Enhancing visualizations (part II)

Week 6

Monday February 12th, 2024

A fuzzy monster in a beret and scarf, critiquing their own column graph on a canvas in front of them while other assistant monsters (also in berets) carry over boxes full of elements that can be used to customize a graph (like themes and geometric shapes). In the background is a wall with framed data visualizations. Stylized text reads 'ggplot2: build a data masterpiece.'

Artwork by Allison Horst

Pre-class Prep

Please be sure to complete the following before class:

Install required packages

install.packages("monochromeR") # a package for creating monochrome color palettes and easily converting rgba values to hex codes (and also some other useful functions)
install.packages("showtext") # for using fonts more easily in R graphs
install.packages("ggtext") # improved text rendering support for ggplot2
install.packages("ggrepel") # ggplot2 extension to repel overlapping labels
install.packages("googlesheets4") # provides an R interface to Google Sheets via the Sheets API v4

Download Data

In case we have trouble with the {googlesheets4} API, you can download and read in the following data files as normal (i.e. using readr::read_csv()):

If you choose (or need) to download and read in these files, be sure to save them to your class repo at ~/week6/data/.

Download Font Awesome fonts

In addition to using Google Fonts in our ggplots, we will also be using some Font Awesome icons! To do so, you’ll need to download the Font Awesome font files and save them to your class repo. Do so by following these steps:

  1. Download Font Awesome fonts: Go to https://fontawesome.com/download and download the latest release available. Choose the Free For Desktop option.
  2. Unzip the downloaded file: You should see a folder inside called otfs/ – this contains three .otf files (aka OpenType font format files)
  3. Copy the three .otf files to your class repo: I recommend creating a fonts/ folder inside your root directory, and dropping all three of them in there (e.g. ~/fonts/*.otf)

Lecture Materials

Typography

lecture 6.1 slides

Annotations

lecture 6.2 slides

Discussion Materials

This week, you’ll move beyond the fundamental graphic forms that we covered in lecture and discuss some advanced chart types. These are great options to keep in mind as you continue working on your final project (HW #4)!

Week 6 discussion slides

Assignment Reminders

Assignment Type Assignment Title Date Assigned Date Due
EOC EOC (week 6) Mon 02/12/2024 Mon 02/12/2024, 11:55pm PT
HW Homework Assignment #3 Mon 02/12/2024 Sat 02/24/2024, 11:59pm PT