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Representing Data for a Decision

Assignment Three
due Tuesday, March 26

Self Commentary |Submission Directions | Resources

Using Photoshop and Dreamweaver, create a set of Web pages addressed to a person or group making a decision. The pages should combine graphical and textual elements to inform and guide that decision, which might be public, personal, managerial, governmental, economic, sports-related--virtually any decision--and may concern a future or revisit a past decision (as Tufte does in his chapter about the decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger).

This graphic representation of data must include at least one original chart, map, or graph showing at least 30 data points. The best projects will also show more than one variable. All graphics must be in a Web-ready image format, and fit on a standard browser window (on a monitor set at an average resolution like 1024x768). The text on the pages should provide all of the relevant background and contextual information that the decision-maker needs--including the consequences of right and wrong choices.

You are free to state your opinion about the appropriate choice in this situation. However, the tone of your project should be objective and fair, and your relationship to the decision-makers should be that of an advisor or consultant, rather than an advertiser.

All projects must demonstrate the first four of the six principles of graphic data display identified by Edward Tufte starting on page 53 of "Visual and Statistical Thinking":

  1. documenting sources and characteristis of the data
  2. enforcing appropriate comparisons
  3. demonstrating mechanisms of cause and effect
  4. expressing those mechanisms quantitatively
  5. recognizing the inherently multivariate nature of analytic problems
  6. inspecting and evaluating alternative explanations

Information taken from outside sources must be cited appropriately, following MLA guidelines for in-text citations. The opening page of your project must include prominent link that connects readers to a separate "Works Cited" page. References within this section also must be formatted according to MLA guidelines. All words must be spelled correctly in the project, and all hyperlinks to internal documents must be relative.

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Self Commentary

As always, you'll write a self commentary, which, along with discussing the usual design and process issues, will also describe the specific person, situation, and decision that your project addresses.

Submission Directions for the Presenting Evidence for Decision Makers project

Your presentation will be posted as Web pages on your UMD Web space. Your project pages should be placed in a folder called "decision" inside your "www" folder. We will learn more about creating, organizing and posting Web pages before this assignment is due

Resources for Presenting Evidence for Decision Makers

I will place resources for this assignment here.

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