ggvis tutorial: become a data visualization expert with RStudio

The latest interactive course in the RStudio track is now available on DataCamp: ggvis tutorial. The first part of the tutorial is available for  free, so everyone can now learn interactively how to start creating stunning ggvis data visualizations in R. All courses in the RStudio track are self-paced, and combine challenging interactive exercises with to the point videos. Garrett Grolemund, master instructor at RStudio and R enthusiast, is your guide along this journey.Check out the full course, or take the free preview.

What is ggvis?

ggvis is the new standard tool for data visualization in R by RStudio. It lets you create static and interactive graphs to display distributions, relationships, model fits, and more. Similar to ggplot2, ggvis uses the grammar of graphics. The grammar provides an intuitive framework that lets you describe – and make – any plot that you can think of in your head. By learning the four components of the grammar, you empower yourself to make thousands of different types of ggvis data visualizations.Best of all, ggvis plots are true web documents. You can save them as png’s for publication, but they come ready to be shared over the internet. Each ggvis plot can be viewed in a web browser, which opens opportunities not available in R’s native graphics device. For example, with a one or two lines of code, you can turn a ggvis plot into an animation or an interactive data exploration tool. This enables you to do rich data visualizations for analytics, communication and the web.

What is the ggvis tutorial?

This interactive ggvis tutorial will teach you how to use the ggvis package to make data visualizations like a pro. You’ll learn how to use the grammar of graphics to turn your data into sophisticated, layered graphics; and how to customize those graphics. Along the way, you will learn how to visualize statistical transformations of your data, as well as how to add interactive components to your graphs, such as sliders, checkboxes and more. Multiple ggvis examples are provided. Topics covered are:

• Chapter One: The Grammar of GraphicsLearn the philosophy that guides ggvis and discover a clear, logical way to think about data visualization.
• Chapter Two: Lines and SyntaxExamine each part of the grammar and learn the special syntax that ggvis introduces to make it easier to think about plots.
• Chapter Three: TransformationsLearn to build statistical transformations with ggvis’ compute functions, visualize the results, and how to integrate the dplyr package.
• Chapter Four: Interactivity and LayersCreate graphs that can be controlled through sliders, text fields, and other widgets. Build sophisticated, multi-layered graphs.
• Chapter Five: Customizing Axes, Legends and ScalesChange the appearance of axes and legends in your plots, and use ggvis’ scale system.

The DataCamp ggvis tutorial provides 10 videos, 30 exercises, and a surprise interview with one of the co-creators of ggvis. Go to the full course, and take the free preview.