Release 3.6.1

Version 3.6.1 of Tuva Tools focused entirely on strengthening usability and accessibility across Tuva Jr., the core Tuva tools, and the Insert Data environment. The team initiated the transition of the underlying table-view library from Handsontable to ReactGrid. This is a significant upgrade and will span multiple development cycles. Additional improvements include enhancements to axis-origin behavior, improvements to the Bar Chart of Frequency, the introduction of a guided tour for both Tuva and Tuva Jr., and an updated screenshot pop-up experience.

• Enhancements to the Axis Origin: We have introduced the Ruler Tool, giving students a tangible way to interact with data on graphs. With this tool, learners can:
  • The x- and y-axis lines now intersect at the origin, which aligns better with the conventional way students learn and interpret coordinate axes.
  
  
  
  
  
  • When gridlines are enabled and a data value falls exactly at (0,0), the axis lines temporarily hide. This provides a cleaner and more intuitive reference point for visualizing values near zero, ensuring the gridlines remain clearly visible.
  
  
  
  
  
• Enhancements to Bar Charts: We have made the following changes to the existing Bar Charts to provide the user with greater flexibility:
  • Display the Plot Settings Card for the Frequency axis across all bar chart types, allowing users to set the axis range directly. In addition, introduce draggable handles, similar to those on the regular axes, so users can adjust the scale of the Frequency axis visually and interactively.
  
  
  
  
  
  • Authors can now save and restore any custom axis range adjustments made to the Frequency axis.
• Enhancements to the Screenshot Pop-up: The plot summary label was renamed to Plot Summary (Alt Text) to clarify its role as an accessibility description. The dataset summary was added to the screenshot pop-up to give users quick context when capturing and sharing visuals.
  
  
  
  
• Addition of the Tuva Tools Tour: An author-facing toggle has been added to enable the tool tour for both Tuva Jr. and the regular Tuva tools. The tour guides users through the key components of the environment, including the case card, the toolbar, the plotting area, and the table and summary view.
  
  
  
  

Accessibility:

• Improved Missing-Cases Accessibility: Tabbing through the numerical and categorical case cards now allows interaction with the missing-cases color, and screen readers correctly announce the missing-cases information.
• Accessible More Options Menu: The More Options dropdown menu now includes both a visible label and an aria-label.
• Focusable Statistical Labels: Stat labels for Movable Line, Mean/Std Error, Model Functions, and Least Squares Regression Lines are now fully focusable and keyboard-navigable.
• Keyboard-Friendly Context Menu: Users can now open the context menu with the keyboard (pressing Enter on the context-menu icon), and focus correctly moves to the menu, ensuring full accessibility.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Reload Plot Button Disappearing in Tuva Jr.: Resolved an issue where the Reload Plot button disappeared after switching from Plot View to Play View and back when working with saved plot states. The button now remains visible, and users no longer need to perform a hard refresh to restore the original plot state.
  
  
  
  
• Fixed MathJax Italicization in Tooltips: Resolved an issue where text inside tooltips became italicized when attribute names contained single dollar signs. MathJax now correctly handles dollar symbols in attribute labels, and tooltip text no longer renders unintended italics.
  
  
  
  
• Fixed Excess Trailing Zeros in Numeric Intervals: Resolved an issue where converting numerical data to categorical intervals generated labels with unnecessary trailing zeros in charts. Interval labels now display consistent and appropriate precision without extra zeros.
• Fixed Safari Focus Border Rendering: Addressed an issue where keyboard focus borders did not render fully in Safari, particularly on annotations and other plot elements. Focus outlines now display consistently across browsers, ensuring clear and complete visual feedback when navigating with the keyboard.
• Restored Plot Tabbing and Focus Behavior: Fixed an issue where tabbing through cases would prematurely shift focus to the table after a few items. Shift+P now correctly focuses the plot background, the focus rectangle displays consistently across browsers, and visible plot cases can be tabbed through as expected. The background rectangle also now serves as the screen-reader anchor for the plot summary.

Release 3.6.0

Version 3.6.0 of Tuva Tools delivers major upgrades to both data exploration and authoring. Key highlights include the new Ruler Tool for measuring and comparing data, Show Squares for nonlinear models to reinforce curve-fitting concepts, and annotation tools with a Dummy Card in Play View for richer authoring. This release also adds fractions support in pie charts and includes important fixes for fractional plotting, axis scaling, and embedded plot dimensions.

• Flexible Ruler: We have introduced the Ruler Tool, giving students a tangible way to interact with data on graphs. With this tool, learners can:
  
  Measure the distance between two points on a scale.
  
  Compare a single point or cluster of points to the rest of the dataset.
  
  Identify unusual values more intuitively.
  
  Here are the steps users can take to access and use the ruler:
  
  Step 1: From the toolbar, select Add Ruler on X or Add Ruler on Y from the Model Data menu to add it to the plot.
  
  
  
  Step 2: After adding the ruler to the graph, drag its handles to place it at the desired position.
  
  
  
  The ruler comes with its own context menu with the following options:
  
  
  
  
• Show Squares for Nonlinear Models: We’ve extended the Show Squares feature to support nonlinear models. This enhancement helps students intuitively understand curve fitting by visualizing each squared residual. When paired with the Sum of Squares display, learners can clearly see how changes to the model affect total error—reinforcing the concept of error minimization in nonlinear model fitting.
  
  After adding a nonlinear function in the Modeling Card, users can access the feature from the Model Data menu in the toolbar.
  
  
  
  Once selected, Tuva displays squares for each data point, with each square representing its squared residual. This visualization makes it easier to see how well the curve fits the data.
  
  
  
  If two functions are displayed in the graphing area, the squared residuals appear for the most recently selected curve. Selecting the other curve will switch the view, showing its squared residuals instead (only one curve’s residuals are shown at a time to reduce clutter).
  
  
  
  
• Annotations in Play View (Authoring Only): We’ve added annotation tools in Play View in the Authoring environment, allowing authors to design tasks with visual scaffolds such as arrows, circles, and text to highlight patterns and relationships.
  
  
  
  A new Dummy Card lets authors build activities around prediction, comparison, and reflection on missing or additional data—supporting richer, more intentional reasoning tasks.
  
  
  
  
• Displaying Fractions on a Pie Chart: We’ve added support for fractions in case-based datasets: when data values are fractions, each pie section now displays its sum as a fraction.
  
  
  
  For summative data, the actual fraction values are shown directly.
  
  
  
  

Bug Fixes

• Issue with Parsing Fractions: We resolved an issue where attribute values such as 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, and 1/5 were unplottable and triggered a parsing error when added to the X or Y axis. These values now plot correctly.
  
  
  
  
• Derived Attribute: We resolved an issue where the actual range of a derived attribute (e.g., 0.268 to 0.378) was not reflected on the Y-axis. Previously, the axis was locked to a default 0–1 range and did not respond to metadata or Plot Settings changes. The axis scale now adjusts correctly to the attribute’s true range.
  
  
  
  
• Embedded Plots Dimensions Issue: Addressed an issue where plots embedded inside an iframe were not drawn to the correct dimensions. While initially reported for box plots, the issue affects other plot types as well. We’ve implemented a partial fix and further improvements are in progress.
  
  
  
  

Release 3.5.1

Version 3.5.1 is a minor release that introduces small enhancements to Tuva Tools and Tuva Jr., along with critical usability and accessibility improvements.

Tuva Tools and Tuva Jr.

• Plot Summary in Screenshot: When users take a screenshot of a plot, the pop-up now displays the existing Plot Summary in a text box. This serves as a ready-to-use alt-text (or description) for the plot.
  
  
  
  Note: This feature is still in progress, and the team is streamlining it further.
• Translation Support: We have added translation support for several tool elements. This update improves usability and strengthens inclusivity for a wider range of users.
• Bar Chart of Sums in Tuva Jr: We have surfaced the Bar Chart of Sums in the Tuva Jr. Plot View. As a stacked bar chart, it helps K-5 students visualise addition, totals, and part-whole relationships, supporting early number sense and fraction concepts. The Bar Chart of Sums can be accessed from the toolbar in the Bar menu.
  
  
  
  
• Undo/Redo Support in Play View: We have introduced Undo/Redo in Play View, and it works reliably across key actions, including drop card, spread, counts, icons, group by, and order by.
  
  
  
  

Accessibility

• Chart Semantics (ARIA):
  • Parallel Box Plots: Parallel box plots now include category info in ARIA (matching the tooltip), so screen readers announce attribute + category.
  • Filtered Icons: You can now tab to the “Missing” and “Filtered” icons, and screen readers read out how many cases are missing or filtered (e.g., “72 missing, 116 filtered”).
• ARIA improvements across interactive controls:
  • Axis Sliders: Axis sliders now have proper ARIA role, value, and orientation (vertical where needed), so screen readers read them correctly.
  • Case Selection: Cases now have proper ARIA roles and labels, so screen readers recognise they're clickable/selectable and announce selected/not selected.
  • Legend Separator: The divider between the plot and legend now uses the ARIA separator role with a label and min/now/max values, so screen readers announce its role and position correctly.

Bug Fixes

This release includes several bug fixes. The major ones are:

• Color Picker: Fixed an issue where clicking the colour circle didn't open the picker; it now opens as expected.
• Filter: Fixed an issue where the filter failed to remove non-selected cases; it now filters correctly.
• Legend Marquee Selection: Fixed an issue where drag-selecting (marquee) over a numeric legend caused the selection to jump when “Missing” cases were listed below on the right; selection now behaves correctly.
• Modeling Card: Added spacing below function error messages so they no longer touch the border or adjacent function blocks.
• Y2 Reference Line: Restored the missing menu control so Add Reference Line on Y2 works again.
• Toolbar Bottom Border: Restored the toolbar's missing bottom border.
• Graph Type Question (Chrome): Fixed an issue where the graph type question was not saving the graph images correctly; it now saves properly.

Release 3.5.0

Version 3.5.0 of Tuva Tools introduces key feature upgrades and usability improvements designed to enhance the data exploration experience for all users. This release centers on two major updates: a complete redesign of the Modeling Card for clearer, more intuitive modeling workflows, and the addition of support for graphing inequalities-expanding the mathematical capabilities available within the Tuva environment.

• Redesigned Modeling Card: The redesigned Modeling Card features a cleaner, more intuitive layout with improved visual cues-streamlining the modeling experience and enhancing overall usability. Here are the key changes:
  
  
  
  
  • Modeling Documentation Relocated for Easier Access: The Modeling Documentation link has been moved from the bottom of the card to beside the header (via a help icon). This enhances discoverability while keeping the main workspace focused on modeling.
  • Smarter Use of the Utility Band: The horizontal band below the card header now organizes key function controls-visibility toggle, color indicator, function number, and delete button-into a single, consistent space. This frees up the editing area below and brings essential actions together for quick access.
  • Function Color Dot and Function Number Repositioned: The curve's color and its assigned number-serving as the function's identity-are now neatly placed within the utility band, improving alignment and making it easier to visually link each function to its representation on the plot without cluttering the editor space.
  • New Visibility Toggle (Eye Icon): Clicking the eye icon hides or shows the function from the plot (without deleting it), giving users control over which functions remain visible while working.
    
    
    
    
  • Flexible Function Input (Replaces Static "y ="): The earlier fixed "y =" label has been replaced with an open text editor. Users can now either type the function directly or choose from a dropdown, adding flexibility and reducing constraints.
  • Placeholder Text in the Function Input Field: The function editor now begins with a minimal "y =" placeholder inside the input box itself, preserving familiarity while signaling where users can start typing or selecting their function.
  • Explicit Messaging at First Landing: When the Modeling Card opens, a direct message "Function incomplete" appears below the input field-nudging the user toward the next step. This immediate feedback makes the required action clear from the outset.
  • Clear Differentiation Between Prompts and Error Messages: The redesign introduces a visual distinction between system prompts and error messages to reduce confusion and improve readability.
    
    
    
    
  • Prompts (such as "The function is outside the plot viewing area") are displayed with purple text, a light pink background, and a dashed border-alerting the user without signaling an error.
  • Error messages (like "Function incomplete") use red text, a solid light red background, and a solid border-clearly indicating issues that need correction before proceeding.

  This structured visual language helps users easily recognize the nature of the message and respond appropriately.

• Support for Graphing Inequalities: We have added support for graphing two-variable inequalities and one-variable inequalities in y-an important concept in middle and high school mathematics, including Algebra 1. This allows students to visually explore solution sets and understand that solutions can represent ranges of values, not just single points.
  
  
  
  

  Users can either select the desired inequality form from the dropdown menu or type it directly into the editor. The following forms are supported:
  ay > c
  ay >= c
  ay < c
  ay <= c
  ay + bx > c
  ay + bx >= c
  ay + bx < c
  ay + bx <= c
  We will continue to iterate upon the feature in future releases.
  

• Improved Handling of Implicit Multiplication: We have improved how the tool handles implicit multiplication-when variables are written next to each other without a multiplication sign. Now, whenever two letters appear together and one of them is either x or y, the tool automatically reads it as multiplication between the two.
  
  For Example:
  • mx + b is treated the same as m * x + b.
  • y = xb is understood as y = x * b.
  • xy is read as x * y.
  • ax + ky = n becomes a * x + k * y = n.

  This update allows users to type equations more naturally, without needing to insert multiplication symbols manually.

• Function Labels Now Supported for f(x): We have added support for displaying labels for function equations created using the f(x) functionality. This makes it easier to identify and differentiate between multiple functions on the plot.
  
  
  
  

Release 3.4.0

Version 3.4 of Tuva Tools brings significant enhancements to both Tuva's data tools and Tuva Jr. A key highlight of this release is the introduction of data insertion support in Tuva Jr. Additionally, this update reinforces Tuva's commitment to accessibility with improved contrast between interface elements and enhancements to keyboard navigation and focus.

Tuva Jr.:

• Data Insertion in Tuva Jr.: Recognizing that collecting and inputting data introduce several key concepts-such as data collection standards, data management, and organization-at an early stage for elementary students, we have added support for data insertion in Tuva Jr. Users can access this feature by clicking on the Insert Data Jr. tab.
  
  
  
  Once the user selects Insert Data Jr., the Play View loads with an Add Attributes card for entering attribute names, along with an empty case card.
  • The left panel (Home) displays icons for the Add Attributes card and the Case Card.
  • The Table View and Save Data buttons appear at the bottom of the screen.
  
  
  
  
  As the user begins inputting attribute names, the empty case cards on the right get autofilled with the same attribute names.
  
  
  
  Adding a New Case Card: A new, empty Case Card can be added in two ways:
  • Click the Case button in the Home (left panel) to create a new Case Card.
  • Use the carousel arrows to navigate to a new, empty Case Card.
  
  
  
  
  The user can update attribute names at any time during data entry. For example, in the case above, there is a typo in the third attribute name, which can be corrected as needed.
  
  The user can navigate to the table view by clicking the Table View icon at the bottom left and continue entering data directly in the table.
  
  
  
  Clicking the button opens the Table.
  
  
  
  Users can seamlessly switch between the Card and Table views by minimizing the table.
  
  After completing data entry, users can click the Save Data button, which is accessible from both the Card View and Table View.
  
  
  
  Clicking the Save Data button takes the user to the Review Page, where they can enter a dataset name, provide a description, and choose privacy settings. Once done, they can click the Import button to save the details.
  
