View the online visualization here.
Design Statement
The Data: Towards the beginning of the semester, I decided that I wanted to purchase a HydoFlask. This was around the time that we had to choose our project topic for the class. For my project, I wanted to record how much water I consumed. Before I purchased my HydroFlask, I noticed I didn’t drink the recommended daily amount (8 eight ounce glasses) which led me to always being dehydrated. I decided to collect data on how many ounces I consumed in a day from Sept. 15th- Nov. 28th. My HydroFlask is the 40 ounce size. I then collected ordinal data on whether or not my face felt clear of acne each day from a scale of 1-3: 1: No 2: Some acne 3: Yes, no acne. Another data point I decided to collect was if I went to the gym that day or not. Normally when I workout, I tend to drink more water. I also recorded whether or not I went out that day as well as if I was hungover the next day or not. Some smaller points I recorded had to do with the days of the week as well as months to better break down my data for pivot tables.
The Visualizations: For Tableau, I chose three interactive charts.
The first one titled “How many ounces of water consumed based off the day of the week” was a horizontal bar chart. I really wanted this to be a vertical chart but I could not find the option to do so. Based off the data collected over the span of 10 weeks, I used a pivot table to narrow down my results on what day had the most consumption. I learned that Fridays were the days where water was most consumed. I believe this was so because I would work out on these days as well as always go out on Fridays. I chose a dark blue color since my data is about water.
The second chart titled “Is my face clear of acne?” is also a horizontal bar chart. I chose a similar color blue but just a tad lighter to add some variety to my dashboard.
The third chart titled “How many ounces of water consumed September-November” is a stacked bar chart. For colors I tried to match holidays. (October is orange for Halloween and November is brown for Thanksgiving) I thought this was a good type of chart to use because you can really see that one of the month’s where I consumed more water is leading.
Illustrator charts, static graphics
The first chart is a pictogram. I decided to introduce a pretty well known fact on how it is recommended people drink eight 8 oz glasses of water a day. I then wanted to convert what measurement I have been going off of (40 oz HydroFlask) to how many glasses that equals. I decided to pull my glass icon from The Noun Project website from an assignment we previously did. I chose to use black so the icons would stand out and complement the other black things like the font, lines and shapes. I chose to use a blue HydroFlask because water is blue. I chose this type of chart because it is very fun to read yet simple.
The second chart is a vertical bar chart. The title is “Average Ounces of Water Consumed September-November”. I used this chart in my Tableau dashboard but had to add some info since Illustrator charts are not interactive. I chose similar colors to the Tableau dashboard. I added the numbers above each bar so readers could easily read the data. This graph shows readers that in the month of October, I was meeting the recommended daily amount for water. I chose this type of graph because it is linear data and is easily understandable through this type!
The third chart is a horizontal stacked bar chart. The title is “How many ounces of water consumed while at the gym vs. not at the gym”. I chose blue as the yes color because it gives off the notion of consuming water. I used gray for the no color because gray is a very neutral/negative shade. I chose this graph because it is comparing two different answers for each month which is appealing and is easy to grasp. Based of this chart I was able to notice that on days when I go to the gym, I consume more water than days where I don’t go to the gym.
Insights: What I have learned from this project is that since I have had a HydroFlask, I have improved my water drinking habits substantially. I went from barely drinking water to drinking on average the daily amount of 64 oz a day. I have noticed that my acne clears up when I drink the daily amount of water recommended. Something to keep in mind is that I started my data logging for this project halfway through the month of September. Also, during the month of November, was thanksgiving break. Back home I do not have a gym to go to so I noticed my water drinking efforts dropped during that time. Back home I do not really have a routine like I do here in Pullman. (With school, work, and working out) Overall October was a great month for my water consumption. I also noticed that I went out a lot more in October because of “Halloweek” and drank a lot of water to stay hydrated with alcohol as well as when working out at the gym. Most of these statements above answered the questions I had when logging my data. It is crazy to me that this product helped me with drinking more water. At first I thought a lot of people bought these because of the trend. Overall, now I can tell people that it actually changed my hydrating habits! Also it is nice because it keeps your water ice cold. 🙂