Adding motion to choropleths

Time ago hrbrmstr show how to replicate a visualization made by New York Times with R.

The result we hope is like this:

I really like small multiples and this is a good example of usage. However if the multiples means a lot mini plots maybe you can try add animation.

Let’s start using the script made by Bob:

library(jsonlite)
library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)
library(highcharter)

URL <- "http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2016/01/15/drug-deaths/c23ba79c9c9599a103a8d60e2329be1a9b7d6994/data.json"

data("uscountygeojson")
data("unemployment")

data <-  fromJSON(URL) %>% 
  as_tibble() %>% 
  gather(year, value, -fips) %>% 
  mutate(year = sub("^y", "", year),
         value = ifelse(is.na(value), 0, value))

data

# A tibble: 40,833 × 3
   fips  year  value
   <chr> <chr> <dbl>
 1 01001 2002      1
 2 01003 2002      2
 3 01005 2002      0
 4 01007 2002      1
 5 01009 2002      2
 6 01011 2002      0
 7 01013 2002      0
 8 01015 2002      1
 9 01017 2002      1
10 01019 2002      1
# ℹ 40,823 more rows

Now we’ll prepare the data as the motion plugin require the data.

ds <- data %>% 
  group_by(fips) %>% 
  do(item = list(
    fips = first(.$fips),
    sequence = .$value,
    value = first(.$value))) %>% 
  .$item

hc <- highchart(type = "map") %>% 
  hc_add_series(
    data = ds,
    name = "drug deaths per 100,000",
    mapData = uscountygeojson,
    joinBy = "fips",
    borderWidth = 0.01
    ) %>% 
  hc_colorAxis(stops = color_stops()) %>%  
  hc_title(text = "How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose Deaths Ripples") %>% 
  hc_subtitle(text = "Overdose deaths per 100,000") %>% 
  hc_legend(
    layout = "horizontal",
    reversed = TRUE,
    floating = TRUE,
    align = "right"
    ) %>% 
  hc_motion(
    enabled = TRUE,
    axisLabel = "year",
    labels = sort(unique(data$year)),
    series = 0,
    updateIterval = 50,
    magnet = list(
      round = "floor",
      step = 0.1
    )
  ) %>% 
  hc_chart(marginBottom  = 100)

And the result:

hc