  
  
  Clicking Import redirects the user to the Play View, where they can start exploring and visualizing their data.
  
  
  
  Users can enter Edit Mode by clicking the Edit button on the Case Card or selecting the Attributes Card icon in the Home panel.
  
  
  
  

Tuva Data Tools:

• Order By Drop Zone: Previously, the Order By feature was hidden within the Plot Settings Card. Now, for all plot types that support the Order Cases By option, the Order By display above the legend functions as a drop zone. Users can simply drag and drop an attribute from the Case Card into this zone, improving usability and accessibility.
  
  
  
  
• Improved Summary View for Model Functions f(x): To improve usability for cyclical functions like sin(), where there are infinitely many correct values but only a small subset is generated:
  • An ellipsis (…) will be added to indicate more possible values.
  • Values will be limited to those within the visible axis range if at least five are visible.
  • If more than five values fall within the visible range, only the first five will be shown.
  
  
  
  
  
• Display Trailing Zeroes: Previously, the display of significant digits was unclear when trailing digits were removed. To improve clarity:
  • Trailing zeros will now always be shown in all calculated numbers across the Plot View, Summary View, and Summary Statistics, including statistics and model data values (e.g., F(x) and Movable Line).
  • A "Show Trailing Zeros" toggle has been added to the Attribute Settings card for numeric attributes, located next to the Decimals setting. This gives dataset authors explicit control over the display of trailing zeros.
  
  
  
  
  
• Enhancements to Draw Mode and Annotations:
  • Undo/Redo Improvements: The undo/redo functionality has been expanded to support all edit actions available in the Annotation context menu, including changes to color, line width, and other modifications. Additionally, users can now undo or redo image pasting, making the editing process more flexible and efficient.
  • Optimized Save/Restore: The save and restore process for images, text, and points has been optimized to use less storage while maintaining performance. Repeated actions are now consolidated into a single undo/redo step, reducing unnecessary steps and improving efficiency.
  • Bug Fix: A bug has been fixed where dragging an image rectangle for the first time did not expand correctly to match the drawn rectangle. With this fix, image rectangles now behave consistently with other objects in the draw mode.

Accessibility:

• Improved Contrast for Different Elements:
  • Stats Label Text Adjustment: The text color for Mean, Mode, Standard Deviation, and Variance has been adjusted to improve readability.
  • Improved Contrast for Category Selection and Legend Elements: When selecting categories on the Legend, X-Axis, or Y-Axis, a background rectangle now appears with reverse contrast to enhance visibility. Additionally, the Legend Separator, border color, and scrollbar color have been updated to improve contrast and meet accessibility standards.
  • Minor Gridline Contrast Update: The minor gridlines have been adjusted to achieve the desired contrast level, enhancing clarity without overwhelming the main gridlines.
• Support for Keyboard-friendly Annotations: Pressing Enter on the keyboard now adds the annotation directly to the plot area and automatically selects it, ensuring immediate focus for easy modification.

Release 3.3.0

This major release introduces several improvements across Tuva's data tools, Tuva Jr., and the Authoring environment. Key updates include the introduction of the Big Card View in Tuva Jr.'s Play View, enhancements to the Attribute Settings Card for better handling of attributes with fraction and decimal values, and a dynamic Dual Axis toggle that appears only when applicable.

In the Authoring environment, we've added more control over Reset and Reload functionalities to provide more flexibility to our partners, allowing authors to hide the Reset button in saved plots and save summary statistics for answer checking during lessons. With a continued focus on accessibility, general improvements ensure smoother navigation and enhanced support for assistive technologies, making the platform more inclusive and user-friendly for all.

Tuva Jr.:

• Big Card Access in Play View: After students created a graph in the Play View, the ability to access individual Big Cards was restricted, limiting their capacity for in-depth analysis. To enhance student's ability to explore all case attributes, we have now enabled the Big Card View functionality within the Play View.
  
  To use this feature, students can click on the relevant card, and the Big Card will open in the placeholder on the left.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Tuva Data Tools:

• Attribute Settings Card Redesign: Building on the previous release's redesign of the Attribute Settings Card, we have made additional improvements to further enhance both its readability and usability.
  • The Fractions/Decimals controls are now dynamic, adjusting based on the type of attribute selected.
  • The Fractions/Decimals controls have been relocated just below the Data Type setting, making them easier to find and improving usability.
  
  
  
  
  
  • A new Denominator field has been added, allowing users to input integers starting from 1, with an upper limit of 10,000, providing greater flexibility for fraction representation.
  • A Simplified Fractions toggle has been introduced, enabling users to choose whether fractions are displayed in their simplified form.
  • Additionally, a Proper Fractions toggle has been added, allowing users to toggle between proper and improper fraction formats.
• Dynamic Toggle for Dual Axis: The Dual Axis toggle in the Plot Settings card now dynamically appears only when applicable graph types, such as scatter plots or line graphs, are being plotted.
  
  
  
  
  
  This change prevents users from attempting to use the toggle with non-applicable graph types, reducing potential frustration.
• Updated Design & Tooltips: We have updated the tooltips for the Reset and Reload Plot buttons to help the user make a clear distinction between the functions of the two buttons.
  
  

  Button	Updated Tooltip
  	Clear and Reset
  	Reload Plot

  
  
  Further, we changed the design of the Reload Plot button to make it more distinct.
  
  

  Old Design	New Design

  
  
  

Enhancements to Authoring:

• Added the Reset Toggle: Authors can now hide the Reset button in their saved plots using the Clear and Reset toggle under the Global Settings in the authoring environment.
  
  
  
  The toggle is on by default. When the user switches it off, the Reset button on the toolbar is hidden.
  
  
  
  
• Saving Summary Statistics: We have introduced a feature that allows authors to save summary statistics (e.g., slope, intercept values) with the plot state for answer checking in lessons. All summary view data can be stored when needed, allowing parameters to be examined during lesson activities. This data is only saved in authoring mode or during active lessons and is ignored when restoring plots to avoid clutter.

Accessibility:

• Improved Menubar Accessibility: We have updated the top toolbar to improve accessibility. Now, the role has been changed to "menubar," and if a menu item has a dropdown, it will indicate this to assistive technology with a special tag. Additionally, users can navigate between menu items using the left and right arrow keys. If a menu item has a submenu, pressing the right arrow will open it, and pressing the left arrow will close it. When pressing the tab key, focus will move to the next interactive component, making navigation smoother.
• Best Practice for Informational Text & Accessible Labels:
  • We updated the ARIA label for the "Add Attribute" button to match the visible label, ensuring the accessible label is the same as what users see, improving clarity for screen reader users.
  • For the Formula Documentation and Modeling Documentation, we updated the ARIA labels for better informational clarity:
  • Formula Documentation: "Formula Documentation, learn how to write formulas to create new attributes."
  • Modeling Documentation: "Modeling Documentation, learn how to create equations that model your data."
• New Tab Notification: We've added a feature to let screen readers inform users when a link opens in a new tab. This applies to links like Formula Documentation, Modeling Documentation, and the Help Menu. Screen readers will now say "opens in a new tab" before the user clicks the link, making navigation clearer for those using assistive technology.
• Editing Plot Title: To ensure clear instructions and interactions, we've added a checkmark for finalizing changes when editing the plot title.
  
  
  
  This provides a clear way for users to submit the title after inputting it, improving the overall user experience.
• Histograms Accessibility:
  • Info and Relationships: We improved accessibility by grouping the "Histogram Bin Options" and its controls, ensuring that screen readers recognize and announce them together as a single set. This helps users with assistive technology understand the connection between the label and the controls.
  • Histogram Axis Scale Radio Button Group: We improved accessibility by adding the correct structure for the Histogram Axis Scale radio buttons:
    • The radio buttons are now inside a group with the proper "radiogroup" role.
    • We labeled the group so screen readers can announce it correctly by linking it to the "Histogram Axis Scale" label. This helps users with assistive technologies understand the purpose of the radio buttons and navigate them more easily.
  We've added a feature to let screen readers inform users when a link opens in a new tab. This applies to links like Formula Documentation, Modeling Documentation, and the Help Menu. Screen readers will now say "opens in a new tab" before the user clicks the link, making navigation clearer for those using assistive technology.

Release 3.2.1

This minor version of the Tuva tools brings enhancements and fixes to boost usability and accessibility. The primary updates include iteration on the color picker design for greater compactness and usability, the ability for users to switch from Play View to Plot View with a single click, and several accessibility enhancements. These updates align with our ongoing focus on improving the overall user experience and making the tools more accessible to all users.

Enhancements to Tuva Jr.:

• Consistent Column Widths in Big Cards: We fixed an issue in the play view where varying character lengths in attribute values caused column widths to differ when comparing two Big Cards. Now, the column widths remain equal regardless of the number of characters in the attributes.
  
  
  
  
• Enabled Switch between Play View to Plot View: Users can now switch from Play View to Plot View with a single click, even without creating a visual in Play View.
  
  
  
  
  • Switching from Play View to Plot View without an Order-by or Group-by shows a mixed-up plot.
  • If there is a big card or two, those cases will be selected in Plot View, with one of the cards displayed in the Case Cards. When switching back to Play View, the first two selected cases will be shown in the Big Cards.

Enhancements to the Tuva Data Tools:

• Updated Attribute Settings Card: As a part of the redesign of the Attribute Settings Card, we have added a divider under the Description field in the card. This was done to enhance the readability of the card. The rest of the enhancements will be addressed in the successive release.
  
  
  
  
• Color Picker Enhancement: We have further changed the color picker design from a circle to a square and made the number of pre-selected colors consistent across the interface by adding more colors where there were previously only 6 or 8. Additionally, the hue selector is now separated from the color picker.
  Before
  
  
  
  
  After
  
  
  
  

Enhancements to the Authoring Tool:

• Added Custom Attribute for Elem-middle: We have enabled the 'Add Attribute' button to the Case Card for Elem-middle datasets, enabling users to create custom attributes.
  
  
  
  

Accessibility Enhancements:

• Formula Editor Accessibility Enhancement: We added an ARIA label to the text area, enabling screen readers to accurately read the text inside the formula editor.
• Enhanced Focus Indicator Contrast: We increased the color contrast for the focus indicator on UI components within cards and the toolbar to meet the 3:1 ratio requirement.
• Improved Text Contrast in Formula Documentation: We updated the text contrast for the formula documentation of custom attributes to meet the desired accessibility ratio.
• ARIA-Pressed Attribute Update: We added ARIA-pressed with values "true" or "false" for active attributes, allowing speech-to-text software to communicate whether an attribute is pressed or not. Voice Over now recognizes these attributes as toggle buttons and informs the user that they can press them.
• Focus Management for Screenshot Modal: We have made some accessibility improvements to the screenshot button. It now has a feature that tells screen readers it opens a pop-up window. When you open the pop-up, the focus now moves directly to the modal instead of the close button, making it easier to navigate.

Release 3.2.0

This version of the Tuva tools introduces several important enhancements and fixes to improve usability and accessibility. The primary updates include an improved and flexible color picker, smoother pencil annotation, accessibility support for the Draw mode, and support for Portuguese. These changes aim to provide a better user experience and ensure the tools are more inclusive.

Enhancements to the Tuva Draw Tools:

• Enhancements to the Pencil Annotation Tool: The path line is now smoothed when creating pencil annotations. Users can access and adjust the smoothing controls via the Context menu's "Smoothing" setting.
  
  
  
  The Smoothing values range from 0 (unsmoothed) to 9 (maximum smoothing). Additionally, pencil lines now snap to the first point on the line, creating a smooth closed loop if smoothed.
  
  
  
  The user can choose to fill the loop with any desired color.
• Enhanced Color Picker: The color picker has been enhanced to include a consistent design across different locations. The new components include a gradient selection area for choosing a wide range of colors, a spectrum bar for quick access to various hues, and an input field for hexadecimal color codes.
  
  
  
  This flexibility allows users to select precise colors more easily compared to the standard palette. However, this is a work in progress and we will continue iterating on this design in future releases.
• Diversified Language Support: In our continued effort to make Tuva tools accessible to users from diverse linguistic backgrounds, we have added support for the Portuguese language. Additionally, we have filled in the missing translations for Mandarin.
  
  
  
  

Enhancements to the Tuva Jr.:

• Common Denominator for Fractions: We enhanced the display of fractional values on the axis by ensuring that axis tick marks now share a common denominator, even when the fractions have different denominators.
• MathJax Support: We have added MathJax support to Tuva Jr., ensuring it renders correctly in all locations across the Play and Plot views.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Filtered Cards Display: Filtered cards in the Plot View are now displayed in the top right corner of the Play View, ensuring consistency with their display in the Plot View.
  
  
  
  

Accessibility Enhancements:

In our ongoing commitment to making the Tuva tools accessible, we have implemented the following accessibility changes.

• Accessibility Support for Draw Tools: We have added the ability to include alt text for annotation items as part of the saved plotState. Upon restoration, the alt text value is used as the aria-label.
• Returning Focus After Closing Exposed UI Component: For certain UI components, pressing the escape key to dismiss the component will now return the focus back to the original UI component.
• Communicating Disabled States: There were a few areas where we were not communicating whether a button or menu item was disabled. We have now added the aria-disabled attribute where appropriate.
• Color Picker Accessibility Update: We have updated the color picker to ensure it is no longer a keyboard trap for users who navigate Tuva Tools exclusively with keyboards. Previously, the color picker disrupted the tab order, causing it to jump to the web browser URL when tabbing out. Now, when focused on the color picker, pressing the tab key will keep the user within the color picker until they make a choice or exit using the escape key.

Bug Fixes:

We identified and fixed the following bugs:

• Tooltip Issue: Fixed an issue in Tuva Jr. causing every other tooltip to appear while hovering over overlapping cases.
• Performance Issue: Resolved a performance issue when removing an attribute from the axis while having an attribute on the legend.
• Trailing Zeroes Issue: Corrected a bug where cases with trailing zeros had to be encountered before other decimals (e.g., $1.00 then $1.23 worked; $1.23 then $1.00 did not); now, both orders work and are no longer dependent on case order.
• Line Graph Issue: Fixed an issue preventing the line graph from drawing on top of the cases when the plot state initially loads.
• iPad Issues: We addressed several spacing issues unique to the iPad, specifically, enlarged buttons. Occasionally, these larger buttons became misaligned, so we have fixed these spacing issues.

Release 3.1.2

Version 3.1.2 of Tuva Tools packs some exciting features and enhancements across the Tuva data tools, Tuva Jr., and the Draw mode.

Enhancements to the Tuva Tools:

• Stretched Bar Chart Enhancements: We have introduced the ability to copy annotation elements directly within the Data Exploration environment as well as in the Draw mode. This update allows both the author of an annotation and the end user to efficiently select and duplicate previously created annotation items.
  • Changed Default Display: We have switched to displaying counts instead of percentages for the bar sections in stretched bar charts.
    
    
    
    This enhancement ensures consistency with the default behavior of other aggregate graphs, such as pie charts. Additionally, by displaying absolute numbers, users can more intuitively estimate part-to-whole ratios and proportions. Users who prefer to view percentages can still enable this option manually.
  • Revised Font Size Heuristics: We have revisited our font size heuristics for stretched bar charts to enhance readability and reduce clutter. The default font size for counts has been increased for larger bar sections, while counts for very narrow bar sections are now hidden and replaced with ellipses to prevent visual crowding. However, users can hover over the narrow bar sections to read the counts in the tooltip.
    
