Datascape 2.0 - The Basic Worklflow

In this post we'll show you the basic workflow in Datascape so that you can get a good idea of how it works.

1. Choose a Workspace

The workspace defines the backdrop and axes. As well as standard XYZ axes you can also have a world map (or in fact a panel with any texture on it), or a dynamic Open Street Map pan which you can pan and zoom to anywhere in the world. There is also a 3D globe, and again you can change the texture on that (Mars anyone?).



2. Import Data

You can import directly from Excel or CSV files. YOu can also use the SQL readers to hook directly into a SQL database. Hadoop, JSON etc coming soon. You can preview your data, optionally set field types, and Datascape warns you of any errors or gaps in the data as you import. All we ask is that there is one line of data for each point you want to plot on screen.

3. Choose a Mapping Template

Datascape comes with a set of mapping templates for the most common chart styles - including geospatial (height=altitude, or other value), geotime (height = time), spherical and cylindrical (to save you the maths!). Or you can choose Manual Mapping and roll-your-own.

4. Customise the Mapping

This panel is the absolute heart of Datascape. Here you specify how each attribute of the plotted point is defined, in terms of either fixed values (eg "red"), or fields form the data. You can use standard SQL functions, and combine fields in quite complicated ways to define each attribute - but often you'll just go click-click-click to assign individual fields to individual attributes. You can also use Translation Tables to convert numbers or text to colours and shapes.

5. Visualise, Explore and Iterate

Then click on Plot! You can then fly around the space, viewing the data from any angle, inside and out. The best bet is to get something basic plotted first (even in 2D, set Y=0), and then add Y, colour, shape etc to enrich the visualisation and get it to start telling you what is going on in the data. You can change the axes scales if you need to spread the data out more, and use a search box or dynamic "scrubbing" filter to pull out subsets of the data. You can hover over a point to read its hover text, click on it to see all the data fields for that record, and if you've defined one in the mapping even click through to a URL in your web browser to examine a related web page (eg an entry in a star catalogue).

And that's the basic process. Datascape comes with several demo workspaces that you can play around with to see how the mappings work before you import the first of your own data.

Happy plotting!

Datascape Tutorial - Enhancing Network Graphs

Starting from where Tutorial 5 left off, this tutorial shows you how to add shapes, point colour and link colour to improve the visual look of the graph and show more aspects of the data it represents. The video then shows you how to add a web link to each point, so that it can open a URL linked to that point - here we link surnames to a Facebook people search. Finally the video shows you how to create a chord based circular mapping for the data to get an alternative visualisation.

Read more about how to do this on the Datascape Wiki.

Video Tutorials: Variables in Fieldscapes

We've posted up two new videos to show you how to use variables in Fieldscapes. More to follow as this is an important area to create more complex exercises.

The first video gives a basic introduction to variables in Fieldscapes and shows how they can be used as both an interaction counter and to drive exercise events, such as bringing an exercise to an end.

The second video shows you how to use variables to control access to the objects in scene. For instance a student could have to answer a set of questions correctly, or complete some tasks before the system reveals a key piece of information or a reward

Video Tutorial: Dynamic Filtering in Datascape2XL

This video shows how a dataset can be dynamically filtered (what we call scrubbing) by using a set of sliders to set up a range of values for a field to include, and then also being able to slide that window through the data.

Datascape2XL Tutorial #2: Visualising GPS Data

Datascape Tutorial 2 - Visualising GPS Data from DadenMedia on Vimeo.

This second video tutorial shows you how to import a file with GPS data and display it on Open Street Maps in Datascape2XL. The same process will work for any data which has latitude and longitude fields. The video also shows you how to use the vertical axis as either altitude or time.

Also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3c0W7rKyw4