Dual-Axis Charts: Better Alternatives

Alternatives to Dual-Axis Charts In a previous blog post called 'Dual-Axis Charts: Temptations, Traps, Tips', I went through some of the pitfalls of using dual-axis charts. These are charts where you want to compare two metrics or data attributes but there are vastly different scales involved, so you reach for a layout with two y-axes…

Dual-Axis Charts: Temptations, Traps, Tips

The Temptation of Dual-Axis Charts Sometimes when we are trying to show relationships over time between two dimensions of the same metric, or two separate metrics, we run into a situation where differences in the scales involved make it difficult/impossible to really tell what is going on using a standard line chart. One solution we…

Google Trends + R: Leverage gtrendsR Package for More Powerful Search Trend Analytics

Google Trends is a popular tool for all manner of curiousity related to trends in search activity on the Google search engine: what topics are trending? what are trends for a given search term? how does this compare to other terms? what related terms are people using? how does interest vary by region? And lots…

How to Create a Custom R Markdown Template

If you use the R language for statistical programming, you probably use RStudio as your integrated development environment (IDE) and you may also use – or at least have come across – R Markdown as a file type that allows you to create documents that weave together data and text analysis. (Gratuitous example: my curiousity…

Publish R Markdown to WordPress site? Yes You Can!

This post is based on an R Markdown file published directly to WordPress.com – and you can do it, too! It was made possible by the great work of others, shared in the following highly recommended resources: RWordPress pkg by Duncan Temple Lang (2012) – there was a helpful vignette but can't find it any…