ncase

The new ExplorableExplanations.com! (+other sneak peeks)

Added 2016-02-11 19:41:40 +0000 UTC

If you're wondering why the thumbnail is from Bret Victor's essay on climate change, that's because Patreon's being a doofus and not picking the thumbnail I put right in the <head> tag, or even letting me change the thumbnail. I can't.

ANYWAY.

A lot of people have asked me how do I get started making an interactive explainy thingy whatever it's called? Well! That's what the new Explorable Explanations site

is meant to help with, somewhat. In addition to new examples, and a useless-but-swanky interactive header, it's now also got links to tools & theory.

I will admit, there aren't many non-programmer tools for making explorables. There's Bret Victor's Tangle, my emoji-simulation thing, and one other thing still in beta. But hey, that's what I'd like to help with in the coming months! Tools for people to make their own models and simulations! Which brings me to...

SNEAK PEEKS:

[GIF] A simulation of the US incarceration system, using actual national statistics. The process is simple -- just take real-world stats, turn it into a Markov Chain, then simulate it several times. I'm hoping this technique can be generalized, and made into a tool for journalists, citizens, and policymakers to use.

[Screenshot] A network simulator. It'll be like Sim The World In Emoji – a non-programmer modeling tool where playing === making. (the "code box" you see in the screenshot is just there 'til I replace it with more useable UI) I think this could be very useful, coz networks are everywhere: neural networks, social networks, gene interaction networks, technological networks, so on, and so forth.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. See you again soon!

<3,

~ Nicky