Adding Trellising to Scatter Visuals

To discover variation within the dataset, to see both similarities and differences among categorical subsets of data, it is very useful to see visuals for these categories of data side by side. In Arcadia Enterprise, this is very easy to do with the trellis option, which is essentially a doubling down on one or both of the axes.

In the World Life Expectancy dataset, we can use un_region to compare how life expectancy and GDP per capita vary in different geographic zones. For an even greater degree of detail, you could use un_subregion.

For this visual, we will start with the existing visual World Population - Scatter with Transition, which is developed in Adding Transition Animation to Scatter Visuals.

  1. Above the left navigation bar, click Clone to create a new visual that has the same properties as the original.

  2. Under Dimensions, select un_region and drag it over the beginning (left-most end) of the X shelf on the main part of the screen. Drop to add it to the shelf.
  3. Click Refresh Visual.

    The scatter graph refreshes, but this time notice that it is subdivided into five separate graphs, that correspond to the identified UN Regions: Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. There is a single animation control at the top, so when you click Play, all UN Regions animate simultaneously.

  4. After running the animation, you will notice that the horizontal axes extend far beyond the necessary space for some of the areas. In particular, the GDP per Capita scale seems too large for Africa.

    To have each graph use its own optimized scale for the horizontal axis, enable the independent x-axis option, as described in Enabling Gridlines, and click Refresh Visual.

    Note that each area has its horizontal scale.

  5. [Optional] Similarly, choose the independent Y axis option. The differences in vertical scaling are slight, but still noticeable.

  6. Change the title to World Population - Scatter with Transition and Trellis.
  7. At the top left corner of the Visual Designer, click Save.

    clicking to save