Data Viz for Dummies VI
Motion and process
Show how the result takes shape.
Motion can explain an arrival, a queue, or a dependency when its behavior matches the data. Try these physics charts, then pause and read the counts or settled state. The useful question is what the movement lets you understand; the tables and explanations keep that answer available without watching an animation.
Lab safety · define the semantic contract first
The simulation may explain the process; it may not fabricate the result.
A physics chart combines values and process rules with moving marks. The motion can show a queue growing, a transfer arriving or work waiting on a dependency. Counts and labels let readers check the result.
Keep reported values tied to the data and declared rules. Changing the animation’s gravity or friction should not change those values.
Physics instruments · defensible physical verbs
Settle, arrive, queue, transform, unlock.
Start with the process you need to explain: something arriving, accumulating, moving or waiting.random branching → distribution
frequency shapeoverlap resolution around x
individual valuesarrival order → event-time windows
latenessunits settle into categories
inventorypackets follow authored routes
throughputbodies queue at finite stages
capacitycompound entities cross gates
retained propertiesauthored phases transform a batch
lineageprerequisites unlock dependents
blocker reachyou build the apparatus
bespoke mechanismGalton + collision swarm · distributions with elbows
Let bodies settle when the individuals and their overlap are the story.
A Galton board makes repeated branching accumulate into a distribution. A collision swarm preserves each observation’s x-value while moving marks just enough to avoid overlap. Both reveal shape without pretending that the final resting place is an extra measurement.
A mechanical Galton board demonstrates a probability process; it does not become evidence about your sample. A swarm’s vertical jitter is packing, not a second variable.
Shot quality · observed sample or branching model
Two hundred seventy shots settle into their measured score bins
Sample mode places 270 supplied rows into bins. Mechanical mode generates 270 outcomes from peg rows and a branch probability. Switch modes to compare a measured sample with a simulated process.Event drop + physics pile · time and inventory become tangible
Show bodies arriving when arrival order changes what the system knows.
EventDropChart separates event time from arrival time, exposing late data against windows and a watermark. UnitPileChart turns category totals into countable units, useful when accumulation, capacity, or composition matters more than a clean bar.
Do not animate historical rows merely because they have timestamps. Arrival motion earns its place only when lateness, closure, or build-up affects interpretation.
Arena telemetry · the fourth-minute event arrives at minute thirty-one
An eight-minute watermark tolerates modest reporting lag
Horizontal position is event time; release into the frame follows arrivalTime. The late-upload row lands in the late-data gutter instead of silently rewriting a closed window.Physical flow + process flow · traffic is not the same as capacity
Packets explain routes; queues explain service constraints.
PacketFlowChart sends particles along authored links whose widths carry throughput. ProcessFlowChart goes further: stage controllers can enforce finite work-per-second capacity, so congestion is computed rather than decorated.
State what a particle represents: a sampled rate or an individual item. When showing a bottleneck, use an explicit processing limit so the queue reflects that limit.
Arena circulation · route volume first
Packets reveal direction along the concourse routes
Pipe width and labels preserve the route totals. Particles communicate active movement and can be paused without erasing the network.Gauntlet · an entity drags its properties through review
Use a compound body when the bundle must survive the process together.
GauntletChart represents each project as a core with attached benefits and burdens. Authored gates can add, remove, delay, or transform properties while a settled projection reports viability and outcome.
Define how benefits and burdens affect the model, and show what each gate changes. Use the final values to explain the outcome.
Arena proposals · design, finance, permit
Benefits and burdens travel together through three reviews
The moving project shows which properties it gains or loses at each gate. The result strip reports its final viability.Crucible · the least subtle possible provenance diagram
Mix sources only when the authored record says what became what.
CrucibleChart runs a bounded batch through declared phases and semantic events. It can show sources binding into a product, contributions joining later, rejection to outlets, and conservation of amount—without letting collisions decide the finding.
Define the sources, event times and results in the data. The animation then helps readers follow when contributions join and where rejected material goes.
Evidence assay · four sources become one supported finding
The cauldron is theatrical; the lineage is exact.
Entry scans and weather form the finding; survey and sales contribute later. Every transition is declared in the event tape and survives as a static projection.Chain reaction · prerequisite delivery, not project-management pachinko
Make dependency logic move when reachability is the question.
ChainReactionChart compiles a dependency graph into lanes, sockets, blockers, and delivery tokens. A completed task releases one token per outgoing dependency; a downstream task arms only when every required token arrives.
Each delivered ball means one prerequisite is satisfied. The target becomes ready when all prerequisites arrive; it still needs to be completed.
Release machine · one policy decision reaches four teams
Snapshot mode shows the dependency state at day ten
The blocked privacy decision reaches the schema, ingest, binding, audit, test, and launch chain. Reach is graph structure, not an estimate of days saved.| Task | Lane | Progress | State | Waiting on | Downstream reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approve brief | Product | 100% | Completed | None | 7 tasks /5 lanes |
| Approve data policy | Product | 90% | Blocked | Retention decision pending | 6 tasks /4 lanes |
| Build fixture | Data | 100% | Completed | None | 6 tasks /4 lanes |
| Finalize schema | Data | 30% | Waiting | privacy | 5 tasks /4 lanes |
| Build ingest | Data | 0% | Waiting | schema | 3 tasks /3 lanes |
| Build dashboard shell | Frontend | 100% | Completed | None | 3 tasks /3 lanes |
| Bind live data | Frontend | 10% | Waiting | ingest | 2 tasks /2 lanes |
| Run privacy audit | Quality | 0% | Waiting | privacy, schema | 1 tasks /1 lanes |
| Load test | Quality | 0% | Waiting | bind | 1 tasks /1 lanes |
| Launch | Launch | 0% | Waiting | audit, test | 0 tasks /0 lanes |
Physics custom · you have declined all sensible presets
Build an apparatus only when the custom mechanism can be audited.
PhysicsCustomChart supplies dimensions, scales, theme, a deterministic world, rendering, interaction, and accessibility. A layout function returns bodies, colliders, sensors, forces, overlays, and semantic items.
For a custom simulation, label its forces, boundaries and rules. Give readers a way to inspect its values and understand how changing an assumption affects the result.
Routing floor · bespoke gravity, ordinary accountability
Twenty-one requests settle behind three explicit dividers.
This intentionally modest apparatus demonstrates the escape hatch: body geometry, gravity, walls, lane overlays, and accessible semantic regions live in one auditable layout.Choosing a physics chart
Choose physics from the mechanism the reader must understand.
Use motion when watching arrivals, queues, transformations or dependencies helps explain the process. Check that the counts and settled view also make sense when the animation is paused.
Explain distribution emergence
Galton boardSeparate observed samples from mechanical probability.
Preserve crowded individuals
Collision swarmOnly the value axis is measured.
Inspect late event data
Event dropArrival time and event time must both exist.
Make units countable
Physics pileKeep exact totals in the projection.
Show route throughput
Physical flowPackets sample a rate; pipes retain the total.
Expose a bottleneck
Process flowUse computed capacity, not visual drag.
Track a compound entity
GauntletProperties remain attached and outcomes stay explicit.
Show authored transformation
CrucibleEvents own lineage and conservation.
Explain blocker reach
Chain reactionTokens satisfy prerequisites; they do not do work.
Invent a mechanism
Physics customPublish the apparatus’s semantic contract.
Make a dashboard exciting
Absolutely notExcitement is not a data type.
Support reduced motion
Static projectionThe conclusion must survive the pause button.
Readers should be able to follow the process and check the result.