A dashboard on French election has won the viz of the day on 11/16/2016. It is quite simple but rich in information. It shows quite well the social media usage and the main topics of interest in their campaigns by the front runners.
I found some places in the viz that I may want to tweak. But the workbook was not downloadable. I asked the author Jade Le Van for the workbook and she gracefully enabled it for download.
In the original design, one can click on the bar chart and view the tweeting frequency along the time axis by each candidate. However the bar chart is shrunken to make room for the tweeting frequency view.
The design is based on a flat 2-D canvas. Then when the frequency chart expands, the bar chart got shrunken and become hard to read. The consistency of the bar chart is lost.
Actually, we can design the dashboard in a 3-D space. That is, we can create layers of charts floating on top of each other, so that we are not constrained by a 2-D canvas. The floating charts show up only when evoked. Otherwise, they remain transparent and unintrusive to the viewers at all. The canvas is 3-D where we can float charts over charts. So, the canvas is flat only when we think it is flat. It can have a new dimension if we change our thought.
In my tweak, I added two floating charts, or precisely two floating (vertical) containers. The containers become transparent if their content is null.
1.Floating container for the frequency chart
- First, let's float a vertical container at the top of the existing dashboard. Then drag the "Fréquence des Tweets" chart (as a tiled object) and drop it into the container.
- Then set up the same action filter with the options "Select" and "Exclude all values when clearing all the selections". When clicking on a bar, the corresponding frequency chart will show up on top.
2.Floating container for the tweet list
In the original circles chart, each circle represents a tweet. The text of each tweet is shown in the tooltip. However, there are too many circles overlapping each other. My tweak is as follows:
- Each circle will represent the tweets of a day. The size of the circle equals the number of tweets on that day.
- Create a sheet listing all the tweets.
- Float a vertical container and drag the tweet list sheet into it (as a tiled object)
- Set up an action filter that will pop up the corresponding tweets when clicking on a circle.
- Set up a URL action that will go to the tweet page when clicking a tweet.
This completes my tweak of the day. To access the workbook, click the above picture.
In conclusion, we can use floating charts for drilldown or for alternative views. Instead of a flat canvas, we can float charts over each other to design interactive dashboards that meet our imagination. Thanks for the feedback on the design by Jade Le Van.
In my tweak, I added two floating charts, or precisely two floating (vertical) containers. The containers become transparent if their content is null.
1.Floating container for the frequency chart
- First, let's float a vertical container at the top of the existing dashboard. Then drag the "Fréquence des Tweets" chart (as a tiled object) and drop it into the container.
- Then set up the same action filter with the options "Select" and "Exclude all values when clearing all the selections". When clicking on a bar, the corresponding frequency chart will show up on top.
In the original circles chart, each circle represents a tweet. The text of each tweet is shown in the tooltip. However, there are too many circles overlapping each other. My tweak is as follows:
- Each circle will represent the tweets of a day. The size of the circle equals the number of tweets on that day.
- Create a sheet listing all the tweets.
- Float a vertical container and drag the tweet list sheet into it (as a tiled object)
- Set up an action filter that will pop up the corresponding tweets when clicking on a circle.
- Set up a URL action that will go to the tweet page when clicking a tweet.
This completes my tweak of the day. To access the workbook, click the above picture.
In conclusion, we can use floating charts for drilldown or for alternative views. Instead of a flat canvas, we can float charts over each other to design interactive dashboards that meet our imagination. Thanks for the feedback on the design by Jade Le Van.
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