[CSCI 3665] Interactive Data Visualization

Instructor: Clare Bates Congdon

Measuring the Relative Importance of Different Agricultural Inputs to Global and Regional Crop Yield Growth since 1975

Project Portfolio

Weekly Accounting of Contribution

1. General Information

   In this report, we will provide a weekly description of what we have accomplished in order to achieve our goals. Along the way, there will be new subgoals/goals that emerge in response to our implementation. With that being said, this report will help prospective users and collaborators keep track of where we are. Should there be any discrepancies between versions, this report will be very helpful in solving these conflicts. The outline of this project will be in goal-progress format. This means that all the goals will be listed, and specific progress will be added below, with the date of completion. Expected immediate goals for the following weeks will be in teal colors.

2. Weekly Report
   
   
   1. Week 12: Nov 15 - Nov 17
      
      
      • 11/14: Meet with our collaborator to discuss his goals and questions.
      • 11/16: Finalize questions we would like to tackle, and sketch out potential visualization and interactions.
      • 11/16: Write up necessary documents, organize project folders and setting up html files.
      • 11/16: Think about goals to complete next week:
        • Goals
      • 11/17: Consolidating questions after consulting with Clare
        • We decided to put aside the line graph for the time being, and focus on the other two.
        • No particular modification needed for the scatter plot.
        • We decided that we would use crop yield (million Kcal/ha) instead of crop type for the geomap visualization.
          • We would use a linear gradation of colors to show the "capacity of the land" denoted by the crop yield.
      
      
   2. Week 13: Nov 22 - Nov 24
      
      
      • 11/19: Data reformated to fit scatter plot format
        • Json format.
        • Obtain mins and maxes of the x,y-variables and plot radius.
      • 11/19: Geomap data obtained
        • The first copy discarded as the format was extremely unfit, resulting in 4 days of aimless coding.
        • Obtained a new one, applied Eckel4 projection to address accurate representation of landmasses and aesthetics.
      • 11/21: Rough draft of the scatter plot finished.
        • Year title on top changes according to the current year.
        • Tropical versus Temperate region color-coded.
        • The scatter plot is animated over time (from 1975 to 2002).
        • Issue: Data referencing is not correct, so transition is not applied. Took forever to figure out!
      • 11/21: Static global map layout finished.
      • 11/23: Finish writing project goals and description (revised version).
      • 11/23: Start coloring the countries according to their crop yield data in year 1975 (static).
      • Goal for next week:
        • Work on adding the play/pause/reset functions for scatter plot.
        • Work on making a static full map, with colors and tool tips for geomap.
        • Work on interactions with the slider, making sure that the color changes on sliding in real time.
      
      
   3. Week 14: Nov 29 - Dec 1
      
      
      • Coding
        • Add buttons that can control the animation of the scatter plot: play, pause, reset, speed up, slow down, and rewind.
        • Add radio buttons to the scatter plot that allows the user to switch between crop yield units (million kcals/ha or tons/ha) and between temperature type (daytime/nighttime).
        • Add a slider to the choropleth map and enable real-time update when the user changes the slider's value.
        • Adjust color scheme for the choropleth map with log scale in order to enhance the visibility of the visualization.
        
        
      • Documents writing
        • Update weekly report (FP8b) to reflect new goals after meeting with Erik Nelson and talking with Clare.
        • Create a README file for the project to describe the structure of the folders.
      
      
   4. Week 15: Dec 6 - Dec 8
      
      
      • Scatterplot
        • Restructure the layout of the scatter plot to seperate the "controlling" and "visualizing" parts, as well as moving the legend to avoid clashing with the moving dots.
        • Build a slider to allow user to specify the number of countries to display.
        • Fix axis-scaling bugs that existed before, making the dots to move in the wrong behavior.
      • Choropleth Map
        • Add a tooltip when hovering over a specific country.
        • Restructure the layout of map to seperate the "controlling" and "visualizing" parts.
        • Add a radio button to allow user to switch between crop yield units (million kcals/ha or tons/ha) in the choropleth map.
        • Add an indicator dot that shows which country is currently zoomed in.
        • Improve the color scheme (change background color to reduce attraction) and legend.
      • Documents & Presentation
        • Update weekly progress report (FP9).
        • Work on project presentation (link to Google Slide)
        • Decide that we will leave line graph for future work.
      
      
   5. Remaining Week: Dec 12 - Dec 19 (goals)
      
      
      • Keep cleaning up and fix as many bugs as possible.
      • Potential restructure of code (data structure, variable naming) to increase readability and efficiency.
      • Pull everything together to create final deliverables (writing report, making sure all links are legal and valid, etc.)
      • SUBMIT!
      
      
   6. Future Goals
      
      
      • Line graph as described in the brainstorm document.
      • Fix the initial value for the slider (is currently stuck at 1).
      • Add the ability to aggregate data - grouping similar countries into one data point.
      • Add the ability to choose base year instead of static 2002, together with specifying top X countries, where X is also specified by the user.

External Links
To Son's homepage
To James' homepage
To Do's homepage