Online communities develop distinct digital dialects through unique slang, acronyms, and expressions, which are often difficult for outsiders to grasp. This paper presents the Subreddit Language Lab, an interactive web-based visualization tool designed to visualize the distinctive lexical features of different online communities. Developed using JavaScript and D3.js, the application provides dynamic lexical profiles through word clouds, N-gram frequency charts, and grammatical category distributions. The development followed a user-centered design process, incorporating user evaluations to refine the interface. User testing confirmed the prototype’s core functionality and learnability, as participants successfully identified lexical patterns and frequent terms. However, the process revealed a need for improved visual hierarchy and reduced information density in early prototypes, leading to design iterations focused on interface clarity. Ultimately, the project demonstrates that interactive visualizations can effectively transform complex textual datasets into accessible insights, serving as a valuable educational tool for students and researchers to explore digital dialects.
To run the development environment locally, use the following command.
npm run devTo build a production version, use the following command
npm run buildYou can preview the production build with npm run preview.
To deploy your app, you may need to install an adapter for your target environment.