Whether you are new to data and information visualization or have been using visualization tools and techniques for a long time, there is always something new to learn. Here are short web tutorials that we think will help get you started .

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Good Perspective: How to Take Effective Site Photography

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Project Context: Questions to Consider

There are several basic questions about your project to consider that will help get you started in your discussion with your visualization expert.

1. Is this a project in design?
   If so, what about the design of the project is of importance to the public you are communicating with? Is it aesthetics? Function? Are people concerned about the interaction of the project with other elements of the transportation network? For example, people may be interested in understanding transfers between a proposed transit project and other elements of the transit network, which could emphasized in project visualization.
2. Are operations an issue?
   Do people want to understand how a project is used or accessed, such as in the case of a tolled facility or transit facility? Is there interest in seeing how a facility operates within a larger transportation system or network? For example, the public may be concerned about traffic impacts of a proposed project that requires taking a lane of general purpose traffic on a highway and converting it to a high occupancy vehicle lane. You and visualization expert should discuss how to address this issue within the visualization being developed.
3. Is this a project in planning or environmental analysis?
   If so, what are the major issues framing the public discussion of the project? What are the resources people are concerned about? How does the project affect those resources? How does the project fit within a larger transportation system or network? Are there different alternatives presented that have different effects on these resources? Projects in which impacts to specific resources, communities, neighborhoods, or properties are an important concern may require that the visualization show the project in relation to specific resources in the affect environment.
4. What is the location of geographic context of the project or plan?
   Is this a plan in which specific groups of projects or investments are being evaluated against others in a regional, statewide, or otherwise larger scale context? Is this a project affecting an intersection on Main Street? Answering these questions may assist in determining the scale of the visualization and what details regarding the project geography to include.
5. What is the project team concerned about?
   An important constituent of the visualization, but not necessarily the target audience, is the agency or project sponsor. There may be the desire to demonstrate a relationship of the project to a specific policy issue - such as the relationship of a project or plan to mode choice in the larger transportation system. In an era in which performance based planning and governing is becoming predominant, visualization becomes an important tool to show relationships and trade offs between investments, long terms vs. short terms goals and objectives, and different policy priorities such as congestion management and economic growth.

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