Plot.ly - Belly Button Biodiversity

In this project, I built an interactive dashboard to explore the Belly Button Biodiversity dataset, which catalogs the microbes that colonize human navels.

The dataset reveals that a small handful of microbial species (also called operational taxonomic units, or OTUs, in the study) were present in more than 70% of people, while the rest were relatively rare.

Step 1: Plotly

1. Use the D3 library to read in samples.json.

2. Create a horizontal bar chart with a dropdown menu to display the top 10 OTUs found in that individual.

   • Use sample_values as the values for the bar chart.

   • Use otu_ids as the labels for the bar chart.

   • Use otu_labels as the hovertext for the chart.

3. Create a bubble chart that displays each sample.

   • Use otu_ids for the x values.

   • Use sample_values for the y values.

   • Use sample_values for the marker size.

   • Use otu_ids for the marker colors.

   • Use otu_labels for the text values.

4. Display the sample metadata, i.e., an individual's demographic information.

5. Display each key-value pair from the metadata JSON object somewhere on the page.

6. Update all of the plots any time that a new sample is selected.

Additionally, I created a layout for my dashboard:

Additional Plot

• I adapted the Gauge Chart from Plot.ly to plot the weekly washing frequency of the individual.

• Next, I modifed the example gauge code to account for values ranging from 0 through 9.

• Update the chart whenever a new sample is selected.

Deployment

Deploy my app to a free static page hosting service, GitHub Pages.

Tips

• Using console.log inside of my JavaScript code helped numerous times to see what the data looked like at each step.

---

Tools Used

• Plot.ly
• Javascript
• HTML
• CSS
• Json
• D3.js
• GitHub and GitHub Pages
• console.log

---

Author

• Michael R. Davis - Davis1776

Acknowledgments

• Data Source: Hulcr, J. et al.(2012) A Jungle in There: Bacteria in Belly Buttons are Highly Diverse, but Predictable. Retrieved from: http://robdunnlab.com/projects/belly-button-biodiversity/results-and-data/
• Plotly.js documentation was used to help build the plots.
• Butler University Data Analytics and Visualization Executive Education program and instructors for assistance.
• Hat tip to Triology Education Services for providing the challenge guidelines.

Copyright

Michael R. Davis ©️ 2020. All Rights Reserved.