firstinitial_hw6.zip) and submit on the course iSite page in the appropriate dropbox. If we cannot access your work or links because these directions are not followed correctly, we will not grade your work. These instructions can also be found here. Please be certain to use .zip compression and to name your writeup "writeup.html." This is absolutely essential. We will dock one point for submissions that are not prepared properly.