Enhancing visualizations (part II)

Week 6

Monday February 11th, 2026

A fuzzy monster in a beret and scarf, critiquing their own column graph on a canvas in front of them while other assistant monsters (also in berets) carry over boxes full of elements that can be used to customize a graph (like themes and geometric shapes). In the background is a wall with framed data visualizations. Stylized text reads 'ggplot2: build a data masterpiece.'

Artwork by Allison Horst

Pre-class Prep

A. Install required packages

install.packages("monochromeR") # a package for creating monochrome color palettes and easily converting rgba values to hex codes (and also some other useful functions)
install.packages("showtext") # for using fonts more easily in R graphs
install.packages("glue") # for string interpolation (aka helps us insert variables directly into text strings)
install.packages("ggtext") # improved text rendering support for ggplot2
install.packages("ggrepel") # ggplot2 extension to repel overlapping labels
install.packages("googlesheets4") # provides an R interface to Google Sheets via the Sheets API v4

B. Download Data

In case we have trouble with the {googlesheets4} API, you can download and read in the following data files as normal (i.e. using readr::read_csv()):

If you choose (or need) to download and read in these files, be sure to save them to your class repo at ~/week6/data/.

C. Download Font Awesome fonts

We’ll learn how to use Font Awesome icons in our ggplots. To do so, you’ll need to download the Font Awesome font files and save them to your class repo. Do so by following these steps:

  1. Download Font Awesome fonts: Go to https://fontawesome.com/download and download the latest release available. Choose the Free For Desktop option.
  2. Unzip the downloaded file: You should see a folder inside called otfs/ – this contains three .otf files (aka OpenType font format files)
  3. Copy the three .otf files to your class repo: I recommend creating a fonts/ folder inside your root directory, and dropping all three of them in there (e.g. EDS-240-data-viz-examples/fonts/*.otf)

D. Download .qmd templates & review data wrangling code

  1. Download all necessary templates (links in the table below) and save them to a EDS-240-data-viz-examples/week6/ folder.

  2. Review setup / wrangling / base plot code and make note of any questions you might have. Due to time constraints, we won’t be live-coding our way through all code in class. However, we’ll reserve some time to answer any questions before we jump into data viz . Specifically:

    • Template 6.1 begins where we left off in creating our salary plot (in lecture 4.1). Review the code under the ## Setup, ## Wrangle Data and ## Recreate original plot sections to re-familiarize yourself.
    • Template 6.2 includes setup and base plot code for two different visualizations (one using lobster data, another using Mono Lake data). Review the ### Setup and ### Create base plot sections for both these visualizations.

Lecture Materials

Lecture slides Code-along template Code-along key
Lecture 6.1: typography 6.1 template 6.1 key
Lecture 6.2: annotations 6.2 template 6.2 key

Pre-discussion Prep

A. Prepare a week6-discussion.qmd file

  1. Add a new blank file to your class repo at the following location: EDS-240-class-examples/week6/week6-discussion.qmd. Fill out the necessary YAML information (title, author, date + any other information you find helpful).

  2. Copy over the contents from your TEMPLATE-lecture6.1-typography.qmd file – we’ll be iterating on this code during discussion section.

Discussion Materials

Discussion Slides Exercise instructions Exercise solutions
D6 slides: saving plots see pre-discussion prep see D6 slides

Assignment Reminders

Assignment Type Assignment Title Date Assigned Date Due
HW Homework #3 Wed 02/04/2026 Wed 02/11/2026, 11:59pm PT
FPM Final Project Milestone #3 Wed 02/11/2026 Sun 02/22/2026, 11:59pm PT