View the online visualization here.
View the online visualization here: Part 1 and Part 2.
Design Statement
Since at the age of 22 I still don’t have a driver’s license, my own feet have become my main method of transportation. I decided to use this to my advantage for my personal data project and recorded the distance I had traveled either running or walking each day (Not including bus or car rides). To help track my data I downloaded and used an app called “Run Tracker” to my phone. This app allowed me to measure the distance moved, as well as the total days I had collected data, all from my pocket. It was able to measure distance in both miles and kilometers, however I chose miles as my unit for this project. Each day I would activate the app before leaving for classes or in the case of weekends other activities, leaving it on until I returned home for the night. Afterwards I would note the total distance for the date in an excel sheet I kept, adding any notes about the day if needed. Something that may have affected my distance data methods was my childish hobby of Pokemon Go, which added several miles a week during the start of the project. But as time went on and my school workload got heavier, as well as lessening interest in the game I didn’t go out as much for long walks, which shows in my lower distances as the semester went on.
For this project, and with my data sets the chart type choices seemed pretty clear. I wanted to have the primary graphics be an overall graphic of all the information I’d collected for the project. Meaning I wanted it to show every single data point day, and the distance traveled on that particular day. I chose a bar graph to best represent this as I felt it was the best way to show and compare over 70 different data points. I followed this graph up with two secondary ones. The first being the total distance I traveled each month combined into a stacked bar graph, and the second a combined line graph that showed the increases and decreases in the daily distances walked over the semester. For my interactive graphs I chose to keep them as uncluttered and clean as possible. Choosing a simple red to with a white background to not take away from the data. I also made sure to label each axis and title the graphic, centering each title so it is well displayed. For my Static graphics I took a very similar route, for basically the same reasons. I again used a simple white background but this time with a golden orange color so the graphic is easy to read with no distractions, removing any features I could such as the legend. In all I thought the primary bar graphic was the most important and contained the best information. However personally I was very interested in the trends that the line graph showed over the semester, as they reminded me a bit about my life during the day each data point was recorded.
Overall I really did learn a lot from this course and project, although I feel as if I’ve only brushed the surface with many topics and programs. I learned a lot about how to go about collecting data, and then how to display it best for an audience. This project helped my way of thinking about what type of chart to use to best display my information and ideas. It also reinforced my knowledge about how to choose colors and design features that caught attention, and looked good. While also not distracting or taking anything away from the data/graphic. Something that could definitely be further developed is my proficiently with graphic programs like Tableau and Illustrator. I feel as if I could spend another semester purely studying these programs and still not have mastered them. I didn’t have any real surprises during this project, but there are some changes to my graphics and idea that could have been interesting. First off, I wish I was better with tableau and had been able to include the amount of data days for each set right on the graphic rather than in the comments. Also, I think it would have been interesting to have collected distance data both from when I was on foot, and when I was in a vehicle. Which would have been fun to compare later, but possibly ruined by the long drives to and from Seattle. I wasn’t left with any questions, although I also think it would have been interesting to continue this project for a full year. Then compared the two semesters, as I am definitely more active during the spring when it’s warmer.