More than a 1000 words: scripts and techniques for putting interactive graphics on webpages.

1. More than a 1000 words:
scripts and techniques for putting interactive
graphics on webpages.
Timothy M. Kunau, MS
c: +011 1 612 701 0735
e: tkunau@gmail.com
w: http://kunau.us/
t: @tkunau
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2. 2

3. Data is all over the web
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4. ... and it is getting more complex over time.
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5. 5

6. 6

7. Semiology – the study of symbols and signs
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8. σημειωτικός
Semiotics
From the Greek semeiotikos, which means “interpreter of signs”.
Signs underly all forms of communication.
Anything used for human communication is defined as a sign:
gestures, facial expressions, poetry, rituals, clothes, food, music,
morse code, color, shape, etc.
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9. What is a sign?
• Anything that carries
meaning - whether it’s a
word, a symbol/image, or
a sound.
• Signs form part of a
coded system within
media and text
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~rockmore/semaphore.html
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10. Trouser Semaphore
http://thechap.net/
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11. Everything is a sign
Signs can be read
Signs exist in a structure
and context
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12. The ability of the audience to decode and
understand a graphic design becomes a major
limitation governing its form and content.
From Type and Image: The Language of Graphic Design, Philip B. Meggs
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13. Semiology of Graphics
• Properties of information
• Properties of image
• Rules mapping information
to images
• Analytical tasks
Jacques Bertin
• First and most broad effort
(1918-2010)
to provide a theoretical
foundation for Information
Visualization
1967
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14. Language Perspective
• Semiology – the study of symbol systems
• Sender and receiver use a language with
symbols
• Establish code and conventions
• Sender encodes information in these
symbols
• Receiver decodes information from
these symbols
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15. • [x,y]
• Position
• [z]
• Shape
• Size
• Texture
• Intensity/Value
• Color/Hue
• Orientation
Bertin, J. (1983). Semiology of graphics.
Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press.
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16. Data will dictate display.
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17. Story will dictate display.
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18. • [x,y]
• Position
• [z]
• Shape
• Size
• Texture
• Intensity/Value
• Color/Hue
• Orientation
Bertin, J. (1983). Semiology of graphics.
Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press.
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19. So, how does this apply to interactive graphics on
webpages?
There are some new techniques and tools that take advantage of
Javascript API and HTML5: <canvas>.
Bertin’s Semiology of Graphics can help us form the best context
for our data and the broadest range of receivers.
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20. Tools
• InfoViz
• Raphaël
• jQuery
Visualize
Plugin
• Protovis
• Processing.js
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21. InfoViz
• Author: Nicolas Garcia Belmonte
• Available: http://thejit.org/
• License: GNU GPL v3
• Current Release: 2.0.0 - beta
• Acquired by Sencha:
www.sencha.com
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22. InfoViz: joys
• Data embedded as JSON objects. (http://json.org)
• On-line API doc: http://thejit.org/static/v20/Docs/files/Core/
Core-js.html
• http://groups.google.com/group/javascript-information-
visualization-toolkit/topics
• Open Source: https://github.com/philogb/jit
•
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23. InfoViz: demo
• President Obama's proposed budget for 2012,
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/winning-the-future/interactive-budget
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24. InfoViz: concerns
• .onClick events and multi-touch and label
stacking
• Larger graphs can be slow to render and
navigate in < IE9.
• Larger datasets can produce mixed results
(5677 nodes in this example)
• Recent purchase by Sencha.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsomnac/5427000353/
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25. Raphaël
• Authors: Dmitry Baranovskiy
• Available: http://raphaeljs.com/
• License: MIT license, http://
raphaeljs.com/license.html
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26. Raphaël: joys
• Light-weight file size • Animated transitions*
• Less complex than InfoViz and • Multi-touch friendly (ios/webkit)
Protovis
• Open Source: https://github.com/
DmitryBaranovskiy/raphael/
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27. Raphaël: demo
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28. Raphaël: example
• Data for this and the
previous object is coded
into an HTML table, not
a JSON object.
• Fail-back is useful even
when JavaScript is not
available.
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29. Raphaël: concerns
• Not all graph formats fail-back
gracefully.
• Embedded data relies on
cleverness using HTML
<table> declarations (like
jQuery Visualize plugin) --
clever kills.
• Recent purchase by Sencha.
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30. jQuery Visualize Plugin
• Authors: the Filament Group (the core developers of jQuery UI)
• Available: http://dwpe.googlecode.com/files/dwpe-code-public-latest.zip
• License: MIT License
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31. jQuery Visualize Plugin:
joys
• Bases chart on data already in the
page in an HTML table element
• Fails gracefully
• Works with screen-readers
• Written by the jQuery UI group, it
will likely incorporate support for
multi-touch environments
• Packaged as a downloadable jQuery
plugin called Visualize
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32. jQuery Visualize Plugin:
demo
.addTouch();
.draggable();
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33. jQuery Visualize Plugin: concerns
• Small range of possible charts • Multi-touch interaction is buggy
• Cleverness (though possibly out- • Work-arounds require third-party
weighed by the breadth of the plugins (jPooky, TouchSwipe, et al.)
jQuery community)
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34. Protovis
• Authors: Mike Bostock and Jeff Heer of the Stanford Visualization Group
• Available: http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/
• License: BSD License
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35. Protovis: joys
• JavaScript and SVG • All things to all people.
• Mature, v3.2 (881KB) • Interactivity is very good.
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36. Protovis: conventional
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37. Protovis: maps
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38. Protovis: hierarchies
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39. Protovis: custom
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40. Protovis: statistics
Note: if you are really into stats vis, look at R and MATLAB.
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41. Protovis: networks
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42. Protovis: art
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43. Protovis: interactive
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44. Demo
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45. Protovis: concerns
• All things to all people. • Download heavy for handheld
devices.
• Complexity rises quickly for
composition graphs. • No multi-touch support, yet.
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47. 47

