They Draw It!

Create 'You Draw It' style visualizations that allow readers to draw their predictions in an interactive graph, like those used in the New York Times and studied in recent visualization research.

Overview

Tell Me More

They Draw It is an authoring toolkit that enables journalists and others to create embeddable interactive visualizations that ask readers to draw their beliefs, and visualize others' beliefs.

Creating a They Draw It visualization requires only a Google Spreadsheet containing the trend data the author wants to visualize.

Things To Know

They Draw It embeds visualizations using iFrames.
They Draw It currently supports line charts that include a time/date variable.
Use They Draw It visualizations within data-driven stories where you provide context for the data and prompt the reader to make a prediction.
They Draw It uses Google Authentication to enable access to the tool. Let the development team know if you would have privacy issues concerning this choice.
They Draw It is currently in active development. New features are continuously added as the tool progresses.

Examples

See They Draw It! visualizations in data-driven articles

How bad are firearm suicides in the U.S.?

Gun homicides often attract more attention in the popular press, but how many gun deaths are the result of suicide? Historical data shows it's been this way for a while.

You Draw It from the New York Times

What does the economy sound like to you?

President Trump has been giving his perceptions of the state of jobs in the country (fake data? or a booming economy?) for years. But how do his impressions compare to actual job growth over the last several years?

Create a Visualization

1. Add your data to Google Sheets

They Draw It uses Google Spreadsheets to load data. Each sheet needs to have a date/time column and data columns. There needs to be a header row with titles for each column. All data that you wish to chart for a given visualization should be on the same sheet.

It's fine for data to missing from rows, however missing data may affect your resulting visualization. An example dataset of how data is structured can be viewed here.

2. Publish the spreadsheet

Under the File menu, select "Publish to the Web."

In the next window, click the blue "publish" button.

When asked, "Are you sure?" click OK.

Finally, copy the URL from your browser's location bar.

3. Load the data to the tool and configure

Make sure the data loaded is correct, and configure your visualization!