BUA 5212G - Data Visualization

Credits: 4

The course equips the Business Analyst or Data Scientist with foundational concepts and techniques required for telling a compelling story with large complex data sets. The importance of visualizing information for many analysts is often overlooked or downgraded as a natural product of the analytics or model but if the visualization is ineffective the decision making processes and knowledge discovery will be compromised. This is a project-based course that begins with reviewing concepts of human perception and cognition and perceptual accuracy and preferences. In the weeks we have together we will explore the basics of graphic design and making a “good” graph, explore why some data visualizations present information effectively and others do not, and we will also consider visualization as a component of systems for the Data Scientist and Business Analyst and presents examples visualizing time, networks, clusters, big data, and maps. We end by reviewing methods and tools for static and interactive graphics.