Thanks, that one together with Chernoff's facial hairs (http://muyueh.com/30/chernoff/) are two visuals that I really enjoyed doing, but a bit too "geek" for the average user (Your compliments was actually the first one I get from that graph).
It was part of my initiative 30 days of d3.js, a pretty solid way to learn d3.js by the way.
I build visualizations with d3.js for my clients (http://muyueh.com/42/), and I have always wonders whether I will be one day replaced by library such as c3.js.
I have been watching closely different library, and felt that most of the library are just providing default value to d3.js, plus adding some nice plug-in (such as tooltips). If we are looking for a bar chart, then it's very fast to use a bar chart library to build what we want. Yet some problems may occur:
1. Control, we thought that we need bar chart, but we actually need bar chart’. In my process of developing effective visual, I often need to access different part of the API.
2. Choice, currents charts provided by most of the library are available in Google Charts and Excel. This might a question of time: these library are fairly new, and maybe in the near future these library will provide all visualization available in the d3.js page. But maybe it’s not because of time, but of complexity. If these library were providing better abstraction, it should be easier to develop more complex charts.
3. Extendability: We probably don't just need the bar-chart as a stand alone visual, but as building block that can interact with other component (texts or maps).
An interesting question is to ask why d3.js was designed so “low level”, why not directly releasing a “high level library”? My hypothesis is that maybe this is the right level of abstraction. When you tried to get “higher”, you actually lose power/control over your visual. Maybe that’s the reason why people are sharing a lot of their work on http://bost.ocks.org/, doing some small experiments, laying down some building block, perhaps currently that is the most efficient way of building re-usable chart.
I shared my thought on the issue, in hope that people challenge my hypothesis: my current work depends on it.
One of the other problem is when you have more then 5+ line, it becomes really hard to track the different lines. I have found out that a possible workaround is to show the path data on mouseover:
I am not sure whether this counts or not, but last year I started a TEDx event. My own motivation was that after graduation, it was so difficult to make new geek friends.
- Inviting people to TEDx has been a great excuse to reach total stranger, and to ask them about their work.
- Organizing event is to "get things done in the real world", (which I believe to be) the same skill set for a startup.
- Working with people really helps me to get to know them. I have since found my future business partner.