What is it?
Raw is a web application used to create custom vector-based visualizations on top of D3.js library. This tool is an open source and very flexible allowing the user to download it and modify it. (Density, 2016) Raw works with files that store two-dimensional arrays of data by separating each row with specific delimiter characters. (Wikipedia, 2015) For example, it works with csv and tsv files. In addition, RAW could work with data extracted from general spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel, Google Docs or Apple Numbers. Raw is based on Scalable Vectors Graphics (SVG) which allows visualization to be easily customized with vectors graphics applications or to be directly inserted into web pages. (GitHub, 2016)
RAW is a tool intended for designers to create faster visualizations in non-conventional charts. For example, RAW does not use common charts such as bar, column and line charts, instead it provides less conventional visuals such as dendrogram and bump chart among others. Thus, the charts provided in the application are somewhat limited for data analysts who would like to present bigger sets of data and be able to have a clear and more straight forward communication with the data.
Security
Raw is a safe tool, which allows users to secure their data by only having the web browser process it, without the need to use server-side operations or a storage. This method, prevents people to access, manipulate or copy the data. (Density, 2016)
How to use it
RAW is very basic and intuitive tool, the easiest way to use it by going to the online application RAW and copy their data and start working with. However, RAW could also be downloaded to the user’s local machine
Here is a link to a video showing how simple is to use RAW from the online application:Tutorial
Examples
The following examples were done with the data provided on RAW
This graphs represents an arrays of cocktails in where we could see which ingredients are more popular by the size of the box.
Final Thoughts
RAW is a straight forward application, aimed to users who do not have too much experience with programming and who would like to display their data in a nice visualization. However, I find RAW as a limited visualization tool and not as robust as other tools in the market such as Tableau or Microsoft Power BI. It also does not have the regular charts for data analyses
References
Density. (2016). RAW. Retrieved March 12, 2016, from http://raw.densitydesign.org/
GitHub. (2016). Densitydesign/raw. Retrieved March 12, 2016, from GitHub: https://github.com/densitydesign/raw/
Wikipedia. (2015, December 1). Delimiter-separated values. Retrieved March 12, 2016, from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delimiter-separated_values
webdatavisualization 
Thanks for sharing this Jose. Of all the tools we’ve examined this semester, this one seems like the easiest to use. Definitely a time-saver if you can benefit from the charts they offer. Their FAQ says their built-in layouts not easily created with other tools, which is an interesting idea (and does have its niche), but like you say, it does make RAW seem limited when compared to other software.
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Nice post, Jose! I had actually never heard of RAW before. It seems pretty neat, though. I will have to go check it out! It seems like it would be great for the novice programmer who needs to provide a report for their business. I actually had to look up what a dendrogram and bump chart was! I enjoyed the read, thanks for providing this information!
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RAW was new to me also, and this was a nice overview. I have more questions than answers, but that is on me. Thanks again, Jose, good post!
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Thank you Pat, I played with the tool for a bit and honestly I found a lot of limitations limited and it is not as flexible or scalable with data as other tools in the market.
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