tidyTouch: An Interactive Visualization Tool for Data Science Education

• Main Author: DeVaney, Jonah E.
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2020
• Subjects: Educational Technology; Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/529; https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1735&context=honors

Accessibility and usability of software define the programs used for both professional and academic activities. While many proprietary tools are easy to grasp, some challenges exist in using more technical resources, such as the statistical programming language R. The creative project tidyTouch is a web application designed to help educate any user in basic R data visualization and transformation using the popular ggplot2 and dplyr packages. Providing point-and-click interactivity to explore potential modifications of graphics for data presentation, the application uses an intuitive interface to make R more accessible to those without programming experience. This project is in a state of continual development and will expand to cover introductory data science topics relevant to academics and professionals alike. The code for tidyTouch and this document can be found at https://github.com/devaneyJE/tidyTouch_thesis (see ui.R and server.R files for application code).