This respository contains everything you'll need to follow the 6-week Tech Track.
The Tech Track is given at @CMDA in 2023 from October 16th until December 1st.
- Course: Tech Track
- Keywords: data, information, interactivity, storytelling, visualization
- Coordinators: Vincent Vijn (@vijnv), Laura Benvenuti (@LauraBenvenuti)
- Lecturers: Vincent Vijn (@vijnv), Laura Benvenuti (@LauraBenvenuti), Danny de Vries (@dandevri)
- Credit: 9 ECTS
- University: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
- Programme: Communication and Multimedia Design (full time bachelor CROHO:
34092) - Faculty: Digital Media and Creative Industries
During the Tech Track you'll be developing your skills in order to create meaningful, beautiful and interactive data visualizations. There's a lot of liberty / personal responsibility in this module: Any library you see fit to apply here is valid. We'll be exploring some of the most used and applicable frameworks within data visualization, but you're free to divert from these if you see fit.
The Tech Track is a workshop-focused course. We'll be teaching the basics of coding, using libraries for all sorts of applications and data management from micro to macro level. There will be a lot of old-school studying, as you'll need to disect documentations to fully utilise your chosen frameworks. We'll be deep-diving in structuring your visualization, how to set up a robust and scalable architecture and be able to refactor code you've written while exploring.
Finally, you'll be documenting your progress. We expect an elaborate wiki on github in which you defend your choices, raise any alternatives and showcase your progress. Your final repository also includes a readme, license and other defaults one can expect from an upcoming professional developer. Finally, a reflection on our guest lectures can be included here.
This copy may seem overwhelming at first, but no fear! We'll start slowly and make sure to precisely explain how these weeks will manifest step-by-step. A quick hint: If you're already seeing words you don't recognize, make sure to Google them now, this will familliarize yourself with the language we and future you will be using. Don't hesitate, your teachers have to Google most of them daily themselves.
Tech Track is an elective track given in Information Design (fall semester), building further on knowledge acquired in Internetstandaarden, Inleiding Programmeren, Frontend 1, Frontend 2, Project Tech and Back-end.
If you’d like to continue with web development after this track, pick Minor Everything Web in the spring semester!
In 6 weeks, every student is required to deliver the following:
- A working interactive data visualization.
- A GitHub repository hosting the code, README with installation instructions and Wiki
- A documentation that covers the process, choices and hardships during the Tech Track
- A collection of sketchnotes (or any other format) of all of the guest lectures.
- GitHub — Main source of information, assignments, slides, examples, important dates, etc
- Teams (Tech-Track team) — General chatter, Q&A, updates
- Brightspace — Assessment scheduling and hand in.
The main goals in this track are that you’re able to:
- Clean, transform data with functional programming patterns
- Create interactive visualizations from (external) data
- Use D3 or other frameworks to create interactive visualization(s)
- Work with front-end framework and think in components
- Apply meaningul animation and / or storytelling in your visualization.
- Refactor, debug and read complex programs (code)
| Schedule | Subject |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introduction |
| Week 2 | Architecture |
| Week 3 | Visualizations |
| Week 4 | Storytelling |
| Week 5 | Advanced |
| Week 6 | Assessment |
If you get stuck, follow the following steps:
- Read the manual for the technology in question (Git, GitHub, Node, npm, d3)
- Search StackOverflow
- Use a search engine like DuckDuckGo
- Explain the problem to your 🐤
- Ask other students
- Ask questions on Teams
- Ask a teacher
This track is given at Communication and Multimedia Design, a design bachelor focused on interactive digital products and services. CMD is part of the Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
If you're a student from earlier years (before 22-23), please contact the module coordinators on how to best retake (partially) the tech-track this year.
The resit of the Tech Track will be at the end of Semester 1 of the 22-23 year. Further communication regarding the specific deliverables and time will be communicated at the end of the 6-week tech track.
This track has a Code of Conduct. Anyone interacting with this repository, organisation, or community is bound by it.
Staff and students of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) are additionally bound by the Regulation Undesirable Conduct (Regeling Ongewenst Gedrag) and the HvA gedragscode.
Unless stated otherwise, code is MIT © Robert Spier & Vincent Vijn docs and images are CC-BY-4.0.