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Chart.js is back online

chartjs.org

111–120 of 127 posts

Re: Chart.js is back online

#111
post #42
post #38

Welcome back. Nick, if you want it to be really successful, add a little bit of interactivity, at least labels to pie/doughnut charts and hover values on line charts. Then it's perfect.

The project mentions that this was an intentional design decision. The graph's are written to a canvas element, which means a low memory footprint and the ability to save graphs as images. I believe they'd need to switch over to using SVG elements for graphs if there are plans to add DOM events to chart elements.

... and then he'd just be re-implementing (highcharts)[http://highcharts.com]

Re: Chart.js is back online

#112

"Pie charts are great at comparing proportions within a single data set." No they're not.

Most people don't know/care about the statistical reality of pie charts and their lack of clarity. Maybe they are statistically proven to be bad at conveying differences in comparison to a bar graph, but if all you care about is the adoption of your charting API then you'd be a fool to not include pie charts. Sometimes being correct isn't the most important thing :)

Re: Chart.js is back online

#113
the ?apo and ?back links will do some nice statistics on click generation, and the numbers regarding user participation after first and second launch in an open source project will be good too.

might we see a paper coming in the future about this stunt? maybe an internal memo with a proper TPS report on how to maximize open source participation. of course release to the unnamed company internally only, let's call it Initech.

Re: Chart.js is back online

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they are.

For comparing two portions they’re okay. For larger data sets it can be difficult to compare the sectors: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Pie...

Exactly, they're great for binary groups: yes/no

Re: Chart.js is back online

#116
post #71

Congrats on being able to open source this and thank you for doing so. Honest question: Is animation really a needed feature for this? The opening animation adds no information value and has the negative effect of making the user think the graphics are actually interactive. I'm sure the animation itself isn't memory/processor intensive but it seems like a really unnecessary feature for a charting library that creates…

The library has a switch to turn the animation on/off

  //Boolean - Whether to animate the chart
  animation : true,

Re: Chart.js is back online

#117
post #108
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a good paper about animated transitions in stats graphs and their effectiveness. http://vis.stanford.edu/files/2007-AnimatedTransitions-InfoV...

The referenced Heer & Robertson paper discusses chained animated transitions that take you from one type of visualization to another in a way that explains the relationship between the two visualizations. The usefulness of chained transitions is debatable, but it is important to note that Chart.js's implementation seems to starts from nothing and animate to the final position of a single type of chart. This is not re…

I couldn't agree with you more, that's why I linked the paper.

Re: Chart.js is back online

#119
Just a heads up. I'm having trouble with the docs page navigation on my 13" macbook in Safari. The navigation is taller than the screen, which shouldn't be a problem, but when I try to scroll while hovered over the navigation it is scrolling the page instead of the navigation most of the time. I'm having to find certain spots that will allow me to scroll the navigation instead so I can reach the bottom options.

Re: Chart.js is back online

#120
post #71

Congrats on being able to open source this and thank you for doing so. Honest question: Is animation really a needed feature for this? The opening animation adds no information value and has the negative effect of making the user think the graphics are actually interactive. I'm sure the animation itself isn't memory/processor intensive but it seems like a really unnecessary feature for a charting library that creates…

(Not having played with chart.js) If the values change at any point and the display is updated, animation is much, much more than eye-candy. It's cognitive reassurance and an affordance that allows the user to more readily understand what is changing and how it's changing. (source: I did the work equivalent to a master's thesis in grad school on building a tool for visualizing qualitative data)

I'm considering using this library on a project that involves a number of donut charts that start out all one color and gradually have a second sice added as the user changes settings. Beyond showing changes, I'm thinking an initial animation might help to show the user that they can change.
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