# Data Explorer

Summary
---

**Background of method**: Open data portals provide a way for storing a lot of data about a topic or place in a single repository. However, it can be hard to find the data they contain, since it often relise on the user to know exactly what they are looking for and to do a targeted search for that data, which may or may not then be found.

The Data Explorer is a novel way of visualizing a diverse range of data sets. The data explorer is meant to be a tool for both scientists and non-scientists to be able to interact with and curate data. The idea behind the data explorer is to provide local people with a means of interacting with data that relates to their environment. 

**Why to use it**: the data explorer can be used when the goal is to find datasets that are connected to a particular topic or problem being explored.

**When to use it**: it should be used when trying to find data that may be relevant for informing a particular task.

Description
---

The Data Explorer is laid out in such a way that each white point or “star” represents a data set. The rings around the stars represent a “cluster” of data sets used in a data story. And the lines connecting the stars serve to show when a data set is shared across multiple data stories. There can be two or more stars that contain the same data set, the connecting lines show which stars share data sets with each other. In this initial prototype there are only six data sets, with some of these data sets being used across different data stories.  


When hovering over each star the star will grow brighter indicating it is clickable. Likewise, the data stories clusters also grow brighter when hovered over, indicating that they are also clickable.

When a star is clicked on the related data set window will be opened. The data set window will contain the title of the data set, an add and remove button, a visualization of the data, and links to the data set(s) from which the visualization was made from. In this case the visualization is as described below.


A user can open a Data story by clicking on the highlighted circle. This will open a window where they can see the data story that the user created as well as the data sets that the user selected for their data story. The data stars are clickable and will open the corresponding data set window.


In addition to exploring the existing data sets and stories, it is possible to upload new datasets and stories. At the moment, the datasets are curated snapshots of data - in this case in the form of data comics/infographics.

The prototype is available [here](https://natashatylosky.itch.io/data-explorer-v1 ).

**Method originators:** Natasha Tylosky and Annika Wolff

###### tags: `datascape toolkit` `toolkit` `method`