Interactivity is useful, I think, when there's a lot of data and you want to offer people the ability to see different perspectives.
A current topical example might be https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/ which is still summary data, but offering eight different ways of looking at the map. That said, https://xkcd.com/1138/ remains a classic cautionary tale, among others. As with any tool, though, it's the people behind the interactivity who make the difference (or who fail to do so). Thanks, -- Raul On Sat, Nov 7, 2020 at 9:02 PM Devon McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: > > I did a little work with D3 to build an interactive 3D scatterplot but I > remain skeptical of the value of a lot of the interactive data displays I > see. Looking at the first example you point to - > http://bl.ocks.org/diethardsteiner/3287802 - I can't help but wonder if a > static representation like a group of barcharts is more useful. It's fun > the way the barchart on the right changes when you select a segment in the > pie chart but notice that the highest bar for "Steve", representing 3,443 > apples, is the same as the height of the 25,922 apples for Sam. Of course, > since you can't see the charts for both Steve and Sam at the same time, the > distortion of having the same height represent different numbers is hidden. > > Similarly, this chart - https://observablehq.com/@d3/countries-by-area - of > the areas of different countries is not as useful as a simple table of > countries and their areas since you have to hover over each picture of each > country to find out which one it is. It's fun and all to watch them light > up and display information when you hover over each one but a simple table > with all the information available at once would be more useful for most > purposes. I have noticed this drawback with a lot of the interactive data > displays I have seen: you can't look at several items at the same time > because you have to hover over each one to display data for that item only. > > I see a lot of this enchantment with novelty over-riding practical concerns > of usage. Recently when my wife showed me an alluvial (or Sankey) diagram > proposed for a publication on which she works, I found it hard to draw many > useful conclusions from it as it was one of these with multiple layers - > see these > http://www.datasmith.org/2020/05/02/alluvial-plots-vs-sankey-diagrams/ for > examples that are perhaps overly complex. These types of diagrams are also > sensitive to the order in which the data categories are laid out. When I > briefly researched alluvial diagrams, many of the hits were for different > software packages for creating them but there was no evident critical > analysis of them outlining what they are good for, their drawbacks, or > guidelines for how best to construct them. > > > On Sat, Nov 7, 2020 at 1:46 PM Brian Schott <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Before I retired, statistically interactive displays intrigued me. I became > > aware of software by Datadesk which facilitated looking at data in the way > > that the current dashboards suggest; at least the similarity is suggested > > in my mind. > > > > So my reason for posting this message is to see if others have been > > successful in using J in this interactive visual manner for statistical > > data. My research on this subject has mostly centered on D3 and I have > > included some links below suggesting what has informed my research the > > most. I have been rather disappointed in the complexity of programming D3, > > and look forward to learning other's experience. > > > > The very first link shows a running dashboard and related JavaScript code. > > The second and third links provide code that is embedded in an article > > written in the statistical programming language SAS; this link is included > > because it might suggest how D3 can be linked to other programming > > languages. (By the way I have seen the demos for D3 in both JHS and jqt.) > > The fourth link promotes the possibility of using SVG for three-dimensional > > data. Apparently that has been a weakness for D3. > > The fifth link is to a rather long discussion about the changes in D3 which > > are being pushed by the original developer. Many people are arguing against > > the changes because they move D3 from being a library to a separate new > > application. > > > > http://bl.ocks.org/diethardsteiner/3287802 > > https://gist.github.com/NPashaP/96447623ef4d342ee09b > > https://www.mwsug.org/proceedings/2014/DV/MWSUG-2014-DV09.pdf > > https://observablehq.com/@sanderevers/svg-transformations > > > > https://talk.observablehq.com/t/i-want-to-learn-d3-i-don-t-want-to-learn-observable-is-that-ok/1957/6 > > > > Thanks, > > > > (B=) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > > > -- > > Devon McCormick, CFA > > Quantitative Consultant > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
