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Interactive Graphics Connect People to Data—with Some R Shiny Examples (302927)

Keywords: flexible, interactive, graphics, visualization, R, shiny

Have you ever noticed that no matter how you summarize data, the end users (e.g., clients, colleagues, customers) always ask for alterations? It’s inevitable.There are so many ways to summarize data, you can’t possibly satisfy everyone, certainly not in the first try. And that’s unfortunate, because it can cause delays and hamper communication. One way to address this is to provide a flexible data summary, one that clients can interact with directly. Start with the usual summary you might provide, then add interactivity. For example, your usual summary might be for all years, but a flexible summary would allow the client to select a subset of years. Or your summary might show a few primary variables, but a flexible summary would allow the client to view other variables as well. Using a flexible summary is an incredibly powerful experience for clients and customers, especially those who don’t typically access the data themselves. I will share real-life examples of my own data summaries, before and after introducing interactivity using the R package shiny (http://shiny.rstudio.com). I also will share the reactions I received from the end users.