    
    
    
• Enhanced Grid Lines Visibility: We have updated the color scheme for the major and minor grid lines to enhance their visibility against a white background.
  Before
  
  
  
  After
  
  
  
  

Enhancements to the Tuva Jr.:

• Added Support for Fractions: We have added support for recognizing and displaying fractional values for attributes by introducing "Numerical: Fraction" as a data type. This allows the system to automatically recognize and plot case values as numerical fractions.
  
  
  
  The tool can recognize and automatically display the following formats inputted in spreadsheets:
  • Negative Fractions (e.g., -a/b)
  • Mixed fractions (e.g., a b/c)
  • Improper Fractions (e.g., a/b where a > b)
  • Unlike fractions (e.g., a/b and a/c)
  • Large fractions
  
  
  
  
  We added the support because number lines offer a broader understanding of fractions, providing a more accurate and effective method for teaching fraction concepts and laying a solid foundation for complex operations.
  
  It is a work in progress and we will continue to iterate on it in the future releases.

Enhancements to the Draw Tools:

• Grid Lines Display Toggle: We have added a toggle in the Authoring environment to enable the gridlines for the Draw mode to allow for greater precision in drawing as well as creating the support for autograding in future iterations.
  
  
  
  
• Fill Shapes Toggle: We have added the option to fill closed shapes such as circles and rectangles in the Annotations context menu.
  
  
  
  
• Context Menu Update: We have removed the following options that were not relevant from the context menu in the Draw mode: (a) Labels and (b) Case Size.

Accessibility Enhancements:

As part of our ongoing commitment to accessibility, Tuva is conducting a comprehensive accessibility audit. The following items were identified and addressed in this release:

• Reflow Legend Text on Zoom: We have enhanced the drag-and-drop instructional text in the X, Y, and Legend drop areas to ensure it is always contained within the rectangle. After zooming in to 200%, the text for the X, Y, and Legend axes now reflows to fit within their containers.
  
  
  
  
• Mandatory Text Fields: We have added the Required attribute to various text fields that require user input before proceeding. For example, the "Add New Attribute" card now has mandatory name and formula fields.
  
  
  
  
• ARIA Disabled Attribute for Menu Items: We have added the HTML tag attribute aria-disabled=true or false for menu items throughout the tools. This allows text-to-speech software to indicate whether the focused item is disabled or not.
• ARIA Label for Info Icon: We have added an ARIA label to the info icon that provides a summary about the dataset.
  
  
  
  

Bug Fixes:

• Stretched Bar Chart Display Issue: We found and fixed an issue in the Electricity Generation in the US dataset. The bug caused the stretched bar chart to visually display the 3rd bar as greater than 100%, even though its constituent sections correctly added up to 100%.

Release 3.1.1

Version 3.1.1 of Tuva Tools focuses on enhancing the accessibility and usability of both Tuva Jr. and the regular Tuva Tools. The main enhancements include improvements to the reset functionality, refining the Draw mode, better distinction between stats labels when numerous attributes are positioned on a single axis, and a larger default font size for Tuva Jr. Additionally, various small enhancements and bug fixes have been implemented to improve the user experience.

Enhancements to the Tuva Tools:

• Support for Copying Annotation Objects: We have introduced the ability to copy annotation elements directly within the Data Exploration environment as well as in the Draw mode. This update allows both the author of an annotation and the end user to efficiently select and duplicate previously created annotation items.
  
  
  
  Windows users can simply use Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste while Mac users can achieve the same with Cmd+C for copying and Cmd+V for pasting.
• Clear Visual Distinction between Reset and Undo-redo Buttons: In response to feedback, we have updated the Undo-Redo button with a more universally recognized icon and made the Reset button visually distinct to enhance clarity and user experience.
  
  
  
  
• Soft Reset Option for Saved States: We have introduced two reset options: a hard reset and a soft reset, inspired by a use case from BrainPOP. These enhancements are particularly beneficial for our partners, as well as within Tuva Courses and Assessments. They are designed to assist students in effortlessly reverting to the original plot state after engaging in numerous actions that lead away from the desired state for answering questions, or when needing to recover from a hard reset that results in a mixed-up state.
  
  Students can access the Reload Plot State button adjacent to the Plot Title and seamlessly return to the starting plot state.
  
  
  
  
• Improved Stats Labels for Multiple Numerical Attributes on an Axis: We have enhanced the clarity of our statistical labels when multiple numerical attributes are placed on a single axis. Previously, it was challenging to differentiate the statistics for individual attributes. To improve this, we now append the attribute name to its corresponding statistics in the labels, making it easier to identify which stats belong to which attribute.
  
  
  
  
• Increased Font Size in Tuva Jr.: We have increased the default font size in Tuva Jr tools from 12 to 18, enhancing readability in both the Play View and Plot View for elementary students.
  
  Previous Version with Smaller Font Size
  
  
  
  Current Version with Increased Font Size
  
  
  
  

Bug Fixes:

This minor release includes several bug fixes to the Tuva tools, the Tuva Jr. tools as well as the Draw Mode.

• Tuva Tools:
  • Redundant Values in Summary View:
  We resolved a problem where the Summary View sometimes displayed duplicate values. Specifically, if both the median and the box plot were chosen, the Summary View would show the median value twice.
  • Context Menu Access near Screen Edge:
  We have improved the context menu to automatically adjust its position, ensuring it stays clear of screen edges and opens with ample space to display all its contents fully.
  • Legend Separator Issue:
  We resolved a bug where the legend separator would mistakenly appear upon mouse hover, even in the absence of any attributes in the legend.
  • Extracted Number Decimal Issue:
  We addressed an issue where, although the tool correctly recognized the total number of decimal places when parsing extracted numbers with decimals, it appended extra decimal places when plotting the attribute.
• Draw Mode Bugs:
  • Drawing Area Issue:
  We fixed an issue in the Draw mode where dragging an annotation object slightly off-screen moved the plot title to the bottom.
  • Restoring Plots with Disabled Plot Title:
  We addressed a bug where, after turning off the plot title, saving the plot state, and then reloading it, the plot title would reappear despite the toggle button being switched off.
  • Line Graph Display Issue:
  We resolved a problem where the line graph was drawn off-center relative to the cases.
  • Safari Issue:
  We resolved a problem in Safari where the Draw mode couldn't be exported as an image or saved within the graph type question.
• Tuva Jr. Bugs:
  • Storing Configuration Object:
  We have upgraded the Play view plot state to encompass additional configuration options, including animation settings, context menu customization, and custom attributes allowing for setting and restoring various settings.
  • Screenshot Save issue:
  We identified and resolved a problem within Tuva Jr's Play View, where the screenshot functionality was unable to save images.

Release 3.1.0

Version 3.1.0 of Tuva tools introduces several improvements to Tuva Jr. tools. Additionally, this release launches the Draw Mode, specifically for Tuva Jr. and Tuva assessments, designed to assist in the creation of engaging content focused on modeling phenomena in science. Moreover, the update further expands the variety of data types supported by the standard Tuva tools, by including support for Numerical money format data.

Enhancements to the Tuva Tools:

• The Draw Mode: The Draw Mode is offered as a preset in the Authoring tool for partners:
  
  
  
  This mode has the following features:
  • Provides an empty canvas without the need for a dataset
  • Conceals the case card and table view to expand the plotting area, facilitating drawing with annotations.
  • Removes the drop areas to streamline the drawing interface.
  • Supports easy insertion and rescaling of images.
  
  
  
  
  Draw mode is then used within the Tuva application to allow students to create models of physical systems. For example, we can see in the screenshot below that a student is asked to model a solar eclipse.
  
  
  
  
• Support for Numerical Money Format: The Numerical Money format support enhances the handling of numbers with units or currency symbols, including consistent formatting and the management of trailing zeros.
  
  
  
  Here are the key features:
  • Extension to Numerical Extraction: The capability to recognize numbers has been extended to include money formats and other numerical representations with units or prefixes, such as "$1,000.50", "1 inch", and "50%". This includes handling prefixes like "$", and "USD ", and postfixes such as "in", and "%", acknowledging spaces where applicable.
  • Automatic Recognition: Numbers with consistent prefixes or postfixes are automatically recognized as an Extracted Number. Inconsistencies in these markers categorize the attribute as categorical, maintaining behavior from previous versions.
  • Manual Override: Users can manually set an attribute to be recognized as an Extracted Number, bypassing inconsistencies in prefix/postfix usage. This will default to using the most common prefix/postfix across data points.
  • Support for Trailing Zeros: Numerical: Extracted Number attributes now support trailing zeros, affecting the default Decimals setting based on the attribute type. For instance, "$10.00" would be recognized with two decimal places.
  • Display Consistency: Case Card and Table View will accurately display numbers with trailing zeros, aligning with the defined decimal places.
• Map Plot Improvements: We made the following enhancements to the map plot:
  • Map Scale Visibility: The map scale is now prominently shown in the bottom left corner of the plot.
  • Equator Line Display: The equator line is automatically displayed, provided the map is zoomed to an appropriate level.
  
  
  
  
  
• Improvements to Year-Month Formats: We've resolved a display inconsistency with month-year and year-month formats, where the format could switch between styles like "2023-Feb" and "02-2023" based on the data, without offering user control over this inconsistency.
  
  To address this, we've introduced auto-detection for the format (alphabetical or numerical) as used in the data entries, ensuring consistent display. This improvement offers users flexibility without the need to manually adjust Attribute Settings for formatting preferences, simplifying the handling of various input types such as filtering and specifying range boundaries.
• Accessibility Improvements: As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring Tuva tools are accessible to everyone, we have implemented the following improvements:
  • Keyboard Accessibility for Tooltips: We have updated tooltips to be fully accessible to users navigating the plotting area solely with a keyboard. Now, tooltips will become visible when they receive keyboard focus and can be dismissed by pressing the escape key, without shifting the focus elsewhere.
  • Plot Area Summary Accessibility: We have refined the plot area summary by placing it in a dedicated Div, linked through the aria-describedby attribute by ID. This change aligns with WCAG standards, addressing the issue of lengthy summaries in Aria labels by adopting a better practice for longer texts.
  • Usability Enhancement for Legend & Histogram Controls: We have resolved a usability concern with the legend and histogram's minimum and maximum buttons. Previously, reaching the min or max limit would still trigger a loading icon without indicating the buttons were disabled. Now, the cursor changes to signal that the button is unclickable when these limits are reached.
  • Aria Label Update for Legend and Axis Controls: We have enhanced the aria labels for the "+" and "-" buttons in the legend and axis areas, ensuring they accurately communicate their purpose.

Enhancements to Tuva Jr.:

• Line Graph by Category: For Tuva Jr., we have reintroduced the "Line Graph by Category" feature in the plot view, enabling elementary students to easily compare changes over time across different categories.
  
  
  
  
• Honoring Filters: We have upgraded the Tuva Jr Play View to honor and incorporate any filters set in the Plot View, ensuring a seamless data exploration experience.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Updated Value Display below Ascending Arrow in Play View: In the Play View of Tuva Jr., we have made significant updates to improve readability and space efficiency. To avoid truncation of closely packed numbers and text, we have implemented a 90-degree rotation for the labels below the ascending arrow. This adjustment makes values easier to read by providing additional space.
  • Order By and Group By Enhancements: Labels for "Order By" and "Group By" are now rotated as necessary to free up space, enhancing the overall layout.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Selective Label Display: We introduce the strategy of displaying every X label to optimize space usage further in the Play view.
  
  
  
  
  
  • Interactive Dragging: Despite the rotation of labels, the ability to drag categories for reordering remains intact, maintaining the interactive nature of the Play view.
  • Added Tick Marks: For clearer association between labels and their corresponding stacks, we've added tick marks. These feature a slightly different style than in the Plot view for aesthetic reasons and better clarity.

Bug Fixes:

• Responsiveness Issue: We resolved a responsiveness issue where attribute buttons, which transform into dropdown menus upon window resizing, failed to revert to button format when the window width was increased, despite there being ample space.
  
  
  
  In addition to these updates, we have carried out several bug fixes to the regular Tuva tools as well as Tuva Jr. to ensure a seamless user experience.

Release 3.0.5

In this release of the Tuva tools, our main emphasis was on introducing a series of minor improvements and fixes to Tuva Jr., as well as addressing various issues pertaining to accessibility of the tools.

Enhancements for Tuva Jr.

• Support for Graph-type Answers in the Play View: In the previous version, it was not possible to convert the Play View visual into an image when attempting to submit responses to questions that required graph-type answers. We have now added support for capturing Tuva Jr. graphs as images.
  
  
  
  
• Hiding Order By in the Plot View: We have made modifications to the Tuva Jr. Plot View, ensuring that the ‘Ordered By' label above the Legend area is now hidden by default, and will only become visible if the user opts to enable it through the Plot Settings card. This update aims to reduce any potential confusion arising while comparing between the ‘Order By' option in the Play View and the ‘Ordered By' label located in the top right corner of the Plot View.
  
  
  
  
• Accurate Display Format for Year Values converted to Categorical: We've refined the attribute parsing algorithm to ensure that 4-digit numbers are not processed as typical numbers that would incorporate a comma. Instead, they are recognized as year values and presented without a comma.
  
  
  
  This enhancement is helpful when transforming a numerical year attribute into a categorical attribute, while maintaining the standard year formatting.
• Center Alignment of Case Icons: We have made updates to the Tuva Jr Tools, ensuring that the icons are now centered on the axis tick marks, rather than being aligned to the icons' corners.
  
  
  
  

Enhancement to the Regular Tuva Tools

• Adequate Color Contrast for Fonts & Graph Colors: We have incorporated a new logic to ascertain adequate contrast for the text displaying counts and percentages within sections of a pie chart or bar chart. To maintain a minimum level of contrast, the text color will now automatically switch between black and white as needed.
  
  
  
  
• Added New Translations: To support different languages and continue our theme of addressing linguistic diversity, we have added a few more missing translations.
• Support for Date Time Values in Categorical:Numeric Intervals: We have enhanced the Categorical: Numerical Intervals attribute type to properly support dates, times, years, other date-time values, and durations. We will no longer get an attribute with all missing values, no categories, and a black color bar.

Bug Fixes:

• Tooltip & Focus Logic for Toolbar Menus: We have identified and resolved an issue that was leading to a conflict between our tooltips and the toolbar dropdown menus, preventing the dropdown menus from opening properly. The dropdown menus are now functioning correctly and can be opened again.
• Filter Application Failure: We have identified and fixed a critical issue affecting the functionality of filters on individual sections of pie and bar charts. Previously, any applied filter was not being acknowledged, and attempting to activate the filter would result in a blank screen upon opening the Attribute Settings card.
• Random Appearance of Visual Artifacts: We found and fixed some visual artifacts that were occasionally appearing while rendering the pie graph.
• Layering Issue with Grid Lines: We have fixed an issue with the grid lines appearing in front of the case icons.
• Tiny Font Sizes in Bar Charts: We fixed a bug that was causing font sizes to be smaller than normal for bar charts.
• Issue with Restoring Saved Map Plot State: We fixed an issue with the Map plot state save & restore functionality where when the saved plot state loaded, the map plot was repositioning and zooming in.

Release 3.0.4

This version of the Tuva tools prioritizes usability and accessibility. It includes improvements like appropriate font sizes and color contrast, age-appropriate axis labels, and enhanced touch device usability along with a few bug fixes.

