raw application_sad research paper

Running Head: RAW Application 1

INFO 633: Visualization Information

Project A – RAW Application

Shirley A. Dash

Drexel University


The RAW application is an “open web app to create custom vector-based visualizations

on top of the amazing D3.js library through a simple interface.” (App.raw.densitydesign.org,

2015) What I find interesting about this application is its easy use, colors, various visuals to use

and export with the option to create your own graph using their customize application. “Even

though Raw is a web app, the data you upload will be processed only by the web browser. No

server-side operations or storages are performed; no one will see, touch or copy your data!”

(App.raw.densitydesign.org, 2015)

Graphs and Power Points are used all the time for work, education and personal use, but

sometimes the data can be interpreted wrong or the visual aid used is not proper giving mixed

signals to the targeted audience. Visualization tools used in RAW allows for quick simulation

of your data to use with their sixteen charts. You might have to decide which is chart is good to

use but it sure will save time. Also, along with exporting your chart RAW gives you three types

of export extensions to use vector (SVG) or raster (PNG) and you can also copy the code to

embed them in your web page.

Now, the data I used is one of RAW’s dataset called Movie and I used this data because it

seemed to give me more of variety. I did play around with the other three dataset (cars, music

and cocktails) RAW was nice to offer, but the Movie data is similar to the kind of data I work

with the only thing missing from the Movie data is a date. I like the idea using RAW’s data

because it helped to understand what graphs I should and should and should not display. I also

added the definitions of the graph I selected which helped me to understand along with my

comments made and or the reason why I chose the particular graph.

Lastly, I used a copy of my own data from work learn and understand how to use RAW’s

application using 814 rows of my work data. I added a date filter to help map the dimension

which I found to be interesting and I was able to tell a story without having a legend. The fact

you can use your own data is really good and I know the more data you use could run into

RAW’s website to freeze but fortunately for me I didn’t run into that problem.

http://d3js.org/


Streamgraph - For continuous data such as time series, a streamgraph can be used in place of

stacked bars.

The dimensions used for this visual graph are Movie titles and Domestic Box Office Numbers.

This visual is not self-explanatory without the legend, so I changed the dimensions in the next

visual by genre by production budget by IDMB, and although there is no legend it’s clear to see

which visual tells the story.

Streamgraph visuals are good for time series, and not for dollars or large numbers in the

examples I used. The last visual is genre by IDMB which for me tells the best story of the

worst to best movie rating. If there were dates as to when the movies opened in the theater it

would have been even better, but seeing which movie is rated from 0-10 with 10 being the best

and 0 being the worse gives you a good idea how the public rated the movies.

Movie Title by Production Budget


Gene by Production Budget


Movie Title by IDMB

The Circular Dendrograms are tree-like diagrams used to represent the distribution of a

hierarchical clustering. The different depth levels represented by each node are visualized on

the horizontal axes and it is useful to visualize a non-weighted hierarchy.

It’s not good to have too many dimensions when using this visualization tool because the more

information you add the less visual it becomes which makes the data hard to interpret.

Although, you can enlarge the size (radius) of the visual you don’t want it to run off the page,

unless it’s used for a poster board and so forth.


Movie with all dimensions


Now, this visual can also tell a beautiful story if you minimize some of the dimensions. For

example, the next visual will display the genre by production budget by movie this way you can

compare the production budget of a movie within each genre. Now, you can see the dimensions

and what they represent, which really doesn’t tell you much.

However, if we want to see a true representation of the circular dendagram and its cluster we

should display the production budget as the hierarchy.

Gene by Production Budget by Movie

This next circular dendagram displays a better story because now I can tell which movies have

the same production budget whereas it’s not obvious with the above visual.


Production Budget by Gene by Movie

Now we can see clearly which movies share the same production budget, so you wonder how

they were rated by IDMB if their production cost was the same. These are good follow-up

questions because if I am asking this then so would the viewer. The next circular visuals are

production budget by IDMB by movie and IDMB by production budget by movie. The

interesting part about these last two slides are how they are rated when IDMB is the hierarchy

vs the production budget.

Some movies received the same budget and got a lower rating from the public. What we don’t

know is the little details like did the same actors/actress play in these movies and what about the

director, producer and writers did they make a difference. Lastly, are the movies with the same

production budget and different rating from the same genre? It’s too many unknowns to


determine if the visual is good or not but the questions drawn from them are good to take back

for follow-up.

Production Budget by IDMB by Movie

Circle Packing

Nested circles allow us to represent hierarchies and compare values. This visualization is

particularly effective to show the proportion between elements through their areas and their

position inside a hierarchical structure.


The data value being used in the Circle Packing is probably not a good choice to display all the

movie dimensions because it’s showing the genre by descending movie, but when you have

genre’s with only one data element like Comedy and Romantic Comedy makes it hard to

account for this visual with mixed displays.

