Trying to recreate a sort of box graph

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da...@beaconcollective.com

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May 25, 2020, 5:29:34 PM5/25/20
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Hello, 


I am a graphic designer who is hoping to get good at data visualization! So far I've successfully created one graph using Data Illustrator. Now I want am trying to exactly recreate the graph in the screenshot below. Instead of a line and a triangle as anchors on the country line I'd like a square representing the percentage in 2000 and a circle representing the percentage in 2007.

Screenshot 2020-05-25 14.19.31.png

I have adjusted the data to longform, saved the file as a CSV, and imported into Data Illustrator:

Screenshot 2020-05-25 14.21.51.png


However, I am unable to do what I want and I believe there must be a problem with the way my data is set up.

  1. Binding the Y axis is not an option at all when I create the basic shape and repeat by country
  2. With the dataset as is, I cannot logically bind the Y axis to the percent in a certain year, can I?

Any help would be sooo appreciated! 








John Thompson

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May 26, 2020, 2:09:54 PM5/26/20
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Hi Dani! Thanks for using our tool! I'd be more than happy to help. You are right in assuming that the trick of this design is the formatting of the dataset. In this case you will need a wide format of the data, with each country representing a data row.

I've created an explanation below (with screenshots) for the process I used to create this chart. One word of caution, I would avoid grouping the triangle, rectangle (in my case I used a horizontal line but same difference!), and the vertical line connector - as binding shape positions within groups often causes problems for the current DI release.

iPad – 1.jpg

iPad – 2.jpg

iPad – 3.jpg

iPad – 4.jpg

iPad – 5.jpg

iPad – 6.jpg

iPad – 7.jpg



Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any issues.

Dani Vachon

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May 26, 2020, 2:59:10 PM5/26/20
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Hello John,
Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to reply in such detail! It's such a relief to have help. 

It took me a while to get past step 8 because when I was stretching out the graph to see the lines, I must have been stretching on in the wrong direction or something because I got these inverted axes: 
Screenshot 2020-05-26 11.44.41.png

However, eventually I figured it out and now I have a graph that I can import into Illustrator to pizzaz! 

Thanks again, you've really made my day!

Dani


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John Thompson

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May 26, 2020, 3:03:57 PM5/26/20
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Of course! You made my day as well - always makes me so happy to hear from folks using DI.

I'll look into what was happening with the inverted axes as well - I've noticed some peculiar behavior when a merged & inverted axis is bound to multiple shapes.

Cheers!

- John
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Dani Vachon

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May 26, 2020, 4:10:03 PM5/26/20
to John Thompson, Data Illustrator
Amazing! Hey, a quick sort of related question... is there an easy way to get the Y axis to go from 0 to 100 instead of starting on the lowest value and ending on the highest value? 


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John Thompson

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May 26, 2020, 11:06:19 PM5/26/20
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No, sorry!! We don't have a feature to set the data domain for an axis currently. It only defaults to the max/mins of the provided dataset.
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Alan Wilson

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May 27, 2020, 9:50:19 PM5/27/20
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You can always add a zero country and a 100 country to the data and remove them later. I've had to use that trick a time or two.

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