48. Processing.js
• Authors: Originally developed by Ben Fry
and Casey Reas, ported to Javascript by
John Resig (the creator of jQuery).
• Available: http://processingjs.org/
• License: MIT
• Version: Release 1.1, available March 1st,
2011.
• This is a raster graphics framework.
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49. Processing.js: joys
• JavaScript port of the Java-based
Processing graphics API and language
which renders to HTML 5 canvas.
• Code using the Processing language,
include it in your web page, and
Processing.js does the rest
• Great for novel visualizations
• Active project and communities of users
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50. Processing.js: joys
• Release 1.1 adds:
• Webkit native touch events on
webkit browsers and iOS
devices
• mouseOver and mouseOut
events were added to allow
events to take place when the
user enters and leaves a canvas
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51. Processing.js: demo
http://askken.heroku.com/
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52. Processing.js: concerns
• JAVA-like, in the bad ways too
• Raster primitives feel like building
with an Erector Set.
• You can use JavaScript to write
processing code that is translated
by Processing.js into HTML5.
• Nearly all, though not entirely
Processing compatible. The
community is working towards a
100% compatible API.
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53. What’s next?
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54. WebGL
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55. http://media.tojicode.com/q3bsp/
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56. http://plumegraph.org/
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57. Limitations of interactive graphics on the web
•Sender encodes information in symbols
•Receiver decodes information from symbols
•Browsers, in all their many forms
•Consumers, in all their many forms
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58. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg
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59. • [x,y]
• Position
• [z]
• Shape
• Size
• Texture
• Intensity/Value
• Color/Hue
• Orientation
Bertin, J. (1983). Semiology of graphics.
Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press.
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60. [When] you see excellent graphics, find out how
they were done. Borrow strength from
demonstrated excellence. The idea for information
design is: Don’t get it original, get it right.
—Edward Tufte
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61. Interactive analysis should consider
• Selection (multi-touch) • Calculation
• Filtering • Grouping and Aggregation
• Sorting
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62. Questions
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63. More than a 1000 words:
scripts and techniques for putting interactive
graphics on webpages.
Thank you!
Timothy M. Kunau, MS
c: +011 1 612 701 0735
e: tkunau@gmail.com
w: http://kunau.us/
t: @tkunau
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