Enhancements for Tuva Jr.

• Age-appropriate Axis Labels: We have updated Tuva Jr. with age-appropriate axis labels. Now, the x-, y-, and Legend drop areas all read: "Drop an attribute here," making it more accessible for elementary students.
  
  
  
  
• Saving and Restoring Font Size: Tuva Jr. now supports font size adjustments, enabling content creators to save and restore plot configurations with larger fonts for better visualization.
  
  
  
  
• Enhancing Color Contrast: We identified a few issues pertaining to color contrast and made enhancements for better accessibility.
  • Enhanced Visibility of White or Light Cases against Plot Background: In cases where a bar section, pie section, or histogram appears notably lighter than the white background of the plotting area, a border now surrounds these cases to maintain their visibility.
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Enhanced Visibility of Fonts against Dark Graphs: Count and percentage text within pie or bar sections now automatically adjusts its font color to either black or white, ensuring a minimum contrast level for improved visibility.
    
    
    
    
• Enhancement to Touch Device Detection Logic: Our latest update includes improved touch detection logic to cater to devices like Chromebooks and Classroom Digital Boards, which were not recognized as touch devices in the previous version.

Bug Fixes:

• Authoring Tool Bug: We identified and fixed an issue where the draggable resize area for the table view was not appearing, preventing users from resizing the table view. Now, users can easily drag to adjust the table size instead of relying solely on the up/down arrow.
• Drag Card Issue on Chromebook with Touch in Tuva Jr.: We have enhanced the drag-and-drop functionality to smoothly move cards within Tuva Jr. when using a touchscreen on a Chromebook.
• Chromebook Touch Attribute Drop Issue: We have refined the attribute drop logic to effectively manage touch release events on Chromebooks.

Release 3.0.3

In this release, our primary focus has been on fine-tuning Tuva Jr. through a series of small enhancements and bug fixes. Additionally, we continue our dedicated efforts to enhance usability and accessibility of the Tuva tools, ensuring a smoother and more inclusive user experience.

Enhancements for Tuva Jr.

• Layering Issue with Context Menu: In the previous version of Tuva Jr., we encountered an issue where the context menu would appear behind certain UI elements, making it difficult to access and use certain features.
  
  
  
  We have updated the layering logic to ensure that the context menu consistently appears in the forefront.

Hiding Redundant Items in Tuva Jr.:

• Line Graph Menu Items: Previously, a redundant submenu for the line graph was present in Tuva Jr.'s toolbar. However, this submenu was unnecessary as it contained only a single menu item.
  
  
  
  In this release, we've streamlined the user interface by removing the redundant Line Graph submenu, simplifying the menu structure for younger kids.
• Context Menu Items: Previously, the context menu in Tuva Jr. included options such as "Dual Axis" and "Show Squares" that were not relevant to the elementary school-aged users of the platform.
  
  
  
  In this release, we have improved the user experience by hiding these superfluous options in the context menu.
• Lines Submenu: In the previous version of the tools, there were options available for adding reference lines on the Y2 axis and movable lines on the X-Y2 axis.
  
  
  
  
  
  In this update, we have concealed these advanced options, as they were deemed unnecessary for elementary school-aged users.

Default Tooltip in Play View:

In the latest Tuva Jr. enhancement, we have introduced a feature that allows the display of a default attribute value when hovering over the cards.

• Default Behavior: By default, this feature will automatically select the first attribute from your dataset and display it on the tooltip. For example, if the first attribute is the name of an animal, the tooltip will show the name of the animal when hovered over.
  
  
  
  
• Custom Attribute Selection: Alternatively, you have the option to specify a different attribute for the tooltip. To do this, update the dataset metadata by adding the field "tooltipAttributeIDs" and providing an array of attribute IDs you wish to use.
• Reset Function Enhancement: The Reset function now includes the reset of significant digits, encompassing both attribute settings panel and Summary View adjustments for increased or decreased precision.

Saving & Restoring Randomly Placed Cards:

We have implemented a significant improvement where the placement of cards in random locations within the Play Area will now be saved and restored as an integral part of the plot state.

Bug Fixes for Tuva Jr.:

• Border Display Problem in Tuva Jr. Plot View: We encountered and fixed a CSS issue in the Case Card of the Plot view, where an unexpected border was appearing around each attribute's accessibility dropdown menu.
  
  
  
  
• Incorrect Card Order & Values Display: We identified and fixed an issue in the Play view where ordering cards by a numerical attribute with decimal values was resulting in incorrect card order and values display.
  
  
  
  

Tuva Tools:

Added:

Changed:

Equal Area Parallel Histograms: In the previous version of the tools, for parallel relative frequency histograms, the heights of the histogram bars for a given relative frequency were unequal.



We have now fixed this issue when comparing categories with relative histograms.

Bug Fixes:

In addition to these enhancements, we have fixed several bugs to ensure a smoother user experience.

• Hide Attribute & Edit Data Bugs: We fixed an issue with the edit data more that was causing the incorrect cell from updating when an attribute was hidden via the attribute display settings card.
• Missing Decimal Values in Legend: We fixed an issue with decimal values not appearing in the legend after converting an attribute from numerical to categorical.
• Swap Axis Bug: We fixed an issue with the axis labels that cropped up on click of Swap Axis. When an attribute was on either the X or Y axis and the drop area was visible on the adjacent axis, clicking the Swap axis would also swap the drop area label.
• Narrowly Clipped Points on Map: Previously, the Map plot displayed the map over the entire background, including the title, legend, and axes, causing data points to be concealed beneath these elements. This was particularly problematic when points were truncated on the right-hand edge, where the legend would appear even if it wasn't currently visible. We have now resolved this issue by adjusting the clipping area for the map plot, allowing data points to be drawn all the way to the edge of the plotting area.

Release 3.0.2

With a continued focus on improving functionality and usability, version 3.0.2 of the Tuva tools brings you several small enhancements and bug fixes for Tuva Jr. and the Tuva tools in general.

Added:

• More Language Translations: As part of our ongoing commitment to accessibility and inclusiveness in our tools development, we have expanded support for additional language translations.

Changed:

• Design for Data Action Bar in Tuva Jr.: In the previous version of Tuva Jr., when a dataset did not have any categorical or numerical attributes, the Data Action Bar would display both types of attribute containers even though one was empty.
  
  
  
  With the latest update, the attribute containers are dynamic. This means that if one container is empty, the other one will automatically expand to fill the space, providing more space for the attributes crammed in a single container.
  
  
  
  
• New Button Designs: We have introduced new button designs for the Tuva tools. These changes have been implemented to ensure consistency in design, enhance ease of use, and improve accessibility for all users.
  
  
  
  
• Improved Undo/Redo Text for Annotation: We have improved the Undo and Redo handling of annotations. Previously, the undo/redo text for various annotation actions (adding, moving, editing, or deleting) were all labeled as "annotations." Now, we provide more specific descriptions, such as 'Undo Move Line Annotation' or 'Undo Move Rectangle Annotation', making it easier to track and understand each annotation action.
  
  
  
  
• Updated Legend Display Logic: In order to optimize the plotting area when no legend is present, we have improved the legend's display logic. Now, the legend has a narrower drop area initially, allowing for more space in the plotting area.
  
  
  
  However, once an attribute is added to the legend, it will automatically expand to its usual width, ensuring the most efficient utilization of space.
  
  
  
  
• Enhancements to Significant Figure Rules: We have thoroughly examined the rules governing significant figures for the slope and intercept of the Least Squares Regression Line (LSRL). As a result, we've made the following adjustments:
  • Slope: The slope is now rounded to one more decimal place than the maximum of the significant digits of the X and Y data values.
  • Intercept: The intercept is now rounded to one more decimal place than the maximum significant digits found in the Y data values.
• Reset Function Enhancement: The Reset function now includes the reset of significant digits, encompassing both attribute settings panel and Summary View adjustments for increased or decreased precision.

Bug Fixes:

In addition to these enhancements, we have fixed several bugs, both in Tuva Jr. and the default Tuva tools, ensuring a smoother user experience

Tuva Jr.:

• Play View Font Size Issue: We fixed an issue that was breaking Tuva Jr after increasing the font size in the plot view and switching over to the play view.
• Issue with Numerical Extracted Values: We fixed an issue in Tuva Jr where the numerical extracted values were erroneously being treated as categorical.
• Erroneous Display of Attribute Description: We fixed an issue where the Attribute description was displaying in the play area instead of the Attribute name.
• Date Time Attribute Issue: We fixed an issue that was preventing Tuva Jr from properly displaying date time values, and instead was showing them as unicode.
• Issue with Restoring Saved States: We fixed a number of issues that were cropping up while saving and restoring plot states for Tuva Jr. For example, the button states in the top toolbar were not being honored.
• Attribute Dropdown Display Issue in Smaller Screen Space: We fixed an issue with the responsiveness of the attribute buttons transforming into dropdown menus when resizing the window. When increasing the width of the window, the dropdown menu would not return to showing buttons when there was more space. This is fixed!
• Map Plot Issue: We fixed an issue that was causing artifacts from the map plot to remain in the play area when switching from plot view to play view.

Tuva Tools:

• Issues with Converting Numerical to Categorical and Saving/Loading Plot State: We fixed an issue with the plot state not preserving changes in the attribute's type (i.e. changing from numerical to categorical).
• Issue with Pasting or Appending Data in the Table View: We fixed an issue with the tools not immediately showing the cases after pasting data or when streaming live data from a simulation to the Tools. Now, cases will appear right away.
• Blank Screen Issue when Opening Settings Card: We fixed an issue where frequency charts were causing a blank screen to appear when opening the Settings Card.

Release 3.0.0

Version 3.0 of the Tuva Tools is centered around the launch of Tuva Jr., a learning experience crafted specifically for elementary students. Tuva Jr. empowers young learners to build their data skills in a simple, yet engaging environment, equipping them with the knowledge and abilities needed to navigate the world of data effectively.

Tuva Jr. A Data Analysis Tool for Elementary Kids:

Tuva Jr. represents a significant pedagogical shift in design, driven by extensive R&D by the Tuva team on the specific needs of very young children. It is important to highlight here that Tuva Jr. goes beyond graphing tools and datasets. It is meant to spark excitement in young learners, making learning with data enjoyable. With a comprehensive environment, it aims to encourage engagement, exploration, and discovery. The R&D work identified several aspects of the current Tuva Tools and datasets that could potentially present challenges for young learners, including the initial random state of cases, the CASE Card view, the toolbar, and large, multivariate datasets. These findings have guided the development of Tuva Jr. to ensure a more user-friendly and age-appropriate experience for our young users. Tuva Jr. provides two views of the data, one for absolute data novices and the other for children who have gained a measure of facility with it.

• The Play View: The Play view of Tuva Jr. leverages the metaphor of a Card Game to create a fun and engaging environment for young learners to build elementary data literacy skills and concepts.
  
  
  
  By default, the cards are positioned face-down in their home on the left side. Students are allowed to drop up to two cards at a time into the designated drop zones in the Play Area. Once there is at least one Card in play, the Reset button on the top toolbar and the Group Cards by and Order Cards by buttons on the bottom toolbar become active, as shown below.
  
  
  
  If the user selects an attribute from the Group By buttons, the cards get organized into categories as shown below:
  
  
  
  The buttons in the top toolbar have the following functions:
  1. Spread: The Spread button enables users to organize the cards in a grid-like display, facilitating easier estimation and counting of cards, as well as comparisons across different categories.
     
     
     
     
  2. Icons: The Icons button allows students to display the cards as icons only, offering a more compact view and helping them prepare for dealing with more abstract data points, making the connection between cards and data points.
     
     
     
     
  3. Count: The Count button enables users to display the count of the total number of cards in the Play area, for numerical attributes, or the number of cards in a specific category of a categorical attribute.
     
     
     
     
  The screenshot below demonstrates the functionality of the three buttons in the top toolbar for a numerical attribute.
  
  
  
  
• The Plot View: Once learners have mastered simple data moves like grouping and ordering, they are ready to graduate to the Plot View. This view can be accessed by clicking on the Plot View button on the top right.
  
  
  
  Note: The graph represents the plot that the user created in the Play View.
  
  The Plot View in Tuva Jr. also incorporates design changes specifically tailored to enhance data exploration for young children. Here are the key aspects:
  1. A clean and simple toolbar with functions suitable for elementary-aged children.
     
     
     
     Note: The toolbar now has larger buttons with intuitive icons, making it easier for young children to navigate and access the desired functions
  2. User-friendly button names and simplified submenu options for each button in the toolbar, making it easier for young children to understand and use.
     
     
     
     
  3. Updated design of the Case Cards to clearly indicate that they are stacked.
     
     
     
     
  4. Vibrant and prominent drop areas for easy interaction.
     
     
     
     

Release 2.16.2

This release of the Tuva tool brings several bug fixes and enhancements to improve usability, flexibility, and accessibility. The highlight feature is the enhanced table view, which now allows users to expand it across different instances, providing greater flexibility when working with tabular data. The release also includes the addition of more language translations, making the tool accessible to a wider range of users. Furthermore, efforts have also been made to enhance the visibility and prominence of the settings menu and other buttons in the graphing area, ensuring a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.

Added:

• More Language Translations: We expanded language support by adding several new translations in our bid to support diversity.

Changed:

• Enhancements to the Table View: We have enhanced the Table View to promote a more efficient and streamlined data analysis experience within the Tuva tool.
  1. Support for Expanding the Table View: We have added the option to maximize the table view across different instances, including Tuva datasets & lessons, User uploaded datasets and Partner datasets, for increased efficiency in working with tabular data. Users can access the feature from the bottom toolbar by clicking on the Expand Button.
     
     
     
     Once selected, the data table occupies the entire available screen space. The table can be minimized again using the Minimize Button.
     This enhancement is particularly beneficial for partner embeds, where screen space is often limited. By maximizing the table view, users can work more seamlessly with larger tables, eliminating the need for excessive scrolling or resizing.
  2. Addition of Case Icon in Case No Column: To strengthen the understanding of individual cases, we are now displaying a case icon in the column dedicated to case numbers.
     
     
     
     In elementary datasets, data points represented as SVG images are displayed in the column.
  3. Integrating Excel Compatibility for User Uploaded Data: As part of our efforts to provide a robust spreadsheet support offering, we have added support for users to open the data table in Excel. This addition aims to provide a familiar interface for users, enabling easy data input, simple error correction, and utilization of formulae, thus enabling a more efficient and familiar data management experience.
• Enhancements to the Settings Menu and Other Buttons: We have focused on enhancing the visibility, prominence, and discoverability of various elements within the graphing area, including the settings menu button and other buttons. This was also done to achieve a consistency in design and to facilitate smoother navigation and control.
• Enhancement to ARIA Labels: ARIA labels have been updated to offer enhanced contextual information about specific interactive elements, further clarifying their purpose.
• Metadata made Optional: Metadata is now optional when loading data from a simulation or another source in the Tuva Tools, providing users with the flexibility to choose whether to include metadata.

