Assignment 04: Data Visualization — ggplot2 and Beyond

🎯 Learning Objectives

By completing this assignment, you will learn to:

• Craft a data-driven narrative using ggplot2.
• Create sophisticated multi-layered plots (e.g., combining geom_point, geom_smooth, geom_text etc.).
• Master advanced aesthetic mappings to convey complex relationships.
• Design custom themes and annotations to create publication-ready visualizations.
• Explore extensions to ggplot2 to create dynamic or composite plots.
• Think critically about visualization choices and justify them in a clear, concise manner.

📂 Dataset

Reuse the dataset from Assignment 02 (the one you tidied and wrangled). You already prepared it — now it’s time to visualize! Or choose a new dataset from TidyTuesday. Especially if it’s a Netflix dataset 🙃

📝 The Challenge

Imagine you are a data journalist. Your task is to create a visual story using your dataset.

Your audience: curious readers who don’t know R, statistics, or data science.

Your mission: make the data speak clearly, visually, and persuasively.

Instructions

1. Choose a dataset (your tidied dataset from Assignment 02 or a new one from TidyTuesday).
2. Identify a compelling story or insight within the data that you want to communicate.
3. Create a series of visualizations using ggplot2 (and its extensions if desired) to illustrate your story. Aim for at least 3-5 different plots.
4. Write a narrative that ties the visualizations together, explaining the insights and significance of each plot.
5. Use Quarto to compile your visualizations and narrative into a cohesive document.

Tip

Here are some resources to help you get started:

• The R Graph Gallery — a collection of hundreds of charts made with R.
• ggplot2 extensions — explore various extensions to ggplot2 for enhanced functionality.
• MetBrewer package for color palettes inspired by works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: GitHub.
• Slides from seminar (Even More) Exciting Data Visualizations with ggplot2 Extensions by Cédric Scherer

📤 Submission

Submit the .qmd file, and rendered document (PDF) to the assignment submission portal.