The review of the Shiny App Created by Chengzhi Ye
Noted: because this is the first time I try to create a shiny app and review it, so it may not be very formal, and my self-evaluation will be relatively high.
I think the analysis of shiny app should be divided into internal and external parts. Internal part refers to whether my shiny app can let users to explore data related to COVID-19, and whether the content provided is sufficient. External part refers to the theme, appearance, content distribution, layout of each section of the whole shiny app. In the internal part, I will give myself a score of 95. The main reason is that the six sections basically contain all the basic information about COVID-19 and the shiny app, such as daily situation since January, the global trend chart of confirmed cases, recovered cases and deaths, the overall situation of all countries, and the broken line chart of daily growth of confirmed cases in the ten countries with the most serious epidemic situation. Meanwhile, I show it the data in different ways: the interactive tables and the interactive plots. Also, there are two different ways in tables and plots: Kable and DT, plotly and shiny input. In terms of analysis and the introduction of this shiny app, I also wrote them comprehensively. Therefore, I think I have done a good job in internal part.
However, the external part lacks a lot and should only give 80 points. What I did well is first I chose the readable for my main theme. I think although that theme has no complicated design, the displayed page and font are very clear for users to browse. Then the order of each section is also fully considered and then arranged. First, it analyzes the overall situation of the world, then the situation of each country, and then summarizes the ten most serious countries. The last two sections are the overall introduction and citation of the shiny app. Therefore, it can be said that this order is also very logical.
I think the most lacking is the layout of each section page and the setting of theme in the shiny app. Although my goal is to pursue simple design and intuitive display, but too monotonous layout will make users feel a bit boring. Therefore, my idea is to improve the design of the whole shiny app, such as the font size of the title, the background color of the title bar and the main bar, the layout of the Tab Panel, etc. As for the internal part, I think it has been done very well, but sometimes it’s perfect to add more analysis beyond the requirements. For example, the detailed analysis of some specific countries, such as the USA or China, or to deeply analyze the causes of the COVID-19 second outbreak, so that users can have a clearer understanding about the epidemic prevention efficiency of super countries, and also make them more deeply aware of the epidemic severity and the necessity of epidemic prevention.
I used to search many shiny apps on the Internet and wanted to learn, but I couldn’t use them on my app due to time limitation and lack of technology. If I want to add reusable things to this shiny app, I will add dashborad to my shiny app, because it can make the appearance of the whole shiny app and the layout of each section more beautiful and neat, and the effect of presentation is better, and it will not give people the feeling of monotony.
First, I would like to know the distribution of each cases, but it is almost impossible to happen, because there are tens of millions of cases. The regions, countries and even the world cannot accurately provide the location of each case. But if we know the specific location, it will play a great role in reducing epidemic prevention work, because we can focus on high-frequency areas and accurately know how to isolate between high-risk areas and safe areas. Although this is impossible to get data, it is still also my idea. . Then, I also mentioned the second point in the above question. When making this shiny app, I think that if I can analyze the reason of the abnormal sudden rise or fall in the growth rate of a certain country on a specific day, the content of the shiny app will become more satisfactory. The abnormal increase may be due to the second outbreak, while the abnormal sudden decline may be due to the formal implementation of lockdown policy. Understanding the details can help users better understand the policies and efficiency of epidemic prevention in various countries, so as to gain more experiences.