PlayData

PlayData is a block-based programming environment for expressive data visualization

PlayDataLab is the official website and documentation hub for PlayData, a Scratch 3.0 modification designed to support middle and high school students make sense of data through creative programming and visualization.

🌐 Visit the website: playdatalab.github.io

🚀 Try PlayData now: playdatalab.github.io/editor

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🌍 Languages / Idiomas

This website is available in:

• English - /en/
• Português - /pt/

The site automatically detects your browser language and redirects accordingly.

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📖 About PlayData

PlayData was developed as a research project focused on creating new approaches for kids and youth to engage with data. The tool combines:

1. New programming blocks for importing, analyzing, and visualizing data
2. Embedded data table to view imported datasets
3. Custom sprites and backgrounds for data visualization projects
4. Scratch-based interface that makes data science accessible to everyone

Key Features

• 📊 Import data from online spreadsheets or manually
• 🎨 Create diverse representations: animations, music, artwork, and traditional charts
• 🌐 Available in English, Portuguese, Japanese and Spanish
• 🆓 Free and web-based - no installation required
• 🎓 Designed for educational use

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🚀 Quick Start

For Users

Just visit playdatalab.github.io and click "Try it Now" to start using PlayData!

For Developers

This site is built with Jekyll and hosted on GitHub Pages.

Prerequisites:

• Ruby (3.0+)
• Bundler
• Git

Local development:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/PlayDataLab/playdatalab.github.io.git
cd playdatalab.github.io

# Install dependencies
bundle install

# Run local server
bundle exec jekyll serve

# Visit http://localhost:4000

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🌐 Adding a New Language

To add support for a new language:

1. Create a new folder for the language code (e.g., es/ for Spanish)
2. Copy pages from en/ to the new folder
3. Translate content while keeping the same ref: values
4. Update _config.yml to include the new language
5. Add translations to _data/i18n.yml
6. Update navbar links in _config.yml

Example:

# _config.yml
languages: ["en", "pt", "es"]

navbar-links-es:
  Pruébalo: "https://playdatalab.github.io/editor"
  Acerca de: "es/acerca-de"

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📝 Adding Content

Blog Posts

Create a new markdown file in _posts/en/ or _posts/pt/:

---
layout: post
title: "Your Title"
date: 2024-01-30
lang: en
ref: unique-post-id
tags: [data, visualization]
---

Your content here...

Pages

Create a new markdown file in the language folder:

---
layout: page
title: "Page Title"
lang: en
ref: page-id
---

Your content here...

Important: Always use the same ref: value for equivalent pages across languages!

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Here's how you can help:

• 🌍 Translate - Help us translate PlayData to more languages
• 📝 Documentation - Improve guides and tutorials
• 🐛 Bug reports - Found an issue? Let us know!
• 💡 Feature suggestions - Have ideas? We'd love to hear them!

How to Contribute

1. Fork this repository
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add new feature')
5. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature)
6. Open a Pull Request

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🙏 Acknowledgments

• Based on the Beautiful Jekyll theme by Dean Attali
• PlayData is built on Scratch 3.0
• Developed as part of ongoing research in data literacy education