Decluttering in ggplot

Dr. Nathaniel Cline

Agenda

1

Group Project check-in (for real)

2

Data Viz Remiz

Group Project Check-in

Decluttering Principles

Decluttering in R

Lack of visual order

Alignment

  • Often avoid center-aligned text (sloppy)

  • Eyes move in “z” so upper-left justify works well

  • diagonal components processed slowly

White space

  • We’ve discussed before, white space should not be feared!

  • Offers cognitive rest

  • Margins should remain free of text and visuals.

  • use white space strategically for emphasis

Non‐strategic use of contrast

  • We’ve emphasized contrast before, but as the authors point out, it could be used poorly

  • Too much contrast without purpose looks busy and confusing

  • Effective contrast significantly reduces cognitive load

Step-by-step


Imagine that you manage an information technology (IT) team. Your team receives tickets, or technical issues, from employees. In the past year, you’ve had a couple of people leave and decided at the time not to replace them. You have heard a rumbling of com- plaints from the remaining employees about having to “pick up the slack.” You’ve just been asked about your hiring needs for the coming year and are wondering if you should hire a couple more people.

Fixing the first draft

  1. Remove chart border

  2. Remove gridlines

  3. Remove data markers

  4. Clean up axis labels

  5. Label data directly

  6. Leverage consistent color

Decluttering in R

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.6), width = .6) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), vjust = -0.5, size = 5, position = position_dodge(width = 0.6)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 45, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0.5),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0.5))

How can we reduce clutter in R?

  • only way to learn how to mess with the elements of the graph is to look at the ggplot cheatsheet and google and practice

  • I will walk through how I would do it

Remove Grid Lines

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.6), width = .6) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), vjust = -0.5, size = 5, position = position_dodge(width = 0.6)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 45, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0.5),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0.5),
        panel.grid = element_blank())

Get rid of 45-degree labels

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.6), width = .6) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), vjust = -0.5, size = 5, position = position_dodge(width = 0.6)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0.5),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0.5),
        panel.grid = element_blank())

Thicken bars

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), vjust = -0.5, size = 5, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0.5),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0.5),
        panel.grid = element_blank())

Put labels in bars

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), color = "white", vjust = 1.5, size = 3, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0.5),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0.5),
        panel.grid = element_blank())

Move title over

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), color = "white", vjust = 1.5, size = 3, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0),
        panel.grid = element_blank())

Make panel transparent and put legend on bottom?

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), color = "white", vjust = 1.5, size = 3, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0),
        panel.grid = element_blank(),
        panel.background = element_blank(),
        plot.background = element_blank(),
        legend.position = "bottom", legend.box = "horizontal"
        )

Remove legend title

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), color = "white", vjust = 1.5, size = 3, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(subtitle = "goal = 90 days", fill = "") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0),
        panel.grid = element_blank(),
        panel.background = element_blank(),
        plot.background = element_blank(),
        legend.position = "bottom", legend.box = "horizontal"
        )

Add goal and remove subtitle

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = MonthYear, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), color = "white", vjust = 1.5, size = 3, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "date", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(fill = "") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20, hjust = 0),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0),
        panel.grid = element_blank(),
        panel.background = element_blank(),
        plot.background = element_blank(),
        legend.position = "bottom", legend.box = "horizontal"
        ) +
  geom_hline(yintercept = 90, linetype = "dashed", color = "red") +
  geom_text(aes(x = Inf, y = 90, label = "goal"), hjust = 0, vjust = -1, color = "red")

Alter axis labels and titles

Code 
data_long$Month <- str_remove(data_long$MonthYear, "\\s\\d{4}$")  # Remove the year part

ggplot(data_long, aes(x = Month, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), color = "white", vjust = 1.5, size = 3, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "2019", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(fill = "") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "blue", "Indirect Sales" = "green")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 1), 
        axis.title.x = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0.02, face = "bold"),
        axis.title.y = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 1, face = "bold"),
        plot.title = element_text(size = 30, hjust = 0),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0),
        panel.grid = element_blank(),
        panel.background = element_blank(),
        plot.background = element_blank(),
        legend.position = "bottom", legend.box = "horizontal"
        ) +
  geom_hline(yintercept = 90, linetype = "dashed", color = "red") +
  geom_text(aes(x = Inf, y = 90, label = "goal"), hjust = 0, vjust = -1, color = "red")

Ok the colors are killing me

Code 
ggplot(data_long, aes(x = Month, y = time_close, fill = Sales_Type)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge(width = 0.9), width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(label = time_close), color = "white", vjust = 1.5, size = 3, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9)) +
  labs(x = "2019", y = "Time to Close") +
  ggtitle("Time to Close Deal") +
  labs(fill = "") +  # Add the subtitle here
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("Direct Sales" = "#22668D", "Indirect Sales" = "#8ECDDD")) +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 0, hjust = 0.5), 
        axis.title.x = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0.02, face = "bold"),
        axis.title.y = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 1, face = "bold"),
        plot.title = element_text(size = 30, hjust = 0, face = "bold"),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 14, hjust = 0),
        panel.grid = element_blank(),
        panel.background = element_blank(),
        plot.background = element_blank(),
        legend.position = "bottom", legend.box = "horizontal"
        ) +
  geom_hline(yintercept = 90, linetype = "dashed", color = "#A94442") +
  geom_text(aes(x = .5, y = 90, label = "Goal"), hjust = 0, vjust = -1, color = "#A94442")

Fancy Line Plot?

Code 
library(dygraphs)
library(xts)


don <- xts(sales[, c("Direct Sales", "Indirect Sales", "Goal")], order.by = as.Date(sales$Date))

dygraph(don) %>%
  dyOptions(
    labelsUTC = TRUE,
    fillGraph = FALSE,
    drawGrid = FALSE,
    colors = c("#98ACB5", "#8BAB82", "#A94442"),  
    strokeWidth = 4  
  ) %>%
  dyRangeSelector() %>%
  dyCrosshair(direction = "vertical") %>%
  dyHighlight(
    highlightCircleSize = 5,
    highlightSeriesBackgroundAlpha = .25,
    hideOnMouseOut = FALSE
  ) %>%
  dyRoller(rollPeriod = 1)

Econ 255 - Data Storytelling