Gene by Production Budget by Movie

This last Circle packing version hierarchy is displayed by size starting inward the middle of the

circle (Zookeeper) and ending with Aviator, but it’s not in order of smallest to largest

production budget, domestic box office number or IDMB. This visual will not be able to tell a

story if anything it will give off the wrong impression.


Movie Titles

Alluvial Diagram (Fineo-like)

Alluvial diagrams allow to represent flows and to see correlations between categorical

dimensions, visually linking to the number of elements sharing the same categories. It is useful

to see the evolution of cluster (such as the number of people belonging to a specific group). It

can also be used to represent bipartite graphs, using each node group as dimensions.


This next visual is pretty interesting as the flow of the cursive lines and beautiful colors is soft

on the eyes directs your attention to each category it is truly easy to follow and understand this

visual.

Genre by Movie Title by Product Budget

This last Alluvial diagram also tells a story especially if you wanted to know the movie’s IDMB

in ascending order of course it would be best to have the legend, but for now we will let the title

represent this visual.


IDMB in ascending order by Genre by movie

Cluster Dendrogram Dendrograms are tree-like diagrams used to represent the distribution of

a hierarchical clustering. The different depth levels represented by each node are visualized on

the horizontal axes and it is useful to visualize a non-weighted hierarchy.

This visual allows you to show all the dimensions and it’s easy on the eyes. You can easily

break this down to any category with the quickness. I saved this one for last because it’s more

of the visual I would probably use for my job. I see more potential with this one; however there

is not legend or titles to the columns. I use excel graphs a lot but I always have to do extra

work because the user always want to see more than what excel can produce. The cluster

dengrogram could be a quick summary to many other visuals. For example the last visual

displays the genre by IDMB but if I wanted to know the ascending IDMB by movie the visual

will display the IDMB first then the movie, but will not tell me how the movie rated against

another genre. This


Genre by Movie by Domestic Box Office by Production Budget by IDMB

Genre by IDMB by Movie by Product Budget


Small Multiples (Area) A small multiple is a series of small similar graphics or charts,

allowing them to be easily compared.

I used data from work so I can see the difference between the three facilities this data will show

which hospital among the three Hospital of the University of Penn, Pennsylvania and

Presbyterian that receives the most transfers from outside hospitals.

Without having the numbers it the visual clearly shows the Hospital of University of Penn

(HUP) with the most transfers then Presbyterian (PMC) then Pennsylvania (PAH). This is

about sixty percent of the type of data I work with on a daily basis, and it is a tool that I would

use with data to explain the visual variations.


In summary, I really enjoyed learning new visuals from the RAW application. I have learned

depending on the data will determine which visual you should use so the readers will not have

to second guess the visual. The more the data the smaller the visual become and if you have a

lot of data to show then maybe the RAW application is not right for you. Now you can

however, build your own visual through RAW which is pretty cool, but once again you still

have to be mindful of the amount of data you are displaying.

Raw also gives you three versions to export to [Vector Graphics (svg) and Image (png)]. Also,

there no legends so if your audience cannot easily determine what you are trying to display

from your visual then RAW is not your choice of application.

Although, the point is to try and use one application to tell the story of your data if RAW is that

application go for it. You can also, download and run RAW from your computer if you are

concerned about the security of your personal data or work information.


Reference

App.raw.densitydesign.org,. (2015). RAW. Retrieved 11 January 2015, from

http://app.raw.densitydesign.org/#%2F

http://app.raw.densitydesign.org/#%2F


Movie by IDMB

Movie Genre

Production

Budget

Domestic Box

Office IDMB

The Dark Knight Action 185000000 533345358 9

Raiders of the Lost Ark Adventure 20000000 248159971 8.7

The Lion King Adventure 79300000 422780140 8.4

Up Adventure 175000000 293004164 8.3

Finding Nemo Adventure 94000000 380529370 8.1

Jurassic Park Action 63000000 395708305 8

Avatar Action 425000000 760507625 8

Monsters, Inc. Adventure 115000000 289423425 8

ET: The Extra-Terrestrial Drama 10500000 435110554 7.9

Ghostbusters Comedy 30000000 238632124 7.8

Iron Man 3 Action 200000000 396702239 7.6

The Blind Side Drama 35000000 255959475 7.6

Titanic Thriller/Suspense 200000000 658672302 7.6

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Adventure 225000000 423315812 7.3

King Kong Adventure 207000000 218080025 7.3

The Hunger Games Thriller/Suspense 80000000 408010692 7.2

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the

Witch and the Wardrobe

Adventure 180000000 291710957 6.9

X-Men: The Last Stand Action 210000000 234362462 6.8

Quantum of Solace Action 230000000 169368427 6.7

The Vow Drama 30000000 125014030 6.7

Oz the Great and Powerful Adventure 200000000 233671832 6.6

The War of the Worlds Action 132000000 234280354 6.5

Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace Adventure 115000000 474544677 6.5

You've Got Mail Drama 65000000 115821495 6.3


Zookeeper Romantic Comedy 80000000 80360866 5

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Drama 50000000 296623634 4.5

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