Bug Fixes:

• Issue with Insert Data: We identified and fixed a bug in the table view where pressing enter on the last row would cause the keyboard focus to jump to the top of the next column instead of the cell below.
• Issue with Remove Attribute Button: We resolved an issue where the remove attribute button would incorrectly overlap the attribute text in Chrome on Mac computers.
• Issue with Parsing Year-Month Date Format: We fixed an issue with parsing year-month date format that caused data shifting by one month. For example, saving 2020-jan, 2020-feb, 2020-mar would result in 2019-dec, 2020-jan, 2020-feb.
• Issue with Calculated Stats for Date-Time Attributes: We resolved an issue where the IQR stat label was displaying date values as milliseconds. The issue has been fixed, and the IQR stat label now correctly displays the date values in the appropriate date format.
• Issue with Min-Max Fields for Date-Time Attributes in the Plot Settings Card: We fixed an issue in the plot settings card where the min and max fields displayed a long string of digits instead of date time values when graphing multiple date time attributes on a single axis. The issue has been resolved, and the min and max fields now correctly display values in the same format as the first attribute added to the axis. If there are additional date time attributes on the axis, the min and max fields will default to the format of the first attribute added.
• Issue with Handling Missing Values in Map Plot: We resolved a minor issue in the Map plot where handling of missing cases for the Y-axis attribute was incorrect.

Release 2.16.1

This release focuses on finessing a few of the existing features and bug fixes to increase the usability and accessibility of the Tuva tool. An important element of the release is the addition of the Insert Data Instance feature to the Authoring tool that provides content creators the flexibility to create an empty data exploration environment, which will in turn allow students to use the insert data feature in partner apps.

Added:

• Support for Creating Insert Data Instance: We added support for our partners to create an insert data instance enabling them to create an empty data exploration environment, which will allow their students to use the insert data feature. This will allow students to input data in the tables. The feature can be accessed from a button added to the partners dataset page.
  
  
  
  The content creators can further add a title and instructions for the insert data instance.
• Translation Support for Dynamically Added Text: In continuation with our effort to reach out and cater to the needs of users from diverse linguistic backgrounds, we have identified and added new translations 17 dynamic plot elements. Furthermore, we also fixed a few issues with words that were not translating.

Changed:

• Enhancement to the Formula Editor: We enhanced the formula editor by adding support for the following formulas:
  1. Greater than
  2. Greater than or equal to
  3. Random
  4. Sine, cosine, tangent
  5. Pi and e
  
  
  In this process, we also fixed an issue where when calculating sine, cosine, and tangent the algorithm was giving a value of 1.22 x 10^-16 instead of zero. We have now rounded these functions to 15 decimal places so it will return 0, which is the mathematically consistent value.
• Further Enhancements to Text Box Annotation: We enhanced the text box annotation by adding controls for increasing and decreasing the font size, selecting the font color, and selecting the background color via the context menu. Additionally, we enhanced the controls for resizing the rectangular area of the text box and removed the font size control that was appearing in the corner of the rectangle and opted for using the font size control in the context menu.
• Enhancement to the Sampling Statistics Table: We have updated the sampling statistics table to have the same consistent style as the summary view.
  
  
  

Bug Fixes:

• Issues with the LSRL: We identified and fixed an issue with the LSRL where the label in the toolbar menu was not getting highlighted after selection. Further, the Sum of Squares was not showing in the SUMMARY VIEW in certain scenarios and it was also fixed.
• Issues with the Movable Line: The context menu for the movable line was not displaying the toggle for Show Squares and the Sum of Squares was also not getting displayed in the SUMMARY VIEW.

Release 2.16.0

This release focuses on two major items: making the insert data feature more robust and enhancing the capacity of the Formula Editor. Apart from these, we have also made several small enhancements and bug fixes to increase the usability and accessibility of the Tuva tool.

Added:

• Support for Recognizing Aggregate Statistics: We added support for recognizing aggregate statistics in the formula editor for derived attributes for greater ease in working with formulae. The stats that are recognized by the editor along with their syntax are listed below:

  Aggregate Statistics Syntax	Description
  mean( attribute )	Mean of the numeric values of the attribute, excluding missing (blank) cases. Note that function names must be of the correct case, mean(), not Mean() or MEAN().
  median( attribute )	Median of the numeric values of the attribute.
  iqr( attribute )	Interquartile Range of...
  stdDev( attribute )	Standard Deviation of...
  meanAvDev( attribute )	Mean Average Deviation...
  variance( attribute )	Variance...
  sum( attribute )	Sum...
  count( attribute )	Count of the numeric values of the attribute. For example, if an attribute has 100 cases with 5 of them blank, the result is 95.
  min( attribute )	Minimum numeric value...
  max( attribute )	Maximum numeric value...

• Attribute Color Key in Table View: We added a color key for attributes in the Table View to reinforce the connection between the column in Table View and the attribute in the Case Card.
  
  
  
  Clicking on the color key applies the attribute to the legend. The behavior has been kept consistent in the Table View and the Case Card.
• Equator Line on Map Plot: We added a default line of Equator in map plots to help students use it as a reference to identify the regions falling in the Northern or Southern hemisphere.
  
  
  
  This is a work in progress as we plan to enhance the map tool more comprehensively in future iterations.
• New Translations: In continuation with our effort to reach out and cater to the needs of users from diverse linguistic backgrounds, we have identified and added new translations for a number of static plot elements. Translations for dynamic plot elements are still pending and these will be tackled in the next release.

Changed:

• Insert Data Enhancements: A big focus of this release was to strengthen and fine-tune the insert data feature to drive greater usage. The following enhancements/fixes were made to it to achieve this:
  1. Copy-pasting data: You can now copy and paste data from other spreadsheets directly in the empty table.
  2. Displaying Attribute Color Key: The Table in the Insert Data mode also displays the same color key as the case card.
  3. Rendering and Editing attributes with mixed Values
  4. Consistency in the behavior of Cell Focus across different types of attributes
  5. Rendering Numbers with Commas: The table in the insert data mode is able to recognize and render the commas in numbers with commas.
• Text Box Annotation: We enhanced the text annotation tool to permit multiple lines of text to fit within an adjustable rectangular box thus allowing the user to insert captions in the graphing area.
  
  
  
  Once you input the text in the box, you can use the two controls on the right border of the box to change the dimension of the box and the font size. The text wraps as you tweak these controls. This is the first iteration of this annotation and we intend to make the controls smoother in the successive iteration.
• Summary View Design: Continuing our focus on usability and accessibility we enhanced the design of the Summary View to make it more bright and compact.
  
  
  
  
• Context Menu Color: We updated the color of the context menu in the hover state to a darker gray (almost black) for greater visibility and easier discoverability in a busy graph.
  
  
  
  

Bug Fixes:

• Inserting Numbers with Comma when Copy/Pasting: We fixed a bug that was causing numbers with commas to drop any numbers after the comma. This bug appeared while copy and pasting into the Table View in edit mode.
• Transitioning Between Plot Types: We fixed a bug that appeared while transitioning between plot types where a missing update to axis type - when transitioning from an active to disabled attribute or back - was causing the missing value calculation to be wrong.
• Missing Authoring Tool Presets: The missing presets in the Authoring tool (Elem, Middle, and High) were brought restored.
• Order of Buttons in Authoring Tool Presets: We fixed an issue with the Authoring tool presets where the toolbar buttons were not in the same order across the different presets.
• Editing MM-YYYY and Month-Year Attributes: We fixed a bug in the Insert Data feature that was causing inconsistencies in parsing of attributes while editing.
• Bug in Axis Layout: We fixed a bug that was causing issues in axis layout after an attribute was disabled.
• String Formulas in the Formula Editor: We fixed an issue that was preventing string related formulas from working in the Formula Editor for Derived attributes.
• Controls for Changing Number of Pie Sections in a Pie Chart: We fixed a visual bug with the +/- buttons for the Pie Chart.
• Reposition Categories in Legend: We fixed a bug that was causing categories in the legend to reposition when they were clicked.
• LSRL Option for Box Plots: We disabled the LSRL for box plots.

Release 2.15.2

This minor release focuses on a bunch of big and small enhancements to the existing features to improve the user experience along with fixing a few bugs.

Changed:

• Saving and Restoring a Plot with a Card or Table Open: In order to give content creators more flexibility, we have added the facility to save and restore a plot with a Card or Table open. For example, in the graph below both the Modeling Card and the Summary Table are open. When the creator saves it and reopens the saved plot, the card and the table continue to stay open.
  
  
  
  However, this enhancement does not extend to the Sampling Card yet and will be supported in a later release.
• Addition of Bin Controls to the Histogram Context Menu: The Histogram Control Menu has an additional component in the form of Bin Controls now.
  
  
  
  The users can click the plus button to increase the number of bins and click the minus button to decrease the number of bins.
• Enhancements to Sort Icons in Attribute Settings Card: We modified the design and the associated tooltips of the Sort buttons for both categorical and quantitative attributes to make them more intuitive and to also convey to the user their exact functionality.
  
  Modifications Made to the Sort Buttons for Categorical Attributes
  The tooltip was modified to inform the user that the buttons simply reverse or flip the order of the categories, whether the order is default or user-defined (by dragging categories). The alphabets were also removed from the sort buttons as they were misleading. Alphabetical ordering only happens in certain situations.
  
  
  
  Modifications Made to the Sort Buttons for Quantitative Attributes
  The direction of the arrow in the button for sorting the values of a quantitative order in descending order has been flipped by 180 degrees. Further, the numerals have also been flipped to indicate that the values decrease in magnitude as one moves in the direction of the arrow.
  
  
  
  
• Support for Enabling or Disabling Plot Title via the Authoring Tool: An additional toggle was added to the Authoring tool to allow content creators to remove the default plot tile from the graphing area.
  
  
  
  

Bug Fixes:

• Parity between Multiple Context Menus: An issue with an action not being synced across multiple context menus has been resolved.
  
  For example, in the plot below, there are two objects each with their own context menu. Enabling the gridlines from one context menu would not sync with the toggle button in the other context menu. Now, both context menus respond in tandem.
  
  
  
  
• Scrolling Issues: We fixed a couple of bugs where the data table as well as the sample statistics were not showing the scroll bars.
• Issue with Plot Title Edit Icon: We found and fixed a bug with the Plot Title Edit Icon where the pencil was replaced by the Count and Percent menu icon.
  
  
  
  

Release 2.15.0

This release focuses on two major items: adding a context menu for histograms to enable the user to choose the histogram scale as well as bin annotations to quickly provide support for dragging categories on the axis as well as in the legend to flexibly visualize and analyze data. Apart from these, we have also made a few small enhancements and bug fixes.

Added:

• Histogram Context Menu: We have added a context menu for Histograms that allows you to learn at a glance the variety of actions you can perform in terms of choosing its scale and annotating numerical measures for its bins. You can access the menu by clicking on its icon which is located adjacent to the graph title.
  
  
  
  Like all other context menus in Tuva, the Histogram context menu also has two sections. The top section is devoted to specific actions you can do with the element it is tied to and the bottom section gives you generic options related to graphing.
  
  
  
  Please note that we are still working on syncing different context menus when multiple objects with menus are placed on the graph.
• Manipulating Categories on the Axis and the Legend: We have added an exciting new feature to our suite where the user can drag and reposition categories right on the axis. This reorganization can also be done in the legend, if a categorical attribute is applied to it.
  
  
  
  Note that as you drag a category and reposition it, the order of the categories in the legend and the filter categories (Attribute Settings Card) changes to reflect the new order!
• New Translations: In continuation with our effort to reach out and cater to the needs of users from diverse linguistic backgrounds, we have added a bunch of new translations which includes the Histogram context menu items.

Changed:

• Context Menu Accessibility: The context menu icon was getting lost in busy graphs; thus, we updated the design to increase its size and the color-intensity for easier discoverability.
  
  
  
  
  
  Please note that we are still working on making the icon even more conspicuous in a noisy graph and the optimal layering of the icon & the data points in such graphs.
• Ensuring Consistency in Significant Figures Calculations: We have worked on making the computations for significant figures consistent across numerical & statistical measures, graph types and the Summary View. It is a progressive change and we have wrapped up the first iteration successfully.

Bug Fixes:

• Histogram Bug: We fixed a bug where changing the histogram type was resetting the bin resolution to the default number.
• Modeling Card Bug: We found and fixed a bug with the Modeling Card where hovering over the slider was resulting in the screen blanking out.

Release 2.14.0

This release focuses on three major items: enhancing reverse contrast to improve accessibility and promote inclusion, providing a context menu for easy discoverability of relevant graphing features and actions for a finer user experience, and supporting recognition of a variety of Month-Year formats to equip the user to source and work with a wider range of time-series data. Apart from these, we have also made several small enhancements and bug fixes.

Added:

• Context Menu: We have added a context menu that allows you to learn at a glance the variety of actions you can take with a given graph or an object on the graph without having to open several toolbar menus or Cards. You can access the menu by clicking on its icon. Currently, we have enabled it for the following elements:
  
  • Standard Deviation Display: The context menu icon appears on the top right of the right fence of the Standard Deviation display.
    
    
    
    Clicking the icon opens the following context menu.
    
    
    
    The context menu has two sections. The top section is devoted to specific actions you can do with the element it is tied to and the bottom section gives you generic options related to graphing. For example, in the Standard Deviation(SD) display context menu, the top section allows you to choose the number of SDs you want displayed on the graph while the bottom section lets you tweak the case icon and font sizes and display grid lines and labels.
  • Movable Lines & Least Squares Line: You will find the same context menu for movable and Least Square lines, the only difference is that the icon now appears where the color picker icon used to be.
    
    
    
    Clicking the icon opens the following context menu.
    
    
    
    Note that the top section again gives you options relevant for the best fit line such as the color picker and showing residuals and the bottom section gives you generic graphing actions. An addition in the global options section is the Dual Axis which will only show up in the menu when you have a scatter plot.
  • Reference Lines and Annotations: A similar context menu is available for reference lines and the annotations. The menu icon appears where the color picker icon used to be located for these elements.
    
    
    
    Note that when you have multiple objects in the graphing area, each with their own context menus, only one menu icon for the selected or last added element will appear. For example, in the above screengrab, the reference line has been added after the rectangular annotation, therefore, the menu icon for the reference line is displayed while the menu icon for the annotation is hidden.
    If you click on the annotation, then its menu icon will be displayed while the icon for the reference line will be hidden.
    
    
    
    The context menu for both reference lines and annotations looks like this:
    
    
    
    
• Distance Scale for Map Plots: We added a basic distance scale for Map plots.
  
  
  
  

Changed:

Enhanced Reverse Contrast: In resonance with Tuva's philosophy of promoting accessibility and inclusion, we have further enhanced our reverse contrast features to provide an equitable and effective user experience for people with visual disabilities. You can access these features from the toolbar by selecting the Accessibility tab.



Clicking the tab opens the Accessibility Card on the left of the graphing area.



The reverse contrast mode can be selected and enabled from the dropdown under Color Contrast.

Enhanced Screenshot Feature: The Screenshot feature can be accessed from the toolbar.



We have enhanced the Screenshot feature to show a loading sign to inform the user that the app is capturing the screenshot.



After the screenshot is captured, a preview of the image is displayed along with the choice to copy or download.



You can use the Copy tab to directly copy and paste the image in a chat window or a document. Choosing Download saves the image file on your computer.

