Knowing when the time is right and what the most important technologies and trends to address are is business-critical. The ITONICS Radar helps you to keep up with the pace of change and invest at the right time.
The radar can be accessed from the main navigation menu on the left side. If your Application Owner has designed different radars, they will appear as a list in the left menu under radar. Click on a name and access the specific radar views.
2. Adjusting the Radar Configuration (+ Saving it)
3. Saving, Sharing, and Adjusting Saved Radar Views
Displaying Trends and/or Technologies on the Radar
To display content on a radar, you first need to select the right content/element types from the the filter selection. Any saved radar view in the left navigation menu thus represents a filtered and saved radar view [1].
Adjusting the content display
When you want to adjust the content displayed on any radar, find the filter section on top of the radar. From here, you can tailor the content displayed to any search request you have or the filters that you apply [2].
Basically, the radar is built based on the information present in each content element (and its configuration). The segmentation, color/halo/donut indication, and distance to the center indication can be adjusted dynamically from the radar configuration menu [3].
That means that the visual indicators used on the radar can be used to represent each dropdown field or rating criteria that have been defined by your Application Owner.
If enabled, ITONICS also provides an automatically filled score (from "none" to "very high"), called Speed of Change, which holds an aggregation of the growth rate of news, patents, and publications related to the element. To cover a short and mid-period of time, ITONICS provides two smart scores with different time ranges: Speed of Change [90 Days] and Speed of Change [180 Days]. When you use, for instance, Speed of Change [90 Days] on the radar as the distance criterion, it will display all the content relative to the changes of signals over the last 90 days.
If this is a view that you want to visit frequently or share with other users, you will find the option to save this view in the top right corner [5]. When you click save, you will be asked whether this view is for private usage only or whether it should be visible to all other users as well.
Please note that radar views that are accessible to every workspace user can only be created by Workspace Admins and Moderators.
Please note that longer titles are cut off after 25 characters.
Dive into the Segments
As the radar is a dynamic visualization, the radar view will also adjust when you click on the title of a segment. By clicking on it, the radar view will zoom into this specific segment. When you use sub-segments from the radar configuration menu [3], the display of the segment will now be organized against the sub-segment values.
You can also click on the segment circle line to dive into it. If sub-segments are available, this will also be visually represented by two or more circle lines (see the blue line in the picture below).
Zooming into the Radar
You also have the option to zoom in/out specific areas of the radar. For this, you can use either of the following options:
Option 1: Use the + and - button on the right side of the Radar to zoom into and out of the Radar.
Option 2: Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the Radar.
Option 3: Double-click the Radar to zoom in.
Reset: The reset button is located below the zoom buttons. Click it to fit the Radar to layout size.
Maximize: The Maximize button is located above the zoom buttons. Click it to fit the Radar to window size.
Adjusting the Radar Configuration
The radar is a flexible visualization that can be adjusted by any user. Any user can adjust the content that is displayed on the radar or the configuration itself, e.g., the meaning given to the segmentation, color, distance, halo, or donut. Only the option to save views publically and share with other users is restricted to Workspace Admins and Moderators.
To adjust the radar configuration, you can find the Radar toolbar/gear icon under the name of the current radar view [6].
You can change the meaning of the:
- Segmentation: The segmentation defines the split of the radar into different parts. Each part will be displayed by its name (in bold) and the belonging elements. Click on the arrow next to "segment by" and choose from any of the available options. The radar slices will adjust immediately and display the elements on which a respective value has been entered before. Within the available options, you can choose from the available single-choice dropdown fields, the rating criteria, the element type, and the publication status. You can combine two different fields: one as the first hierarchy option (first line segment by), and in the second "segment by" assign a different sub-segmentation.
Please note: If one of the segmentation values has not yet been set on any element, the slice will not be represented. Elements that have no value for the current configuration set will be displayed under the slice/category "unassigned".
