Interactive federal statistical data on the Web using “nViZn” Jon Hurst*, Jürgen Symanzik,...

Interactive federal statistical data Interactive federal statistical data on the Web using “nViZn”on the Web using “nViZn”

Jon Hurst*, Jürgen Symanzik,

Lacey Gunter

Utah State University

*email: jon@jonathan.hurst.name

Web site: www.jonathan.hurst.name/academic

ContentsContents

Background InformationOur softwareSummary

Background Background >> NSF Digital government NSF Digital government ProgramProgram

Mission: “explore and develop new information technologies that will improve the way government serves the American people.”

Digital Government Quality Graphics initiative: disseminate federal statistical data over the Internet in more usable and understandable forms.

Resources: http://www.diggov.org

http://www.geovista.psu.edu/grants/dg-qg/intro.html

Background Background >> Micromaps Micromaps

Micromap is short for ‘linked micromap plot’. First presented in 1995 by Olsen, Carr, Courbois, and

Pierson Help focus the viewers attention on the geographical

significance of the data. Resources:

http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/who/cocteau/newsletter/index.html

Example of a linked Example of a linked

micromap plotmicromap plot

Background Background >> Interactive micromaps on Interactive micromaps on the Internetthe Internet

Planned, but never used, for the EPA Cumulative Exposure Project (CEP)

USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service uses ‘pseudo’ interactive micromaps

http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/sumpant.htm The National Cancer Institute plans on using them in a

web site to be made available this year. http://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/micromaps/

Our Software Our Software >> Overview Overview

Goals— Easy access Concise display of the CEP data Understandable to a non-statistical audience

Solutions— Software accessible from the Internet “nViZn” SDK Interactive drilldown maps, micromaps, and tables

Our Software Our Software >> “nViZn” “nViZn”

A commercial, Java-based SDK for visualization and analytics

Successor to the GPL Based on Wilkinson’s The Grammar of Graphics Includes libraries and sample code and applications Resources: http://www.spss.com/nViZn/

Our Software Our Software >> Background Background

Where possible, based on samples provided with “nViZn”

Built on the previous code written by Lacey Jones Currently a prototype for an Internet application (such as

would have been used by the EPA CEP) Final version?

Our Software Our Software >> Interface Interface

Drilldown map Interactive tables Interactive micromaps Meta displays

Live demo (slides that follow are of images outlining the live demo)

Drilldown Map

Interactive table—Massachusetts benzene concentrations sorted by minimum values.

Interactive table—New York benzene concentrations sorted by mean values.

Micromap—New Mexico benzene concentrations sorted by median values.

Micromap—California lead concentrations sorted by mean values.

Comparisons between micromaps—Washington & Oregon median acrylic acid values.

Our Software Our Software >> Implementation Implementation >> Data Data

Data is a duplicate of the EPA CEP data—hierarchical file structure

148 HAPs modeled for 60,000 census tracts according to 1990 data

Organized by FIPS codes Outdated compared to

databases ArcInfo gen files required for

micromaps

Our Software Our Software >> Implementation Implementation >> “nViZn” “nViZn”

“nViZn” libraries handle the data, analytics They also handle the creation of all graphics, and Interaction with the graphics

A knowledge of Java is required Simple graphs are quick and easy Interactive applications are long and dirty

Our Software Our Software >> Implementation Implementation >> “nViZn” “nViZn”

Code for using “nViZn” is usually concise The learning curve is steep

Our Software Our Software >> Implementation Implementation >> SummarySummary

About 2,000 lines of code About 200 hours for someone familiar with programming,

but having never used Java or “nViZn”

Our Software Our Software >> Missing features Missing features

Database connectivity—“nViZn” libraries support database connections

Applet enabled—currently it is a stand-alone application

Summary Summary >> “nViZn” “nViZn”

Good communication with users Takes the dirty work out of graphics Very robust Huge potential for use with Federal statistical data, and

especially geographically referenced data Training offered by SPSS

Summary Summary >> “nViZn” “nViZn”

Poor documentation In some instances, no documentation or samples for

features Desperately needs a manual Development time was unnecessarily long due to the

lack of information

SummarySummary

Usability study needed: how do non-statisticians understand these displays