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Data Visualization in R

Dan Fitton provides an introductory overview to several visualization tools in R:

The other way to communicate data with R is to produce an interactive dashboard or web application within R using Shiny. Whereas Markdown reports are most useful for explanatory analysis; Shiny, in my opinion, is useful forĀ exploratory data analysis. This is when you want to display information for investigative purposes, allowing the user to gain greater familiarity by having the ability to interact with data, filter it, and dig deeper into the underlying details.

Shiny is incredibly flexible, providing the user the capability of turning their R code and objects, including tables, plots, and analysis, into a comprehensive and interactive web page or app, without requiring a fully-fledged web development skillset. Although there is a steep learning curve, the freedom and precision Shiny brings means that for the most part you are limited only by your skillset rather than the tool itself.

I’ve seen some really useful Shiny dashboards. Dan is right that there can be a lot of work put into getting them right, but if you do, the results can be outstanding.