Conceptual guide: Best practices for data visualisation using Vega-Altair

[mattijn]

Project

Vega

Summary

This project will add a conceptual guide to Vega-Altair's documentation that explains the process of creating effective data visualisations, from understanding your audience and story to implementation. The guide will show how to apply these concepts in Vega-Altair to create visualisations that effectively communicate data insights.

submitter

Mattijn van Hoek

project lead

@mattijn

Community benefit

The guide will add a new section to Vega-Altair's documentation that explains the reasoning behind visualisation choices. Users will learn how to make better charts by understanding why certain choices work better than others. The guide will provide concrete best practices and examples, helping users create more effective visualisations that better communicate their data, whether they're making simple charts or complex dashboards. This will make Vega-Altair's documentation more complete and useful for all users.

Amount requested

10000

Execution plan

Michelle Rudolph will lead the content creation. She is a social scientist and engineer with expertise in visual design. Mattijn van Hoek will provide technical support for documentation integration. The project will be executed over 6 weeks, with the following schedule:

• Week 1
  • Review and analyse the existing >50-page conceptual document by Michelle (Concept_DataVisualisation_MR.docx)
  • Review and incorporate feedback from the color usage PR (docs(DRAFT): Adds Color Usage (Color Scheme) vega/altair#3021)
• Week 2:
  • Begin reorganisation and condensation of content
  • Initial draft of the compact (~5-pager) conceptual guide
• Week 3:
  • Complete the conceptual guide
  • Initial review and refinement
• Week 4:
  • Integrate into Vega-Altair documentation system
  • Test locally
• Week 5:
  • Submit PR addressing issue Conceptual guide: Best practices for data visualization using Altair vega/altair#3117
  • Begin incorporating community feedback
• Week 6:
  • Finish incorporating community feedback
  • Prepare for merge
    The work will be done through the following specific steps:

1. Review and analyse the existing 50-page conceptual document on data visualisation best practices
2. Review and incorporate feedback from the color usage PR (#3021) and its existing reviews
3. Reorganise and condense the content into a focused compact conceptual guide (~5-page)
4. Integrate the guide into the Vega-Altair documentation system and test locally
5. Submit as a PR addressing issue #3117
6. Incorporate community feedback during the review process
7. Finalise and merge the changes