Hi Job,
Thanks for your detailed feedback. We'll take that into account in
further developments around the tool. Remember this is a prototype (code
is available at: https://github.com/emileaben/ixp-country-jedi ). If you
have a colour scheme that you think would work better for all cases, you
can submit a pull request there. Or we can work together on improving
this in a mini-code-sprint sometime soon?
Couloring IXPs as green was done because this tool was initially
developed in an IXP context; it was presented at EURO-IX and Netnod
meetings, and my understanding was that the IXPs would favour paths
going over the IXP. I think you are correct in pointing out that this is
not necessarily the right thing to do in all contexts.
There is already work underway to look at direct vs. indirect
interconnections in the tool. Our research intern Petros Gkigkis is
going to show a sneak preview of that at the upcoming GRNOG meeting (
https://www.grnog.gr/?lang=en ) this Friday.
And of course there will be RIPE Labs articles about further
developments like this. So keep an eye out at https://labs.ripe.net :)
kind regards,
Emile Aben
RIPE NCC
On 24/05/17 15:15, Job Snijders wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> TL;DR - red/green color palettes should be avoided in data
> visualiations, please pick something else!
>
> Yesterday I saw Christian Teuschel present on the "Jedi" tool at SINOG,
> and two things stood out:
>
> A) the data visualisations do not attempt to accomodate for people
>who are color blind, in fact, the worst colors possible were
>picked
>
> B) by using using common traffic light colors (green, orange, red)
>an implicit judgement is made on the meaning of the data (traffic
>crossing an internet exchange was seemingly favored over private
>peering)
>
> To point (A) - red–green color blindness which affect a substantial
> portion of the human population. In the US, about 7 percent of the male
> population (or about 10.5 million men) and 0.4 percent of the female
> population either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and
> green differently from how others do (Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
> 2006). There are quite some pointers as to how to design color palettes
> which accomodate everyone.
>
>
> http://www.somersault1824.com/tips-for-designing-scientific-figures-for-color-blind-readers/
> http://blog.usabilla.com/how-to-design-for-color-blindness/
>
> B) As I understand the "Jedi" tool, it shows matrixes of what traffic
> between atlas probes leaves the country, and what traffic remains within
> the country - offering insight into a reflection on a country's internal
> routing arrangements. I'm a big fan of keeping local traffic local, so
> the tool certainly has value.
>
> However, the tool displays traffic which passes over an IXP within the
> country as green, and traffic that says within the country but didn't
> cross an IXP as "orange". Since the majority of internet traffic flows
> over direct, private interconnections between ASNs, signifying that
> traffic as "orange", has the potential to be taken as a "wrong", rather
> then as an arbitrary datapoint. I suggest that the Jedi tool either uses
> the same color for ixp and non-ixp "within country" traffic (and perhaps
> a small icon is used to signify the additional data attribute that an
> IXP was observed in the traceroute), or that the jedi tool uses entirely
> arbitrary colors that have no inherent meaning like the traffic light
> colors do.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Job
>
