Interactive Plots with the ggiraph Package

We can make visually appealing static graphs with ggplot2. Let’s explore how we can add and enhance the interactivity of our ggplot plots.

Why add interactivity to a ggplot plot?

While static visualizations are often sufficient for telling data stories, they may not effectively communicate information when working with big or complex datasets. To address this limitation, adding interactivity to ggplot2 plots allows us to engage with the data in different ways, such as zooming, panning, and hovering over data points in the dataset. One such package for adding interactivity is the popular ggiraph package.

Getting started with the ggiraph package

The ggiraph package is a ggplot2 extension that allows us to create dynamic and interactive graphics in R, R MarkdownR Markdown is a simple and easy-to-use plain text language that allows us to integrate our R code, data analysis findings, and textual comments into a single attractively designed and repeatable document. documents, and Shiny appsThese are interactive web applications capable of executing R code on the backend and are built using the shiny package in R.. It uses ggplot2 features and adds the _interactive suffix to its functions.

The ggiraph packages’s R graphic device dedicated to SVG makes adding interactive components to graphics simple, such as tooltips, animations, and JavaScript actions. We can use the ggiraph package’s interactive geoms, scales, facets, guides, and themes to create interactive graphs.

Let’s load the ggiraph package using the following code: