22.5 Process and Examples

Process

  1. Start with business or research question and purpose
  2. Write out grammar
  3. Think through chart types, geom options
  4. Iterate

In the Jan 3, 2022 video, Statistical Rethinking 2022 Lecture 01 Richard McElreath describes a research process (see 19 minute mark):

  1. Theoretical Estimand
  2. The Scientific (causal) model(s)
  3. Use 1 & 2 to build statistical model(s)
  4. Simulate from 2 to validate 3 yields 1
  5. Analze real data
  • Does this translate to a data viz process?

Apply the grammar to data viz examples

The chapter gives 7 examples inclinding “Napoleon’s march” by Charles John Minard which is also covered in the A Layered Grammar of Graphics article.

We will look at examples from here:

Our 51 Best (And Weirdest) Charts Of 2021 by FiveThirtyEight Staff (Published Dec. 20, 2021)

Resources

Wickham, H. (2010). A layered grammar of graphics . Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, Volume 19, Number 1, 3–28.

Chapter 2 of Fundamentals of Data Visualization by Claus O. Wilke gives an overview of Mapping data onto aesthetics and chapter 3 is on Coordinate systems and axes.