Homework
In this homework, you will design a visualization for a small data set and provide a rigorous rationale for your design choices. You should in theory be ready to explain the contribution of every pixel in the display.
Data Set: Antibiotics
After the World War II, antibiotics were considered as "wonder drugs", since they were easy remedy for what had been intractable ailments. To learn which drug worked most effectively for which bacterial infection, performance of the three most popular antibiotics on 16 bacteria were gathered.
The values in the Burtin dataset represent the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), a measure of the effectiveness of the antibiotic, which represents the concentration of antibiotic required to prevent growth in vitro. The reaction of the bacteria to Gram staining is described by the covariate "gram staining". Bacteria that are stained dark blue or violet are Gram-positive. Otherwise, they are Gram-negative.
Task
Your task is to design a static (i.e., single image) visualization that you believe effectively communicates the data and provide a short write-up (no more than 2 pages long) describing your design.
You are free to use any graphics or charting tool --including drafting it by hand. Go to Useful Resources for a list of visualization tools. You may find it most instructive to create the chart from scratch using Excel or a graphics API of your choice.
While you must use the data set given, note that you are free to transform the data as you see fit. You are also free to incorporate external data as you see fit. Your chart image should be interpretable without looking at your short write-up. Appropriate title, axis labels or legends are needed.
The write-up should include but not limited to the following components:
i. Describe how your created the visualization, what software was used, any external data used, the steps you took to create the visualization etc.
ii. Tell the story of the figure. In the big picture, what story (or stories) are you trying to tell?
iii. Justification of visual encodings. Use the what-how-why framework to analyze your vis. Data: What are data and dataset types? Encodings: marks and channels used? Tasks: What are tasks of your vis?
iv. Effectiveness of visualization. In your write-up, you should provide a rigorous rationale for your design Document the visual encodings you used and why they are appropriate for the data. These decisions include the choice of chart type, size, color, scale, and other visual elements, as well as the use of sorting or other data transformations. How do these decisions facilitate effective communication? Any pros or cons of design?
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.