Voronoi Diagrams are really interesting from an aesthetic, mathematical, and application perspective. I created this to experiment with connecting multiple d3.js layouts. I noticed a pull request for d3.js that suggested making Voronoi diagrams more extensible which would help to speed up the rendering of this visualization.
I found this Wolfram MathWorld article on LCF notation after researching bilinear interpolation. The article inspired me to build a LCF notation parser that would create the graphs using d3.js. Originally, I only planned on displaying the circular graph without animation. Adding the graph construction animation was definitely a wow milestone, but, after I enabled the forces on the links, it turned into a woah moment. The 3D structure of the graph actually reveals itself without having to build in any 3D calculations. This was a really fun project to build and it’s still exciting to watch it build a torus.
I wanted to build a project using a government dataset to learn d3.js. I decided to use the Chicago lobbyist data after looking at the information available at ChicagoLobbyists.org.
Now, to help you understand how to create your first visualization, I’ll share how I created this project.
This all started back in June was when I read that Gabe Klein would be the new commissioner for the Chicago Department of Transportation. I’ve been a year round bicyclist in the city for a few years now, and it was great to read about all the improvements that were planned for the city. That lead me to finally setup my Twitter account to follow city leadership and fellow developers. Shortly after, I heard about the Apps for Metro Chicago, Illinois competition. The commitment to open data and the potential for innovation for the city got me excited about the competition and I wanted to participate. I went to hacksalons, Open Government Meetups, and got to interact with a lot of smart people. At the time, I wasn’t able to put together an entry for the transportation or community round, but at the start of November, I made the time and a commitment to build an app for the Grand Challenge Round.