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Interactive Reports

Interactive “Vislets” embedded into a web document:

http://rag.oecd.org/

The conceptual approach and framework of our geovisual analytics storytelling implementation is based around three complementary characteristics:

• Authoring: data provider and manager, motion visual representations including choropleth map, scatter plot, table lens, parallel axes, time graph, data grid, coordinated views, map layers, analytic tools (dynamic query, filter, regional categorization, profiles and highlight), and dynamic colour scale;
• Tell-a-story: snapshot mechanism that captures an interactive scenario (active views, indicators, attributes, time step and regions), metadata with hyperlinks, story and chapters, edit, capture, save, export and share a story with colleagues;
• Publisher (Vislet): import a story and create HTML code for embeddable interactive motion visual, representations for publishing on a web site, blog or inside any interactive document;

Figure: From OECD eXplorer to a Publisher: OECD Storytelling loop.

When a Story has been created, and the understanding is shared with other statisticians, the Story can now be published. In the publishing process, the Story (XML code file) is imported from the analytical tool (World eXplorer in figure above) into a Publisher where a Vislet is generated. For the Vislet, the author first selects an appropriate layout in Publisher for the visual representation, which depends on where the Vislet is published. This layout can be changed between one or multiple visualizations and also the orientation of the layout. When the layout is chosen, the author selects the visualizations to be used, Vislet size, metadata options and sharing methods. Finally, the Publisher generates an HTML code that represents the Vislet which can then manually be embedded into a web page. More Vislet blog demonstrators are available at:

http://ncvademo-mobile.blogspot.se/2015/12/foretagsklimat.html

The XML code representing a Story with embedded data is shared with colleagues but could also be applied into an interactive report , for example, this web site. A collection of Vislets for a topic are used together with text to create a document. An interactive report can present statistical indicators ranging from economic, social, demographic and environmental fields where each field is its own chapter in the document. The result represents an innovative solution from the statistical point of view, and offers a dynamic and interactive method for the visualization of spatial-temporal regional data, and the ability to link metatext to such a model. This interactive report is based on interactive “Vislets” embedded into the report instead of static images. This makes the diagrams interactive so that the user can change the indicators, and also view how the data changes over time using the animation facilities available.

The interactive report is stored with the text for the chapter in an XML file that has been divided into sections. When the web page is accessed the platform loads all the XML files available and creates the interactive report with an index page as the start page. For each chapter the user visits they see the text regarding that chapter, the Vislet connected to the text, and also the hyperlinks in the text linking to other snapshots. JavaScript is also used to link to the previous and next chapter/section so that the user can navigate through the interactive report in the same way as a person turns the pages of a book.

For an interactive report, some extra features can be added for each chapter. The user can download the data that is used in the visualization by clicking on the download data button and accessing the data in Excel format. If there is a printed hardcopy report it can also be made available for each chapter so that the user can download and read the chapter as a pdf. To make it easier to share the Vislet a button can be added that displays the HTML code for the Vislet. The user may select a Vislet that is interesting and copy it to a web page or blog and share it.

Below we introduce a public available interactive documents OECD's Regions-at-a-Glance.

OECD Regions-at-a-Glance

See introduction web site: http://www.oecd.org/gov/regions-at-a-glance.htm

The code of practice for European statistics with regard to dissemination, states that “European Statistics should be presented in a clear and understandable form, disseminated in a suitable and convenient manner, available and accessible on an impartial basis with supporting metadata and guidance”.  This is a principle of accessibility and clarity. To comply with this, OECD in collaboration with the authors have developed the interactive Web document “Regions-at-a-Glance” presenting statistical indicators ranging from economic, social, demographic and environmental fields for more than 2000 local OECD regions from all over the world. 

The result represents an innovative solution from the statistical point of view, and offers a dynamic and interactive method for the visualization of spatio-temporal regional data, and the ability to link metatext to such a model. 

This interactive OECD web document http://rag.oecd.org/ is based on interactive “Vislets” embedded into the document instead of static images. This makes the diagrams interactive so that the user can change the indicators, and also view how the data changes over time using the animation facilities available. For this interactive document, the analysts at OECD created snapshots for the regions-at-a-glance data dividing them into different chapters and sections within the chapters. From these snapshots the visualizations were chosen and Vislets were created. Some of the Vislets only have one visualization component per chapter while others have multiple components and chapters with links embedded into the hypertext. These Vislets are then stored with the text for the chapter in an XML file that has been divided into sections.

Figure: http://rag.oecd.org/interactiveedition/health/healthstory1.html

The interactive OECD document Regions-at-a-Glance platform is based on php and xsl transformations.  When the webpage is accessed the platform loads all the XML files available and creates the interactive document with an index page as the start page. For each chapter the user visits they see the text regarding that chapter, the Vislet connected to the text, and also the hyperlinks in the text linking to other snapshots. JavaScript is also used to link to the previous and next chapter/section so that the user can navigate through the interactive document in the same way as a person turns the pages of a book.

For the interactive documents, some extra features have been added for each chapter. The user can download the data that is used in the visualization by clicking on the download data button and accessing the data in Excel format. The text from the printed document is also available for each chapter so that the user can download and read the chapter as a pdf. To make it easier to share the Vislet a button has been added that displays the code for the Vislet. The user may select a Vislet that is interesting and copy it to a webpage or blog and share it.

Example: Map from Chapter http://rag.oecd.org/interactiveedition/health/healthstory2.html

The main benefit of making the document interactive is that it enables the user to visualize the data that is of interest to them, and also to show the variation over time using animation. The analysts at OECD have chosen snapshots that are of interest, but the user can interact with the visualization and change the indicators and select what they find interesting, and thus enhance the user experience

Eurostat

Eurostat — the statistical office of the EU — has the role of informing the public about important developments in the EU and within important European policy frameworks. In this overall framework, Eurostat provides interactive statistical visual analyses related to important European Commission policy frameworks or important economic, social or environmental phenomena.

Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy are presented using our visualization  -  focusing on statistics related to the Europe 2020 strategy, showing the longer-term trends as described by the headline indicators of the strategy together with other relevant statistical data which enable an understanding of the driving forces behind the headline indicators.

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/europe-2020-indicators/statistics-illustrated

We introduce two interactive visualization tools jointly developed by Eurostat  with visualization technique originating from NCVA.

The first to0l contains statistical data for 270 European regions at NUTS2 level and almost 2000  NUTS3 regions grouped into different statistical domains. Using the interactive map, individual regions can be selected while different visualisation methods allow the comparison and analysis of regional data in a user-friendly analytical way. The animated timeline shows how regions have performed over time.

The Eurostat tool is available at: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/RSI/

Figure: Map and Distribution Plot showing Unemployment Rates for 270 NUTS2 regions. Andalucia (Spain) 34,6%,Dytiki Makedonia (Greece) and Reunion (France) represents the highest unemployment rates in Europe 2012.

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Last updated: 2016-02-13