Please also note that when you use a hierarchical dropdown field, you can create even more hierarchical levels. For hierarchical fields, you only need to select the name of the hierarchical field on one of the two "segment by" options and the complete hierarchy will be plotted directly.
Please note that you cannot edit or extend ITONICS predefined blueprint segmentations. You can also only select from single-choice dropdown fields, thus; make sure to not tick the checkbox Allow Multiple Values in the Element Configuration. To create your custom segment fields, you need to be subscribed to ITONICS Professional for access to Element Configuration. Contact us at account_manager@itonics.de if you need further information.
- Distance: The distance defines the plotting of each dot on the radar relative to the center of the radar. The different values of any rating criteria, single select field, or step field will be displayed as a circle around the radar's center, whereas each circle represents a different value. To change the current distance indicator, simply click on the arrow in the line "distance" and select your desired criterion.
You further have the option to choose between linear and non-linear scales. The linear scale represents each circle with the same radius ratio.
You can also invert the display of the values which means that the values that are by default, i.e., the configuration your Application Owner has created, closer to the end of the radar diameter become the ones closer to the center - and vice versa. - Color: The color can be used to give a specific distinct color to each value of a criterion. For instance, if your criterion has five different values, each of these values can be displayed by a different color, making it easier to distinguish the values. To apply a different color coding, click on the arrow in the line "color" and choose from the available options of rating criteria, single-select fields, or step fields. Right to it, you can define your custom colors per value.
- Halo: The halo can be used to provide a specific meaning to the size of any dot. Each value will be represented by a different additional circle around the dot. For the halo, rating criteria and their values can be used.
- Donut: The donut can be used to provide a specific meaning to the arc of any dot. Each value will be represented by a different arc size around the dot. For the halo, rating criteria and their values can be used.
- Relations: When you have enabled the relations view, the distance will disappear and instead the relations between the radar elements will be shown. When you have indicated different relation types, you can now define the colors by which the different relation types are displayed on the radar. Click on the settings icon next to "Relations" and a new menu will open where you can indicate your custom colors for each relation type.
Below the configuration wheel (gear icon), there are some further controls possible that can adjust the radar view:
- 180/360 Degrees: Switch between a 180- and a 360-degree radar visualization.
- Relations Mode: Activate the relations mode to only show relations between Elements. This will deactivate the distance display. When you now click on any content element on the radar, the relations of this element to other elements are highlighted. When you use different relation types, you can adjust the colors of the different relation types (See "Select colors for a relation type").
- Show/Hide Labels: Switch on and off the visualization of Element titles.
- Embed: To embed your radar on a page outside ITONICS, this option will help you name the view and generate the iframe code needed. Read more here.
- Export: Export a PNG image of your current Radar view.
- Show/Hide Legend: When you use color, halo, or donut, the legend will show the meaning of each distinct value and visual indicator.
Saving, Sharing, and Adjusting Saved Radar Views
Once you have created a radar view, incl. the content displayed and the radar configuration, that you want to come back to regularly, you have the option to save this view so that you can come back to this view more easily or make it available to other users.
To create a new saved radar view, go to the right side and find the option "Save" [7].
Via "Save", you will update the view under the current name. When you click on the arrow, you will find the option to save as, i.e., to save the view with a new name. You can also click on the name of the current radar view to the top left and find at the bottom of the list of all radar views, the option to "save as new" [8].
When you click there, a pop-up appears where you are asked to provide a title for this view [9]. Afterward, you can directly save it or if you are a Workspace Admin or Moderator, you will also find the option to "share with everyone". When you share with everyone, every workspace user will find the name of this saved radar view in their menu.
When you want to change the name of a saved radar view, its visibility, or delete it, navigate again to the name of the current radar view and go through the list of views until you find the respective view [10]. You will now find two icons: The pen icon lets you adjust the name or visibility. The trash icon will allow you to delete the view. If it is a view that is shared with everyone, it will also disappear for all other users.
If you have applied a certain filtering, it will be saved along the radar configuration.