Bug Fixes:

We fixed several bugs of which the major ones are listed below:

• Y2 drop area was not appearing after enabling the Dual Axis
  
  
  
  
• A background behind the plot title was appearing in the reverse contrast making it illegible
  
  
  
  
• Updating the Min-max values for a numerical attribute in the attribute settings card was not reflecting the change on the corresponding axis
  
  
  
  
• When sorting a numerical attribute with values containing commas, the Table View sorting was ignoring all digits after the comma
  
  
  
  

Release 2.13.0

This release is primarily focused on global font changes, snappier card designs, and sharper and bolder colors for the Stats lines and labels. Furthermore, we have new single-column designs for the Case Card and other Tuva Cards for smaller screens and embedded partner environments. Apart from this, we have made a number of bug fixes and small enhancements.

Changed:

• Global Font Change: We have switched to a new font style and size for the data exploration environment that is narrower and allows more space for various elements in the toolbar, in different types of cards and in the content panel.
  
  
  
  
• Switching to Reduced Card Version: We have single-column, narrower designs for all card types for smaller screens and partner embeds now. This allows for more space for the graphing area. If the available width for the visualization environment (not the actual browser width) is <= to 870 pixels then the cards will switch to the narrower width.
  
  
  
  
• New Card Designs: We have snappier designs for all the cards, both the regular and reduced versions, which optimize on space and enhance readability. Here are a few screenshots showing the old and new designs:
  • Case Card:
    
    

    Old Design:New Design:

    
    
    
  • Plot Settings Card:
    
    

    Old Design:New Design:

    
    
    
  • Modeling Card:
    
    

    Old Design:New Design:

    
    
    
  • Sampling Card:
    
    

    Old Design:New Design:

    
    
    
  Apart from these, we have new designs for the following cards:
  • Attribute Settings Card
  • Attribute Display Settings Card
  • Add New Attribute Card
  • Accessibility Card
  • New Tooltip Icon and Tooltips in Tuva Cards: We have added a tooltip icon and tooltips for several labels in different Tuva cards to help users better understand their purpose.
    
    
    
    
  • Accessibility Changes for Grid Lines and Stat Lines: We have switched to bolder and more intense colors for grid lines and various stat lines along with their labels to make them more prominent.
    
    
    
    
  • Content Panel Design Changes: The spacing and border design for the Tuva Attribute and Tuva Icon rectangle have been updated. Addition of a drop shadow on the box containing attribute references and toolbar references was done to better differentiate them from other activity content.
    
    
    
    

  Bug Fixes:

  • Movable Line with Dual Axis Plots: We fixed a bug with the movable line in Dual axis plots where when the user removed the attribute from the Y2 axis and/or when the user turned off the dual axis, the Y2 movable line did not update the labeling to Y (the remaining Y axis). A similar issue was arising with the reference lines.

Release 2.12.3

The central theme of this release continues to be enhancing support for different languages for a variety of audiences. To achieve this, we have added the language menu on the toolbar and provided support for translations for fresh components of the tool in as comprehensive a fashion as possible. We have also made a couple of small enhancements and bug fixes.

Added:

• Language Menu on the Toolbar: We added the language menu on the toolbar for ease of discovery. You can click on the Globe icon to access the menu.
  
  
  
  
• Translations for Plot Elements: We added a fresh set of translations for a variety of static and dynamic plot elements which were not supported earlier. It is still a work in progress so don't be surprised if you stumble upon a few unsupported elements. We are working on a more comprehensive coverage in the upcoming release.

Changed:

• Generate Button in Sampling Card: We made a small enhancement to the Generate button in the Random Sampling Card. After the user clicks it, it will remain disabled until the samples from the previous sampling cycle have finished generating.

Bug Fixes:

• Vanishing Category Bin Line Bug: The bin lines between the cases of different categories would vanish after selecting any category. We have fixed the bug and now the bin line stays put.

Release 2.12.2

The key focus of this release is on enhancing the outreach of the Tuva Tools for a diverse audience. Towards this end, we have added support for new languages, added missing translations for several components of the Tools, and worked out the kinks in a few existing translations. We have also made a number of small enhancements and bug fixes.

Added:

• Support for Turkish and Lithuniaian: We added support for two new languages, Turkish and Lithunian. These languages can be accessed from the language menu in the Plot Settings Card.
  
  
  
  
• Translations for Plot Elements: We added a bunch of translations for a variety of static and dynamic plot elements which were not supported earlier. The coverage is not exhaustive yet and you may still come across a few elements that require translation. We are working on addressing this in the upcoming release.

Bug Fixes:

• Scroll Bar Issue: The scroll bar on the language menu in the Plot Settings card was not accessible in Firefox. We have fixed the bug and now the entire menu can be viewed using the scroll bar.
• Translation Bug: Translations from the previously chosen language were persisting for a few plot elements when switching between languages. We have fixed the bug now.
• Image Capture Bug: We fixed a bug where image capture was failing when Grammarly-like chrome extensions were installed in the browser. We updated the data-exploration environment to handle Shadow DOM styling properly.

Release 2.12.1

We bring you a brand new statistic in this release: the Mean Average Deviation along with a couple of bug fixes.

Added:

• Mean Average Deviation (MAD): You can now quantify the spread of a distribution using a brand new statistic called the Mean Average Deviation. You can access MAD from the Stats menu in the toolbar or by using the keyboard shortcut.
  
  
  
  When you choose it, you will see the following display:
  
  
  
  You can hover over the display to read the value of MAD in the tooltip or pull up the Summary View to do so.
  
  
  
  

Changed:

• Summary View: We have made a few changes to the Summary View for scatterplots fitted with a line to make it easy for you to view and read the equation of the desired line.
  
  Now, when you select a Movable Line in the Plot, instead of only the first cell, the entire row in the summary view gets highlighted.
  
  
  
  Further, if you select a row in the Summary view, the corresponding line in the plotting area gets selected.
  
  
  
  This works in the same way for the Least Squares Regression Line (LSRL), that is, if you select the LSRL in the plot, the corresponding row in the Summary View gets highlighted and vice versa.
  
  
  
  You will also see that each LSRL has a unique identifier or label in the Summary View to help you better distinguish between them.
  
  
  
  

Bug Fixes:

• Plot State: We fixed two bugs associated with restoring a saved plot state. Now, when you restore a saved plot state the annotations scale properly and any adjustments you make to the thickness of the legend before saving the plot is honored on restore.

Release 2.12.0

In this release, we bring you an exciting new addition to the tool which helps you understand the meaning of the Least Squares Line and allows you to judge the fit of a line more precisely.

Added:

• Show Squares for Fitted Lines: The Show Squares feature is the big addition in this release that allows you to judge the fit of a line using the least-squares method. You can access the feature from the Model Data menu in the toolbar.
  
  
  
  If you create a scatterplot with a fitted line and choose Show Squares, the Tuva tool constructs vertical segments from every point to the line and then uses those segments to make squares (squared residuals).
  
  
  
  You can also see the sum of the areas of those squares in the tool tip and the Summary View.
  
  
  
  If you choose to put multiple lines on the graph, you can choose the line for which you want the squared residuals displayed by selecting it on the graph or in the Summary view.
  
  
  
  

Release 2.11.3

This release is focused on fixing one minor bug with the line annotation tool and making small-scale enhancements to provide you with a better experience while using the tool.

Added:

• Language Translations: We added a few more language translations for the environment to cater to the needs of a larger diversity of users.

Changed:

• Plot Title Behavior: In the previous version, if you removed the plot title from one type of graph and switched to another graph type, the default plot title for the new graph type would not appear. We have made a small enhancement such that when you switch between graphs, the default plot title for that graph type appears.
• Saving Graphs without Titles: Earlier if you wanted to remove the plot title and save the graph, the saved graph would continue to show the default plot title. We have made an enhancement which allows you to save the graph without a title.

Bug Fixes:

• Line Annotation Tool: We have fixed a bug with the line annotation tool where when you attempted to draw a line, it resulted in marquee selection. Now, the tool draws a line as expected.
• Categorical Numerical Attribute: We have fixed another bug where when the user created a new numerical attribute, converted it to a categorical attribute with numerical intervals, and tried to save the plot, the page errored out. Now, when the user tries to save such a plot, they are able to do so.

Release 2.11.2

In this release, we have fixed a couple of bugs related to plotting large numbers on the Y2-axis and mis-plotting categorical numerical intervals on the y-axis.

Bug Fixes:

• Large Numerical Attributes: When an attribute with large numerical values was placed on the Y2-axis, the attribute values overlapped with the axis scale.
  
  
  
  We have fixed this bug and now the values align properly on the Y2-axis.
• Converting Numerical Attributes to Categorical: We have fixed another issue where when a numerical attribute was converted to a categorical attribute with numerical intervals and plotted on the y-axis, cases were being plotted in the wrong place on the y-axis.
  
  
  
  Now when you plot a numerical attribute on the y-axis after converting it to a categorical attribute with numerical intervals, the cases appear in the correct locations.
  
  
  
  

Release 2.11.1

This release is focused on fixing a variety of bugs and making small enhancements in the Tuva tool to make the experience smooth for you.

Changes:

• After Filter: The After Filter checkbox and text used to overlap with other elements in the bottom toolbar on smaller screens.
  
  
  
  We have removed the After Filter text and checkbox from the bottom toolbar to optimize the available space. When you apply the filter to the data, it gets applied to the table automatically.
• Saving Changes to Attribute Names: Earlier when you changed the name of an attribute from the Attribute settings card and tried to save the plot, the new name for that attribute did not get saved. We have made a small enhancement which allows you to save the plot with the updated attribute name.

Bug Fixes:

• Extra Line: We have fixed a bug where when multiple standard deviations were added to a distribution, an extra dashed line appeared on the graph.
  
  
  
  Now, you just see the dashed mean line.
  
  
  
  
• Elements Going Off Screen: We have fixed an issue where plot elements such as the color picker and the error bar were going off screen while changing the axis range.
  
  
  
  Now when the axis range is adjusted, the color picker and other plot elements like the error bar continue to stay in the graphing area.
  
  
  
  

Release 2.11.0

For this release, we have focused on making the histogram feature more diverse and exciting. The big changes are the addition of different types of histograms and borders for individual histogram bins. Additionally, we have added a color picker for the Least Squares Line which allows you to choose the color of the line.

Changed:

• Histogram Bin Outlines: We have added a border to the histogram bars to help you distinguish the bins clearly.
  
  
  
  
• LSRL Color Picker: When you create a scatterplot and use the LSRL to model a relationship between the two variables, you can choose the color of the LSRL from a color picker.
  
  
  
  Clicking on the color picker icon opens a palette of colors to choose from.
  
  
  
  Once you select the desired color, the color of your LSRL will change accordingly.
  
  
  
  

Added:

• Types of Histograms: You can now choose to visualize the distribution of a numerical attribute using three different types of histograms. You can access these histograms from the Hist menu on the toolbar.
  
  
  
  
  • The Frequency Histogram has a frequency axis now and it shows the number of cases in a bin. You can use the frequency axis to read the number of cases in each bin or use the counts atop the bars.
    
    
    
    
  • The Relative Proportion Histogram shows the proportion of cases in a bin as compared to the total number of cases. You can read the proportion of cases in each bin using the relative proportion axis or the proportion displayed on the top of each bar.
    
    
    
    
  • The Relative Percentage Histogram shows the percentage of cases in a bin as compared to the total number of cases. You can read the percentage of cases in each bin using the relative percentage axis.
    
    
    
    
• Adding Counts, Percents, and Proportions: What if you wanted to see counts along with relative percentages and proportions? Well, Tuva allows you to do just that now!
  
  You can use the Count and Percent (NI%) menu in the toolbar to see the relative counts, percentages, as well as proportions.
  
  
  
  Here's an example of a frequency histogram with both relative proportions and relative percentages enabled.
  
  
  
  
• View Only Support for Data Tools Environment: We have provided support for a ‘View Only Mode' in the Tuva tools environment to provide greater flexibility to content creators (Tuva and Partners) in designing their content. This mode disables and hides several components of the tool while still allowing the user to click on individual cases, sift through the Case Card, and open the Table View. This feature can be accessed via the authoring environment.
  
  
  
  The mode can be enabled using a toggle button in the authoring tool. Once activated, all elements in the environment that could potentially allow the user to change the plot are disabled.
• Tuva Tool Presets: We have added another feature to allow content creators (Tuva and Partners) to adapt the Tuva tools to the needs of their target audience. Creators can now choose between pre-compiled editions of the tool via the authoring environment. These editions have been put together keeping in mind the data concepts and graphs relevant to a given level. To this end, the Tuva Authoring Environment offers three presets: Elem, Middle, and High. Each of these presets modifies the toolbar by displaying the menus and buttons relevant to the different school levels.
  
  
  
  
  • Elem: The Elem edition is activated using a toggle button under Preset. Most toolbar menu items are hidden and this mode is meant to cater to students in elementary school. The idea is to reduce the complexity of the graphing environment so that students can focus on concepts essential to their level.
    
    
    
    Further, each submenu in the toolbar has fewer options. For example, the Model Data menu only offers the Movable Line. The Least Squares Line and the f(x) functionality have been removed.
  • Middle: Most toolbar menu items are available and this mode is meant to cater to students in middle school. The submenus have more options as compared to the Elem edition.
    
    
    
    
  • High: The toolbar menu shows all options and this mode is meant to cater to students in high school.
    
    
    
    

Bug Fixes:

• Dividers: We fixed an issue with the dividers where if it was placed over a stats line such as the mean or the median, you were not able to drag the divider any more.
  
  
  
  

Release 2.10.2

In this release we identified and fixed bugs around converting numerical attributes into categorical attributes along with an issue with the axis of a frequency bar graph. We've also added a distinct border when the Tuva Tools are embedded within a website.

Added:

• Border and Padding: The embedded view of the Tuva Tools will now display a small grey margin with a 1px black border all the way around the data environment. This is meant to separate the tools from the rest of the page when it's embedded on a white background.

Bug Fixes:

• Categorical Numerical Interval Sparse Data Bug: We fixed an issue with categorical numerical intervals creating too many categories when users were working with sparse data.
• Categorical Numerical Interval Ordering Bug: Commas appearing within large numbers were interfering with ordering numerical attributes that were converted to categorical attributes. This issue has been patched.
• Bar Chart of Frequency Axis Bug: We patched a bug that appeared when loading a bar chart with a frequency axis from a plot state. It was erroneously showing an axis starting with negative values.

Release 2.10.1

We have focused on fixing minor bugs in the Data Insertion feature to make the experience smoother for you.

Bug Fixes:

• We fixed an issue where missing cases were getting added in the plot if you hit enter on an empty row in the table. No new case is added to the plot now unless you enter a value in the row.
• In version 2.10.0, when you selected any row in the table, a legend erroneously appeared in the graph. Now you can click through the rows and select individual cases without the legend unintentionally appearing.
• In version 2.10.0, when you entered a value for an attribute, the attribute was highlighted in the plot area. We have fixed this behavior now and inputting data for the attribute no longer highlights the attribute in the plot.
• In version 2.10.0, you were not able to delete empty cases created by blank rows in a table. You can now delete empty cases sandwiched between two cases with values by selecting the blank cell and pressing delete. Cases with blank values are still possible in a few scenarios and we are working on addressing this behavior.

Release 2.10.0

We've focused on one major enhancement for 2.10.0: Data Insertion. This enhancement will allow teachers and students to upload data into their personal repositories by directly inputting data into the Table View. It will also allow people to update their existing datasets by opening up the Table View and changing values in the appropriate table cell.

