5 ms·

That's a great way to visualize a third dimension on a two-axis graph. Now I'm thinking about how to do that in d3...

• xyby 12y ago
  Well.. it's simply using the size of the dot for the 3rd dimesion. Not a new idea. What makes it visually appealing is that the 3rd dimension is time. And the x/y parameters do not change much over time. So many dots of similar size are close to each other generating a path. Also the motion blur from one dot to the next is useful only because the 3rd dimension has a special meaning. It would not work if it was "income" instead of "time".
  • pcl 12y ago
    Dot size is used frequently, but I haven't seen many static visualizations that plot the series multiple times using cues (in this case, dot size and opacity) to indicate the data relationship. I see it all the time in animation form, though. It reminds me of the famous Minard chart of Napoleon's adventures [1], but doesn't draw the focus as completely to the time dimension as his does to the survivor dimension. I think you're right about the special nature of the third dimension in this case. I wonder what things other than time it'd work for. It feels like it'd work well for other things that are time-like -- results from different iterations of an experiment, for example. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard#Work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard#Work