Final Project Deliverables & Exhibition

You’re almost there! In these last few weeks of the semester, your goal is to focus on the fit and finish of your final project. Carefully review the functionality that remains to be implemented, and schedule your work accordingly so that—even if you don’t get as much as done as you’d hoped—you’ll still end up with a polished and cohesive data story that crisply communicates the intended insight(s) and takeaway message(s) for your target audience.

Due: Monday, 5/13, 9:30am ET
Submit via Google Form →
Final Project Exhibition: Monday, 5/13, 9:30am ET, location TBD

Table of contents

Final Deliverables

The specific final deliverables include:

  1. A bug-free, polished, deployed implementation of your final project available at a publicly accessible URL. Make sure your ultimate project includes the following:
    • The names of all members of your team
    • Acknowledgements for all appropriate sources (both for your datasets, and also any example visualizations, code, etc. that you might have adapted for your purposes). Check the metadata for your datasets to understand which sources need to be acknowledged. Remember that some of the datasets that we provided combined multiple sources (e.g. ACS 2017-21 and Census 2020). Each source should be separately and correctly acknowledged.
    • Acknowledgement of the input from our partner, MAPC. Somewhere in your project you should put the text + link: “This project was developed with guidance and feedback from the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC).”
    • Remember that you should not openly publish the residential sales data datasets on your websites. This is an explicit part of our Data Use Agreement with the Warren Group.

  2. A final project report, in PDF format. A critical part of the data analysis and design process is being able to describe, communicate, and reflect on the choices you made. Thus, your final project report should summarize and justify 3 key results from your data analysis that motivated or grounded your data story, and 3 important design decisions you made to effectively communicate with and engage your audience. We expect roughly a paragraph of writing per point, which provides a well-reasoned analysis (you may include screenshots and images if they are helpful in conveying a point). Finally, wrap your report up with a paragraph reflecting on your project: how was the work split between group members, and how/why did this differ from the plan you put together for the wireframe milestone; looking back, what might you have done differently; and looking ahead, what lessons might you apply to future data visualization and data storytelling projects you work on?

  3. An image or screenshot that best represents your final project. Once the course concludes, we will put together an online showcase to feature the final projects built in this class. We will link to your final project using this image you provide.

Submit your final project deliverables using this Google Form. Extensions will not be offered as the teaching staff needs sufficient time to grade your projects and submit final grades to the registrar.

Final Project Exhibition

To celebrate your excellent work this semester (and to use your projects to raise awareness about the housing affordability crisis, and the state’s efforts to address this), our final class session will consist of a final project exhibition!

We will announce the location closer to the date, but you can expect the exhibition to run Monday, 5/13, 9:45–11am (i.e., during class time). You should plan to arrive by 9:30am to get setup, and deal with any last minute issues that inevitably crop up.

Each team will share a long table with one other team that is addressing a related topic. Set up at least one laptop per team, with your final project opened, full screened, and facing out to attract visitors and passers by. We encourage you to practice a short (~1 min) pitch that describes the problem you’re addressing, and walks visitors through the major beats of your data story. You might also invite visitors to interact with the data story themselves (e.g., during or after the pitch) and even have extra laptops handy if things get busy!

We are broadly advertising the event to the MIT community and leadership, the very active Boston-based visualization community, as well as members of the state government (including leadership!). Past exhibitions of this class have helped students find internships and job opportunities, as well as sparked research collaborations! Members of the course staff will also stop by to hear your pitch, experience your final project, and have a short, pleasant conversation about your work.

(Finally, we also hope to have mini breakfast trays available at each table to not only attract visitors but, more importantly, help fuel you!)

Grading

Together, your final deliverables and participation in the exhibition is worth 25 points allocated like so:

  • Final Project Quality (15 points): we will be assessing the effectiveness of the design of your data story and constituent visualizations in communicating to your target audience. We will not only pay attention to low-level features (e.g., titles, labels, marks, visual encodings, and use of interaction and animation) but higher-level characteristics (e.g., how easy is the story to follow, how clearly does it communicate the insight(s)/message(s), how well do design and storytelling choices match with your intended audience, etc.). We will also be on the lookout for, and award, especially creative or original approaches!

  • Depth of Writeup (5 points): as with past assignments, we will be assessing the degree to which your writeup characterizes and contextualizes your data analysis, provides well-reasoned justification for your design choices, and thoughtfully reflects on lessons learned. Note, we expect writeups to be roughly 7 paragraphs long; excessively long writeups (e.g., that ramble) will be penalized.

  • Exhibition Presentation (5 points): we will base your point allocation on your team’s attendance, and on how actively your team participates during the event. For instance, are you able to have a productive conversation about your project with a member of the course staff when they stop by your booth? How do you engage with visitors who might be interested in learning about your work? Etc.