Added:

• Data Insertion: The data insertion feature allows you to do two things: edit existing data that you've uploaded and create a new dataset by directly typing values into the cells in the Table View. You can access this feature by clicking "Upload Dataset" from the top navigation bar, and then clicking "Insert Data."
  
  
  
  In the screenshot below, we can see an example of data that's been directly inserted into the Table View. Once you feel satisfied with the data you've entered, you will need to click "Save Data" to save the data to your personal data repository.
  
  
  
  From there, you will go through the usual data upload steps to confirm the dataset name, privacy settings, and attributes. After you've finished the upload and review process, you'll land back on the dataset page giving you access to the Table View with an Edit Data button.
  
  
  
  Clicking the Edit Data button will change the state of the Table View so you'll be able to update any of the values seen in the Table View.
  
  Note: The Insert Data feature is only available when uploading your own data or editing an existing dataset you've uploaded. When opening a dataset from the Content Library, you will see the Read Only button in the Table View. This means you will not be able to modify any Tuva Datasets.
  
  
  
  

Bug Fixes:

• Case Selection Performance Issue: We fixed an issue where selecting many cases in the plotting area would slow the performance of the Tuva Tools when the case was also highlighted in the Table View.

Release 2.9.1

We've focused on two updates for v2.9.1. The first update is improving the standard deviation feature to calculate and visualize multiple standard deviations. The second update is enhancing the Summary View to properly display equations generated by the Modeling feature. The remainder of this change log will also mention bug fixes and a few smaller updates.

Changed:

• Multiple Standard Deviation: We've enhanced the standard deviation feature to allow you to measure beyond the first standard deviation. Recall that to enable standard deviation, you'll need to go to the Stats menu to find the standard deviation button.
  
  
  
  After clicking standard deviation, this statistical measure will appear in the plotting area just as before with one new change. Notice the 3 dot button appearing next to the standard deviation. It's highlighted in the screenshot below.
  
  
  
  Clicking the three dots will reveal a new menu that provides the option to visualize the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd standard deviations.
  
  In the screenshot below you can see how the 2nd standard deviation appears when clicked.
  
  
  
  In the screenshot below you can see the 3rd standard deviation visualized in the plotting area.
  
  
  
  
• CSS Update: We made a small change to the Summary View to use the appropriate CSS styling for its title text.

Added:

• Modeling Feature Added to Summary View: We've added support for the Summary View to properly display equations created in the Modeling feature. The equations in the Summary View follow the same structure as the equations that are displayed for Least Square Regression Line and the Movable Line.




• Version Number: We are now permanently displaying the version number of the Tuva Data Tools in the bottom right corner of the footer. Clicking the version number will take you to the change log for that version. You can see it highlighted in the screenshot below.

Bug Fixes:

• Labels: We fixed a bug connected to dragging statistical labels in the plotting area. Please see the screenshot below for an example of a label.





• Color Picker: We fixed a bug with the color picker when no color was selected.
• Flickering: We fixed an issue where standard deviation, variance, and IQR lines were flickering in the plotting area when a mouse cursor hovered over the boundary lines of each statistical measure.
• Multiple Numeric Attributes: We discovered and fixed an issue related to displaying multiple numeric attributes on a single axis. When switching between sorting options (high to low and low to high), the attribute shapes would not remain consistent. This has been fixed and the attribute shapes will not change when sorting the attributes. You can see the screenshot below for an example of multiple numeric attributes on a single axis and where the issue was discovered when clicking the sort button.




• Selecting Missing Cases: We fixed an issue that was preventing missing cases from being selected in the plotting area. In the screenshot below, you can see the places you can click to select cases with missing data.




• Attribute Description Field: We fixed an issue with the Attribute Description field not having proper paragraph indentation.
• Parsing Dates: We fixed a bug with the movable line having difficulties parsing dates when displaying the lines equation.

Release 2.9.0

Our main focus with 2.9.0 has been to improve the sampling feature to allow teachers and students to generate a distribution of samples. When someone uses the distribution of samples feature, they will be able to estimate a population's statistical measures (i.e. mean, median, standard deviation, variance, etc.). Continue reading to see a detailed account of the different changes, new additions, and bug fixes.

Changed:

• Sampling Card: The sampling card has been changed in a few ways. Let's take a look at the screenshots below and walk through the changes.
  
  Let's compare the old and the new design. Starting from the top going down, the following changes have been made:
• The default Number of Samples has been changed from 1 to 3.
• The Sample Statistics have been changed from checkboxes to radio buttons. While this change does restrict the statistical measures someone may view at a single time, we did this to keep the overall user experience manageable when viewing the distribution of sample statistics.
• After the sample has been generated, a new set of radio buttons will appear near the bottom of the Sample Card. These radio buttons will allow the user to quickly switch between the population, individual samples, and the distribution of sample statistics.



• Maximum Number of Samples: We've set an upper limit to the maximum number of samples that can be generated. This upper limit has been set to ensure the Data Tools do not slow down from too many samples being generated and visualized when the user selects the distribution of samples.
• Attribute Description: The attribute description now goes into multiple lines to accommodate longer descriptive sentences. Previously, this field would only show one line of text, making it difficult to read an attribute description. See screenshot below.
• Add New Attribute Moved from Metadata to Plotstate: While this change will not affect any frontend experience for users, we have changed how we're saving attributes when users click "Add New Attribute" from the bottom of the Case Card. Previously, it was saving the new attribute to a place called the dataset metadata. When the metadata was updated with a new attribute, any plots that were saved from the original dataset would be altered due to their reliance on the metadata. Since this change moves the new attribute form the metadata to the plotstate, users can now add new attributes to a dataset so the new attribute remains contained within that specific instance. It won't affect any plots that were saved from the original dataset.
• Least Square Regression Line: We've changed the label that shows when hovering over the Least Square Regression Line to show r instead of r^2. The r^2 value is still available for viewing in the summary view.

Added:

• Distribution of Sample Statistics: A new sampling feature that's been added is the ability to visualize all generated samples as cases in a plot. This will allow users to more learn how sampling can be used to estimate a population's statistics by measuring the statistics of the distribution of samples. In the screenshot below you will see an example distribution of samples.




• Selecting Missing Values: Users are now able to select the missing cases from the legend and from the attribute settings card. This will allow users to filter out missing cases, if they please. See the screenshot below for the exact locations.



• Line Annotation: Users may now draw straight lines from by selecting "Line" from the annotation menu.
• Plot Title Added to Tab Index: We've added the plot title to the tab index. This will allow users that only use the keyboard to navigate to the plot title, press enter to focus on the title field, and then type in a new plot title.

Bug Fixes:

• Stretched Bar Chart: We fixed an issue with the stretched bar chart not properly displaying numeric attributes on the Y-Axis.
• Modeling Card: We fixed an issue in the modeling card where the model function dropdown was not showing the hover state when the mouse was over a menu item.
• Plot Settings Card: We fixed an issue with the minimum and maximum fields for the X and Y axes. The issue was only allowing a single update to the min and max fields, and then would refuse any further changes. Users had to close the plot settings card and reopen it to make another change. This has been fixed.
• Spanish Text Align Issue: We fixed an issue with a few words in Spanish not having the proper alignment due to their overall length.
• Histogram and Sampling Bug: We fixed an issue where the bin size for the histogram kept decreasing when switching to view a different sample from the Sample Statistics table.

Release 2.8.0

The work for 2.8.0 includes a range of features, fixes, and updates. We worked on improving the color contrast of the cases by changing from a teal color to a blue color. We also added contextual feedback to help users create their plot. We then enhanced the plotting area by adding a completely new Y2-axis that will allow people to compare attributes of varying magnitudes. Finally, we also spent some time fixing specific graph issues with the Data Tools.

Changed:

• Case Color Change: We changed the case colors from teal on white to blue on white. The reason we made this change is the teal on white did not meet the color contrast standards set by WCAG. Additionally, since we had gone in and updated the different cards, toolbar, and the general look and feel of the Data Tool to ensure color contrast standards and to make it look cleaner, we also wanted to do a visual refresh for the case colors too.

Added:

• Smart Axis Labels: This feature will give users contextual visual feedback to nudge them along when creating a graph. The visual feedback presented to the user is turning an axis orange and turning the case colors to grey so the plot the user is trying to construct looks incomplete. We're hoping this will help users notice they need to take another action to create a valid graph. Keep in mind, there are many valid graphs a user can create, but not all valid graphs are meaningful. This feature currently applies to following plot types: line graph, pie graph, box plot, and histogram. See the GIF below for a demo.




• Dual Y-Axis: We've added a feature to allow teachers and students to create a graph with two Y-axes. One on the left (Y1) and one on the right (Y2) of the plot. This feature will allow people to display two numerical attributes of varying magnitudes in the same graphing area. To use this feature, you will need to enable it in the settings panel. See the GIF below for a demo.

Bug Fixes:

• Histogram: We fixed an issue for histograms when interacting with a set of samples. In the sampling table, we noticed that changing between samples increases the number of histogram bins every time you click to a new sample.
• Boxplot: Based on feedback we received about our boxplot algorithm, the quartile calculations for our boxplots were a little different than other software like Excel and other quartile/quantile/percentile functions. We've updated our boxplot algorithm so it will generate the same output as the formulas available in Excel and other software.
• Dividers: We fixed an issue with the dividers double counting cases when they were lying immediately on the divider.

Release 2.7.0

The main focus for v2.7.0 has been adding features and changing existing features to make the Tuva Data Tools compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This accessibility work was started in v2.3.0 by increasing the color contrast of many of the visual elements and adding ARIA labels to many interactive components. We're proud to continue this work to ensure the Tuva Data Tools are accessible to every student and teacher that wants to analyze data.

Changed:

• Management for Color Contrast and Design Styles: We've changed the way we're handling design variables across the Data Tools. Our effort here was to make it easier for us to manage all the different styles, colors, and user interface elements across the different components of the Data Tools. This effort, while it may not be noticeable while interacting with the Data Tools, will help us in the long run to quickly add new Color Contrasts.
• Color Contrast: For a while after we released v2.3.0, we disabled all color contrast options: reverse contrast, black on rose, and yellow on blue. We've now reintroduced the reverse contrast color style because the work with reorganizing the management of design styles allowed us to quickly reimplement this color contrast style.
• Plotting Area Tooltips: We've changed the way the tooltips appear in the plotting area to ensure they match the same styles of the tooltips that appear across the toolbar menu and different cards.
• Sampling Radio Buttons: To ensure the samples generated by the sampling feature are navigable by keyboard we added them to the tab index. Once a user has focus on one of the radio buttons of a sample, they can then navigate the entire group of samples by using the arrow keys on their keyboard.
  
  
  
  
• Rendering Math Equations and Related Text: We've updated the software for a number of areas in the plotting area, summary view, table view, toolbar menu, and different cards to ensure that math equations, chemical formulas, and other related text will render properly.

Added:

• ARIA Labels:
• Dynamic Plot Description: We've added a dynamically generated description of the plot. It describes the attributes on the X-axis, Y-axis, and Legend. It will also explain the type of plot that has been created, whether it's a Dot plot, Scatter plot, Line graph, etc. For users to hear the plot description, they have to turn on their text-to-speech software and shift their keyboard focus to the plotting area. This feature is in ongoing development and there will be future enhancements made to it.
  
  
  
  
• Dynamic Dataset Description: We've developed a dataset description that summarizes what the dataset contains - it's attributes and number of cases - as an ARIA label. This is intended to help people with visual disabilities to quickly get a summary of the dataset. This information is also available for sighted individuals as a tooltip when they hover over the information icon in the top right of the Case Card.
  
  
  
  
• ARIA Labels for Individual Cases: We added ARIA labels for individual cases based on the tooltip information. This will allow users that use text-to-speech software to hear the information that each case refers to while they navigate the plotting area. The plots that currently support these ARIA labels include: Dot, Scatter, Line, Bar Chart of Values, Box Plot with Outliers, Box and Dot Plot, Map, and Histogram. This feature is in ongoing development and there will be future enhancements made to it.
• Toolbar Menu and Cards: We've gone through and added ARIA labels for all the elements across the different cards and toolbar menus. This will allow someone that's using their text-to-speech software to hear where they currently have keyboard focus.
• Keyboard Navigation:
• Keyboard Shortcuts: We've added keyboard shortcuts to allow users with and without special needs to effectively manipulate data and analyze it with only their keyboard in a logical and intuitive way. We've taken the most common actions and mapped them to different key combinations. These actions and key combinations are available to view via a pop-up under the help menu or via the keyboard icon in the bottom right of the Data Tools.
  
  
  
  
• Plotting Area Keyboard Navigation: We've enhanced the plotting area to accept keyboard inputs. This opens up the plotting area to keyboard navigation allowing users to intuitively navigate the different plot types. Users can press tab to cycle through the cases. For the majority of the plot types the cases will gain focus from left to right. This feature is in ongoing development and there will be future enhancements made to it.
• Sonification (in beta): We've been working on a proof of concept to create an auditory representation of the visual data shown on screen. While we have released a beta version and we're going to continue enhancing it, this feature will help people with visual challenges and disabilities to listen to their data. We're still planning to do some more research around the sounds that should be played and how we want to represent visual data as auditory output. The current sound effects and tunes the user will hear are expected to change in the not so distant future.
  
  
  
  
• Axis Level Settings Button: We've added an axis level settings button that will open the settings card. This will allow users to make axis specific adjustments like changing the min and max ranges of the axis in the plotting area.

Bug Fixes:

• After adding the axis level settings button, we noticed the remove button and the settings button were overlapping. We fixed this issue to prevent them from overlapping.
• We fixed a bug when saving a plot when cases with missing data had been filtered out of the plot. The bug caused these cases with missing data to reappear in the plot even though they were filtered out after loading the plot state.
• We fixed an issue with the background opacity of the Legend when viewed on top of the map plot to ensure the text is readable.
• We fixed a few minor issues affecting the alignment of the drop areas for the X-axis, Y-axis, and Legend.
• We fixed an issue with the decimal precision buttons available in the summary view. They were overlapping with the summary view text on small screens. They now have their own dedicated space so they will no longer overlap.
• We fixed an issue for the glow drop shadow that appears on the different drop areas while hovering an attribute over the drop area. A small bit of the drop shadow was getting cut off. We've adjusted the area so it's no longer getting cut off.
• We fixed an issue with the color picker going off the screen when it was opening for the last item on screen.
• We found and fixed a keyboard trap for the attribute formula field.

Release 2.4.0

In 2.4.0, there are a number of updates for the bar chart plot type. The impetus for this change is feedback we received from users. Our goal with these changes is to make it easier for learners to understand the type of bar chart they're going to create.

Changed:

• Bar Charts:
• The bar chart menu has been changed to now show the following menu options: Bar Chart of Frequencies, Bar Chart of Values, Bar Chart of Sums, Bar Chart of Means, and Stretched Bar Chart.
• From v2.3.0, Bar Chart has been changed to Bar Chart of Values to better communicate its purpose.
• From v2.3.0, Stacked bar Chart has been changed to Bar Chart of Sums to better communicate its purpose.

