Liquid Diagrams: Information Visualisation Gadgets

Abstract

Information visualisation techniques have sometimes been slow to diffuse into more widespread public use. Recent advances in cloud computing have opened up opportunities to bring information visualisation to the masses in ways previously not possible. Liquid diagrams are a suite of information visualisation gadgets written in Flex, which visualise live data contained in Google Docs spreadsheets through the Google Visualization API. Users can interactively configure the visualisation and any changes in the online spreadsheet data are reflected immediately in the display. In contrast to other solutions, liquid diagrams gadgets specifically support the printing and export of both vector (SVG) and raster (PNG) graphics versions of the visualisations, allowing users to construct and export high-quality diagrams for inclusion into other works. The suite of visualisation gadgets currently available includes: area charts, bar charts, heat maps (choropleths), line charts, pie charts, treemaps, and parallel coordinates plots. Star plots and voronoi treemaps are coming soon.