4 ms·

An idea for 2012 - client-side data and time flow visualization

3 points by zeratul 15y ago

I was looking for good javascript frameworks that do data visualization. I found couple really good ones: Raphael + g.Raphael, D3, and processing-js. But what really strikes me that we don't have a good idea how to visualize flow of Time and Data. An example of such flow diagram was published by google: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/10/introducing-flow-visualization.html But I haven't seen any other project that would propose a flow visualization that would be as clear and uncluttered as google analytics is. EDIT: the graph is called "alluvial diagrams" - but I'm still hungry for more (thanks to swanson)

swanson 15y ago
http://tamc.github.com/Sankey/ http://tamc.github.com/Sankey/ - found via http://groups.google.com/group/d3-js/browse_thread/thread/ffab5ff980a1b068 http://groups.google.com/group/d3-js/browse_thread/thread/ff...
jnbiche 15y ago
d3 is an absolutely amazing datavis framework. With it, Mike Bostock has created the future of information visualizations. And since svg is finally getting the acceptance that it should have gotten 10 years ago, d3 runs almost anywhere -- ios, webkit, gecko, android, even the latest IE. It's relatively low-level, however; users need to be pretty adept at the DOM, javascript, and svg. As a result,I suspect that someone will create a higher-level interface for it, maybe even a web-based one. I've thought of doing that myself, but it would be a big time investment. Anyone else pondering such an open source project? Something akin to an MIT- or Apache-licensed framework like High Charts, but based on d3, and with an optional web-based interface.
- zeratul 15y ago
  I'm hoping that Raphael will get higher level API. I think g.Raphael went in that direction but more needs to be done. jnbiche: maybe I can interest you in https://gist.github.com/1515418 https://gist.github.com/1515418 please let me know if there is anything I should add. thanks
  - jnbiche 15y ago
    sorry -- I missed your comment until today. You've compiled a great list there! If I had that list when I first started using js(actually coffeescript) for data visualization, it would have saved me a lot of time and effort. I really can't think of anything to add. As I was reading it, I was thinking you should mention cube, but then you did. That will be a great resource to people as more and more web datavis moves away from ActionScript and to Javascript. Regarding Raphael, I think g.Raphael is a pretty high level interface for creating charts. It's find of on the level of protovis, which was what Mike Bostock was working on before he started d3, basically a declarative approach to chart generation. With d3, he went much lower level. And while this approach offers much greater flexibility, the learning curve is quite steep. It's not a framework you can pick up in a day or two unless you're already quite comfortable with Javascript, SVG, and the DOM.

3 points by zeratul 15y ago

swanson 15y ago

http://tamc.github.com/Sankey/ http://tamc.github.com/Sankey/ - found via http://groups.google.com/group/d3-js/browse_thread/thread/ffab5ff980a1b068 http://groups.google.com/group/d3-js/browse_thread/thread/ff...

jnbiche 15y ago

d3 is an absolutely amazing datavis framework. With it, Mike Bostock has created the future of information visualizations. And since svg is finally getting the acceptance that it should have gotten 10 years ago, d3 runs almost anywhere -- ios, webkit, gecko, android, even the latest IE. It's relatively low-level, however; users need to be pretty adept at the DOM, javascript, and svg. As a result,I suspect that someone will create a higher-level interface for it, maybe even a web-based one. I've thought of doing that myself, but it would be a big time investment. Anyone else pondering such an open source project? Something akin to an MIT- or Apache-licensed framework like High Charts, but based on d3, and with an optional web-based interface.

zeratul 15y ago
I'm hoping that Raphael will get higher level API. I think g.Raphael went in that direction but more needs to be done. jnbiche: maybe I can interest you in https://gist.github.com/1515418 https://gist.github.com/1515418 please let me know if there is anything I should add. thanks
- jnbiche 15y ago
  sorry -- I missed your comment until today. You've compiled a great list there! If I had that list when I first started using js(actually coffeescript) for data visualization, it would have saved me a lot of time and effort. I really can't think of anything to add. As I was reading it, I was thinking you should mention cube, but then you did. That will be a great resource to people as more and more web datavis moves away from ActionScript and to Javascript. Regarding Raphael, I think g.Raphael is a pretty high level interface for creating charts. It's find of on the level of protovis, which was what Mike Bostock was working on before he started d3, basically a declarative approach to chart generation. With d3, he went much lower level. And while this approach offers much greater flexibility, the learning curve is quite steep. It's not a framework you can pick up in a day or two unless you're already quite comfortable with Javascript, SVG, and the DOM.