Data Visualization Project

Data

The data I propose to visualize for my project is a Pokémon Base Stats Dataset, which consists of most (if not all) Pokémon. Each Pokémon has an associated list of attributes, which includes a:

• Name
• Type
• Species
• Height
• Weight
• Abilities
• Catch Rate
• Base Friendship
• Base Exp.
• Growth Rate
• Gender
• HP (Hit Points)
• Attack
• Defense
• Sp. Atk
• Sp. Def
• Speed

The reason I really like this dataset is because of the number of features for each Pokémon, and gives me a creative outlet for visualizing this data in a unique way. Who is this for? What will it enable them to do? Well, this visualization can be for gamers and game developers/designers alike. The data can help gamers pick out a good lineup, depending on what kind of Pokémon they prefer. On the other hand, game developers may want to study the balance in character design. After all, it's rare for a Pokémon to have all of the best abilities. My project in particular will primarily facilitate the visualization of speed and attack vectors, while also including Pokémon type and HP attributes as well. So far, I have come to the conclusion to present this data in a scatterplot, though I have gone through some other iterations such as a bubble chart and a radar chart.

Questions & Tasks

The following tasks and questions will drive the visualization and interaction decisions for this project:

• How does the Pokémon's speed correlate with its offensive stats?
• Is there a correlation between a Pokémon's HP and Speed?
• What can the Pokémon type tell us about the Speed of that type compared to all other Pokémon (if anything)?
• What can the Pokémon type tell us about the HP of that type compared to all other Pokémon (if anything)?
• What can each quadrant of the scatterplot tell us about all Pokémon? Are they evenly distributed? Are there any outliers?

The ultimate aim of these questions is to unravel any answers as to how the Pokémon are distributed so that gamers and game developers alike can benefit from this design or game strategy.

Sketches

The following is my first iteration of a scatterplot sketch with respect to the Pokémon dataset, which precedes my digital iteration of a scatterplot.

• This original sketch of the scatterplot was focused on visualizing the offensive/defensive and speed attributes of Pokémon. This sketch also visualizes an onClick feature in which an end-user could interact with each of the points on the graph. It was at this point when I realized the scatterplot showed much potential in terms of visualizing more attributes, which could benefit gamers and game developers

• Shortly after creating this first sketch and receiving feedback from classmates, I was able to enhance it by creating a digital iteration, which includes the visualization of a couple of more attributes (HP and Pokémon type)

Prototypes

Starting from when I first discovered this dataset, I was able to produce the following VizHub projects (visualizations):

• Week 2 First, I imported the base stats dataset into my own repository, where I changed all numerical strings into numbers

• Week 4 Then, I used that dataset with the numerical values from week 2 to create a simple scatterplot, with a background, hue, and axis

• Week 5 Finally, I utilized what I had from week 4 to expand my axis, and change the hue/size of the points on the graph based on the attributes of the pokemon (although no dataset was introduced quite yet)

Open Questions

Some thoughts or concerns I have about the project:

• I want to continue the work from the Pesudo-Visualization (week 5) by implementing the csv dataset
• I received a recommendation to enable exploration of multiple quantitative attributes: X and Y, and even color which could be controllable with menus. I do like this idea, so I may try to implement that, though I'm not 100% sure where I want to start with that.

Milestones

• Week 9 (after break): I want to implement the csv dataset into the graph comfortably. I want to see the dataset in its entirety
• Week 10: Once csv is implemented/loaded properly, I'll likely run into a density/volume issue. I will attempt to try either a forced directed layout to spread them out, or a 2D binning to show density (though I might lose color with this approach, so I will look for alternatives)
• Week 11: Once I can comfortably visualize the graph as intended, I would like to go back to Week 6 to implement a mouse follower (not sure what for yet, but I want to find something cool to do with it). I also want to create a responsive viz container and responsive axis!
• Week 12: TBD... I will add more milestones as the weeks go on, and will also take feedback from classmates to help with the milestone creation

Milestone Progress:

• Week 9 (after break): Successfully implemented the project and the csv to show the all the pokemon plot points.
• Week 10 (WIP)... I noticed that there were many "gray" pokemon types, so I made sure to implement most of the Pokemon types (water, fire, bug, poison, grass, psychic, electric) with corresponding colors. I also played around with the volume data, and even allow the user to select to TYPE to display on the scatterplot!... All other unknown or unrecognized types are gray. Dual pokemon types will be worked on next week to select pokemon types to display