Design Statement
The Data:
The topic for my data project is measuring my daily steps throughout the year. I carry my phone everywhere I go. I compiled the data using the health app with my phone that accurately measures how many steps you take when you are walking around with your phone on you. I wanted to see if my steps would go down as the temperature got colder throughout the year. This would tell me more about my habits in terms of outdoor activities and being a healthy person. The recommended number of steps per day to stay healthy is ten thousand. This is recommended by doctors all around the world. I had a feeling that once it got colder outside, the instinct to stay inside, and walk around less, would kick in. It becomes acceptable in our society to stay inside when it gets cold out. However, I was curious to see if living on a college campus would counter what I would do considering that I have to walk around to get to everywhere I want to go. Washington State University was designed to walk around the campus. I wanted to compare the step data with the Weather Data I collected online to see the correlation between my average steps and the average temperature.
The Visualizations:
For my Illustrator designs, I decided to only graph the data I collected from this semester. I could also acquire much less data points for the weather if it was only a couple of months. All my design choice went into easy readability. I wanted all the colors to match each other, make them less distinct, and calm colors. This is so that you could look at the chart as a whole rather than individual colors and graphs. The bar graph was designed with each bar being the month, lining them up with the corresponding days. I wanted this to be a compare and contrast with the months. This way when you look at the graph as a whole you can see right away what day and month I walked the most. The pie chart was just to make it easier to see the sum of the data points graphed in the bar chart. I made a line graph to show the temperature for every day of the month. I wanted it to be the same size as the bar graph so that you could easily compare them. For the Tableau chart, I decided to just focus on the steps that I’ve collected since I had my phone. I wanted to show the total number of steps for each year. The line graph I thought was an interesting way to show the months corresponding with the years. This way you can see it individually and as a whole. I wanted to show this semester months also just to show what I did for while I was at school this year. For the final graph I wanted to show the combined steps of the three years to show how I am actually pretty consistent with the amount that I walk.
Insights:
From the Tableau chart I found that I am very similar in the amount that I walk for the past three years. This makes sense to me considering that I’ve gone to the same school with a relatively similar class load. I’ve also worked the same summer job, at a concert venue, which entails lots of walking around. I think this is why I walk so much more in the summer than during school because I am on my feet from 9:00 to sometimes 2:00 in the morning. My chart I made with illustrator shows that I do have a tendency to walk less during colder weather. You can also see that during holidays I tend to walk less also, because I sleep in more and don’t have as many daily tasks. Overall, I would say my hypothesis was true. That I walk less during colder climates because I am inside all the time.