What is a View?

Calypso gives you many ways to visualize data, including:

• Tables
• Column charts
• Drilldown column charts
• Benchmark graphs
• Timeline graphs
• Choropleth maps
• Map layers

Each one of these is a type of view, but then there can be lots of variation within a type.  For example, the same data can be shown in many different table formats:

• A table of population over the past five years, broken out by male and female
• A table of population trends, measured in Average Yearly Change and Average Yearly Change percent
• A table of population broken out in age brackets
• A table that compares the population of several geographic areas

Topics and views

StateBook organizes data into topics that have a particular focus.  Each topic has one or more views that give many ways of understanding the data.  Sometimes a map is best.  Sometimes a chart or a graph is best.  Sometimes a table gives the clearest picture.  StateBook curates the data into a series of preconfigured topics and views for you to choose from. 

Interactive and configurable views

StateBook views are also configurable and interactive, meaning that you can customize the content and the layout of the table through pulldown menus and configuration screens.  This provides a great amount of flexibility so that you can see the data in a way that answers your question and gives you insight.  It is possible to create a non-interactive view if you just want a simple chart or a table, but most commonly, a view is used to browse a topic in several different ways, easily switching between categories, metrics, geographies, and time periods.