Added:

• Bar Charts:
• Bar Chart of Means is an entirely new plot type allowing learners to create bars that compare the means between different categories.
• Bar Chart of Frequencies has a new dedicated frequency axis, whose purpose is to show the number of cases in each bar in the plot.
• Stretched Bar Chart now has a dedicated percent axis, which will be used to compare normalized data within and between categories.
• Added additional visual feedback to communicate to learners that the Bar Chart of Values, Bar Chart of Sums, Bar Chart of Means, and Stretched Bar Chart require certain types of attributes to properly organize the learners data. The visual feedback includes a gray color disabled state for the bar chart and new text in the drop areas.

Release 2.3.0

The main change that comes with 2.3.0 are the redesigned Tuva Data Tools. In the two images below we can see comparisons of the old and new versions. As you read through many of the bulleted items below, you will want to refer back to these images.

Changed:

• Cards:
• Updated the font, background, border, hover, and active styles for the following cards to ensure they provide a high contrast interface: Case Card, Attribute Display Settings Card, Add New Attribute, Modeling Card, Sampling Card, and Attribute Settings Card.
• The overall design of the Case Card has been changed. It no longer collapses and expands, this change has been made to improve the experience and overall performance of the plotting area. Previously, animations would trigger when the user clicked on a case, which would open the Case Card. The order of the Attribute, Value, Color, and Edit columns have also been updated and resized to fit within a 280 pixel width. The decrease in the width of the Case Card is to give more space to the plotting area and the toolbar.
  In the image below you can see side by side comparisons of the old and new designs.




• We've enhanced the Modeling Card's function text field to allow sideways scrolling to fit longer equations.
• Tweaked the sampling card to notify users when they set their sample size to be larger than the population when sampling without replacement.
• Plot Toolbar:
• Reorganized the plot toolbar menu options to better align with pedagogy. As a result of this, we also incorporated several new icons as replacements for buttons with text.
• Updated the font, background, border, hover, and active styles for the plot toolbar to provide a high contrast interface.
• The updated toolbar with its restructured menu options will now dynamically resize to accommodate different screen sizes.
• Changed the way the plot toolbar collapses menu items to accommodate smaller screens. Previously, the graph buttons would collapse under a single Graphs button. Now, we've added a More button that appears at the far right of the toolbar. When a screen is small or a browser window shrinks, toolbar buttons will begin collapsing under the More button starting from the right side.
• Changed how the Tuva Data Tools treats the reset button. It used to be treated as another graph type that would remain active, but now it's a one-time event that's triggered with no persistent active state.
• Bottom Bar:
• We've updated the design of the bottom bar containing the Table View, Summary View, and Sample Statistics to fit the high contrast aesthetic we've adopted.

Added:

• Cards:
• We've added animations when transitioning between different cards. This is to help users notice a change has taken place in the left panel of the data tools when they click to open a specific card from the toolbar.




• Plot Settings:
• We've added a Plot Settings card containing many of the previous menu items present in the settings menu. We've done this to give more space to the different settings options.
• The Plot Settings card now offers users the functionality to set a specific minimum and maximum range for the X and Y axes.
• Accessibility:
• We've added a dedicated Accessibility card containing controls to turn on or off a number of accessibility features.
• We've worked on adding functionality to help users that are physically unable to use the mouse to interact with the Tuva Data Tools. If a user enables the Attribute Keyboard support, they will see a dropdown appear in the Case Card next to each attribute. This dropdown gives users the option to add the respective attribute to the X axis, the Y axis, to the legend, or to order the data by that attribute all from the keyboard. Previously, users would need to drag and drop with the mouse in order to accomplish these actions.




• We've added API support for newly added functions like enabling/disabling grid lines, increasing/decreasing font size, increasing/decreasing case size, turning animations on or off, showing or hiding statistica labels, and several others.
• Added a new tooltip design across the toolbar and cards.

• Added language support for Korean and filled in a few more missing translations for previously supported languages.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an interface issue where a black dotted line appeared on the bottom border of a button when that button was clicked.
• Fixed a bug that cropped up when finding the nth root of a variable.
• Fixed keyboard accessibility issues on the sampling and modeling cards.
• Fixed an issue with the Add New Attribute functionality. The issue involved selecting a second attribute from the attribute dropdown while already having a formula present in the formula editor. The second attribute would appear in the right location within the formula.

Release 2.1.3

Added:

• We've added labels to appear alongside the following statistical measures: mean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation, interquartile range, least square regression line, and movable line. These labels can be enabled or disabled via the stats menu. This will allow teachers and students to view the statistical values directly in the plotting area without having to open the summary view.
  
  These labels are off by default and have to be enabled from the stats menu to show them in the plotting area. The labels are also draggable, so they can be repositioned and organized by the user. They have a background white opacity so the labels will be readable when placed on top of cases. They will also intelligently place themselves to avoid colliding into each other, if the user does not manually place their locations.
  
  
  
  

Release 2.1.2

Changed:

• The loading sign has been changed. It was previously a partially opaque circle with a progress bar and percent complete. We've changed it to 3 rectangular bars that flickr with a percentage completed to show how much processing is remaining.
• We made a few tweaks to the dropdown components in the Attribute Settings Card.
• Removed the number of attributes from the Sampling card because it's not relevant for measuring the total population.
• We've changed the footer of the graph image from black to white so it takes up less ink when printing it.
• We moved the image download button from the settings dropdown to the top level menu and removed the SVG download option.

Added:

• Accessibility:
• The least squares line when applied to data with multiple categories will now show distinct colors matching each category.
  
  
  
  
• We're now giving users the ability to increase or decrease the font sizes for all text appearing in the plotting area.
  
  
  
  
• We've added keyboard support for annotations.
• We've added a way to control the precision shown for the statistical measures. This will allow you to increase or decrease the number of decimal places shown in all calculated statistics. There are two ways to control the precision of the statistical measures, either from the Stats menu or from the Summary View.
  
  
  
  
• We've added the ability to display custom case shapes. This means the traditional circular cases in the plotting area can be replaced with unique and interesting shapes. For example, a dataset about animal running speeds can have an icon that looks like a running horse, or a dataset about rockets have the data points look like rockets. The goal with this new feature is to help elementary school students realize that each case represents microdata.
• We've added a feature to allow users to control the size of the data points, so datasets with relatively few data can have larger case sizes.

Release 2.1.1

Changed:

• We optimized code in the table view and case card so they now refer to the same underlying values. This helps us avoid a mismatch between the values displayed between the table view and the case card.

Added:

• Added a new feature called Sampling. This will allow teachers and students to generate samples from datasets. The new feature is accessible via the plot menu. When the sample button is clicked, a new panel will appear allowing you to provide the necessary information to generate a sample. After generating a sample, you will be able to compare sample statistics with population statistics and also switch between the samples you've generated.
• As part of the new sampling feature, we've also added two new statistical measures: variance and interquartile range.

Release 2.0.7

Changed:

• Numerical Duration Issues Fixed:
  • Fixed a number format issue for Numerical attributes when viewing durations of time. The duration number format will now appear in hours-minutes-seconds. This format was also enhanced to allow for negative duration.
  • Fixed an issue with the numerical duration attribute type not showing the correct tick marks on the X or Y axis.
• Plotstate Issues Fixed:
  • Improved the saving and restore mechanism for saving and restoring a plotstate so that it remembers any adjustments you've made to the X or Y axis.
  • Fixed a bug when restoring a plotstate containing a reference line on X or Y or containing dividers.
• Undo/Redo Issues Fixed:
  • Fixed a bug with the undo/redo feature that wasn't saving and restoring changes to the legend size.
  • Improved the text that appears when undoing or redoing an action so it's a little more verbose and descriptive of the action when it comes to the model function panel.
• Model Function Issues Fixed:
  • Updated a few of the error messages for the Model Function panel.
  • Fixed a bug with the Model Function panel that was preventing the min, max, and step values updating after we updated the panel to use a new UI element.
  • Fixed a bug in the model function panel when clicking undo or redo after updating the constant slider.
  • Fixed a bug on the attribute search that was recently introduced when we upgraded the case card panel to use a new UI element.
• Table View Issues Fixed:
  • Fixed a bug with the Table View not updating the attribute format when it was updated from the case card.
  • Fixed a bug with the line above the Table View erroneously showing a drop shadow.
• Updated the Order By text color so it will change with respect to the selected color theme.

Added:

• Added a help link to the Model Function panel. It links to Tuva Support documentation on how to use the Model Function feature.

Release 2.0.2

Changed:

• Several changes to Tuva Tools to allow for multiple instances of the Tools to initialize within the same webpage.
• Fixed an issue discovered where number fields in the Tuva Tools were rounding extremely small decimal numbers to 0 before the user finished inputting the number on 'Model Function' slider values, and while setting 'min' and 'max' values for numerical attribute.
• Updated "Order By" functionality so when a graph is selected, it will always display which attribute is influencing the case order.
• Updated toolbar menu item options to left align for better a readability.

Added:

• Working towards making the Tuva Tools fully accessible for people with different types of disabilities. Here's a few features been added with this release:
  • Added a tab index to all the buttons in the Tuva Tools able to be navigated and interacted via keyboard. This is to help individuals with physical or motor control challenges.
  • We're aware that visually dynamic content can cause seizures for persons with epilepsy, so we've added the option to turn off animations when visualizing data.
  • To ensure individuals with colorblindness and low visual acuity are able to access the Tuva Tools, we've added functionality to change the color settings for the Tuva Tools. This new feature allows to increase contrast by changing the default color theme and it allows people to change the colors of the data points to colorblind friendly options.
• Added public APIs to the Tuva Tools library for get/set plot state, resize, on ready, change theme, and destroy callback events.
• Added functionality to allow our publisher partners to enable or disable certain buttons or features they do or don't need visible for specific educational content.
• Added a versioning system for the Tuva Tool plot state functionality. This is to allow for backward compatibility with any future updates we make to how the Tuva Tool loads a plot state.

Release 1.1.1

Changed:

• We've updated one of the buttons in the help dropdown to point to a Google Doc of the Tuva User Guide instead of the PDF version. This will allow us to make updates directly on the Google Doc and not have to update the User Guide link every time we have a new PDF version of the User Guide.
• There are a number of enhancements we made to the Data Exploration Tools to make it easier to use on the iPad:
  • We've enabled the pinching gesture so people can zoom in or out.
  • The drop areas will increase in size when you begin dragging an attribute. This is to make it easier to place a finger over a drop area.
  • The drop areas for the x-axis, y-axis, and legend now brightly light up when you're hovering an attribute over them. This is to make sure you know your finger is directly over a drop area. Previously, these drop areas would slightly darken, but the change was not significant enough to notice.
  • We've fixed an issue for iPads and touch devices trying to scroll through a list of categories while editing an attribute.
  • We had to make a small update to allow reference lines and movable lines to be draggable on iPad and touch devices.
• While dragging an attribute, you will no longer see the tooltip for cases appear. This change was implemented mainly to help people focus on the action they're currently performing. While dragging an attribute, people don't look for case information via tooltips. Once the attribute has been released, the tooltips will become available once again. This change has also had a minor performance increase due to the fact that while an attribute was being dragged and tooltips appeared, people would experience a minor delay while dragging an attribute on large datasets.

Added:

• After adding the legend drop area in the previous version, we also added some descriptive text and a darker background to the legend drop area so it'll help people notice it and also realize they can drop attributes on the legend area.

Release 1.0.10

Changed:

• Increased the color contrast for categorical attributes with many categories.
• Modified the way space is allocated for text that appears in the plot. If numbers appear in the plotting area, they will no longer overlap with one another or overlap with the graph. We've accomplished this by resizing the font to fit the space and are also truncating numbers if they're too long. The numbers are still visible if you hover over them.
• Increased the click areas for the swap axis button and the X button that removes attributes from the axis.

Added:

• We've added support for drag and drop on iPads and other touch devices. Since touch events on mobile devices register differently than mouse events on laptops and desktops, we had to implement a separate method to handle touch events.
• We've added a drop area for the legend, so you may now drag and drop attributes on to the legend area.
• We added an event that pushes an environment ready notification to let other elements on a page know that data exploration tool has finished loading.

Release 1.0.0

Changed:

• Implemented a lightweight spreadsheet for the Table View, which significantly improves performance and responsiveness of the entire data exploration tool.
• The equation for the least square regression line will now persist if you click on it, so downloading an image of the graph will show the equation in the image.
• Updated the component structure for the Case Card and Graphing Menu to allow us to easily add or remove different buttons.
• The legend now includes a white semi-transparent background to make the legend text easier to read when it's overlaid on the map plot.
• When editing an attributes' settings, clicking on the dropdown to change the type of the attribute will now have an example of how each attribute type will change how the data will appear in the plot and case card.
• There's a new pencil icon next to the graph title to better communicate the title can be edited when clicked.

Added:

• In an effort to allow users to create models of the data they analyze, you may now access the model functions panel by clicking on f(x) in the graph menu. This will allow you to add a new function and type an equation, which will show graph in the plot area.
• Along with the new function modeling features, grid lines will appear when an equation is graphed in the plot area. The grid lines may also be turned on or off.
• There is a new help button in the graph menu, which links to Tuva Support documentation for the data exploration tool.
• When choosing to hide or unhide attributes in the Case Card, we've added a Select All and a Clear button to make the process faster.
• The Summary View now has a print option so you may print the summary statistics of the data you're analyzing.
• The movable line now displays its equation in the Summary View.
• If cases are missing data and the legend is activated, the cases without values will appear as grey while the remainder of the cases will have associated legend colors.
• The formula editor for adding new attributes now supports the syntax to perform logical operations and manipulate text. The new logical operations include: and, or, xor, if, less than, greater than, equals. The text manipulation operations include text extraction and concatenation.
• There is a new attribute type called Numerical Binning. This will turn a continuous numeric axis into user-defined buckets. The data exploration tool will then place the cases in the appropriate bucket, showing how many cases fall within a certain range.

Release 0.0.6

Changed:

• Increased the image resolution while exporting the plot as a PNG
• Moved the Map button from a submenu to the top level graph menu
• Plot title entry and annotation tools text element doesn't adjust the position on click, and works smoothly
• Improvement on Map plots

Added:

• Added option to Clear All Reference Lines and Clear All Annotations, to allow users to quickly and easily remove all reference lines or annotations that have been added to the plotting area.
• Added support for MathJax, which allows us to display LaTeX characters in the case card and plot
• Added the functionality to hide or unhide attributes listed in the case card, which allows to simplify the attribute list in the case card should they want to re-use an existing dataset for different grade levels. (only applicable to user uploaded datasets)
• While saving interactive plot, it will now also save a preview image
• Added loading sign feedback while the plot is initializing, to provide better feedback on the progress.
• For embedded plotting environments, we added a right border to prevent the plotting area from looking like it bleeds into the background of the website it's embedded in.
• Added the version number in the bottom right of the plot, which links to Tuva's change log.

Release 0.0.5

Changed:

• Updating web pack config to fix relative image path issue at css.
• Don't toggle case card during marquee select.

Release 0.0.4

Changed:

• While saving and restoring plot state, saving explicit order by attribute as well.
• Version navigation.

Release 0.0.2

Changed:

• Annotation tools: now all tools can be moved (including text tool) and resized (including text).
• CursorHand: add actual "hand" cursor for dragging, replace instances of "cursorHand" with standard cursorPointer, which is what was intended everywhere there is a button or object to select. Average lines change to arrow (cursorDefault), since they cannot be selected.

Added:

• Color picker for Annotation Tools & Attributes.
• Export plot as SVG.
• Map.

Removed:

• Removed bower dependencies.