DA 6233: Data Analytics Visualization and

Communication
Ashwin Malshe

Fall 2018

Day Lectures TR 2:00-4:45 pm

Evening Lectures TR 6:00-8:45 pm
Email ashwin.malshe@utsa.edu
Phone 210-458-5239
Office BB 4.06.20
Website www.ashwinmalshe.com

Software

The following software are required

• R
• RStudio
• Tableau (needs UTSA email)

Books

All these books are freely available in the public domain. I strongly encourage buying them for future
use.

• R for Data Science (Free Online) and (Amazon)

• R Markdown: The Definitive Guide (Free Online) and (Amazon)
• ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis (Free Online) and (Amazon)

Note: The third book doesn’t have an online version in a ready-to-read format. You will have to build
the pdf copy of the book yourself. The website provides the instructions. Otherwise, buying the book
is the best alternative.

Learning Objectives

1. R coding
2. Fundamentals of visualization
3. Visualization for cross-sectional, time-series, and spatial data

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 • Using R packages such as ggplot2
• Using Tableau Public
4. Visualization and communication for marketing applications
• Using Rstudio Shiny app

Course Description

This course is designed to teach students the principles of visualizations and introduce them to tools
for more effective visualization and communication. Whereas data analytics methods are gaining
prominence, how to communicate that analysis to decision makers remains a major challenge. Visual-
ization tools such as graphs, dashboards, and websites, are helpful in such communication. However,
without systematic knowledge of the best practices in visualization, it’s easy to mislead audience with
incorrect object sizes, color shading, excessive cluttering, or arbitrarily truncated scales. At the end
of the syllabus I reproduce three images downloaded from the subreddit r/dataisugly which make this
point amply clear.

The course will use R and Tableau Public to create visualizations. R has several libraries, which special-
ize in plotting. We will in particular use ggplot2 and many other libraries that depend on ggplot2.
These libraries are related to each other and have similar syntax for the functions, which will make
things easier. Tableau is arguably one of the most popular visualization software among practitioners.
We will use Tableau Public, which is a limited-capability but free version of the software. Alternatively
you can get a full version with student registration.

Additional Reading:

• Ramnath Vaidya’s book: https://ramnathv.github.io/pycon2014-r/visualize/base_graphics.

html
• ggplot2 book website: http://ggplot2.org/book/
• Htmlwidgets for R: http://www.htmlwidgets.org/
• Flowing Data: https://flowingdata.com/

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Schedule

Week 01, 08/21 - 08/23: Introduction and Basics of R and RStudio

Week 02, 08/28 - 08/30: Basics of R and What we can easily see
Week 03, 09/04 - 09/06: The grammar of graphics with ggplot2
Week 04, 09/11 - 09/13: The grammar of graphics with ggplot2 and Introduction to interactive
visualizations
Week 05, 09/18 - 09/20: Introduction to RStudio Shiny
Week 06, 09/25 - 09/27: Tableau
Week 07, 10/02 - 10/04: Tableau
Week 08, 10/09 - 10/11: Final presentations

Grading

Grading is based on group and individual assignments

Homework assignments – 60%

Final project presentation – 40%

Homework Assignments (Individual)

There will be 4 individual homework assignments, each with a one week deadline. The homework will
involve creating a visualization. You will submit your code and output combined as an Rmarkdown
file along with the output html file.

Final Project (Group work)

The final project will require you to 1) answer a problem facing organizations (profit or non-profit),
policy makers, consumers, an industry, etc., using publicly available data set and 2) visualize the re-
sults. The final project will be entirely graded on the presentation. The criteria for grading the pre-
sentation in isolation are as follows: presentation skills, the quality of the presentation, the ease with
which the audience can understand your research. The content of the presentation will be graded on
the relevance of the topic to practitioners (purely academic visualizations for the sake of it will be
graded low), attention to details, and insight discovery. Pretty visualizations that don’t tell us about
anything interesting are meaningless.

The groups will consist of minimum 3 and maximum 4 students. You will have to form the
groups in the first week. The students without groups at the end of the first week will be as-
signed to groups by the instructor.

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Deadlines

Table 1: Homework Submission

Homework Made Available On Submission Date

1 09/04 09/11
2 09/11 09/18
3 09/18 09/25
4 09/25 10/02
Note:
Hard deadline is 11:30 pm on the submission date

Late Submissions

No late submissions are allowed.

Policy on Cheating

Students are expected to be above reproach in scholastic activities. Students who violate Univer-
sity rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility
of failure in the course and dismissal from the University. “Scholastic dishonesty includes, but
is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or ma-
terials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an exam for another
person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts.”
From The University of Texas System Rules and Regulations of the Board of Regents, Rule: 50101.
(www.utsystem.edu/BOR/rules.htm).

Right to Privacy

Except under specific exceptions provided in the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, I
will not give information concerning your grades, academic progress, attendance, address, phone, or
e-mail to anyone outside the UTSA system unless you give your prior written permission. In addition,
I will not give or discuss grade information over the phone or by e-mail.

Special Needs

If you feel that you are eligible for or may be helped by accommodations in the class due to a disabil-
ity or special need, contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS). Students with disabilities must be
registered with the ODS located in MS 2.03.18 (458 4157 – voice; 458 4981 – TRY) or UTSA Downtown

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in FS 1.526 (458-2816), in order to receive support services. To see if you are eligible for these services
and privileges, visit the website below: http://www.utsa.edu/disability/studeligibility.htm

Examples of Bad Visualizations

The world is full of bad visualizations. On the next pages you will find a few examples!

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Figure 1: The pie chart (pizza chart?) that doesn’t add up to 100% (Source)

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Figure 2: The fast browser that broke the scale (Source)

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Figure 3: Stand your ground flips the image (Source)