Udacity Data Visualization Nanodegree Capstone Project
The final capstone project for my Data Visualization Nanodegree gives me a chance to combine what I’ve learned throughout the program. This project will be an important part of my portfolio. In the following, I will be writing a blog to describe how I would improve an existing visualization.
In this project, my goal was to choose a dataset or visualization from MakeoverMonday that I believed I can improve by creating a different dashboard/ data presentation or animated story. Finally, I was asked to create a blog that includes my reflection on what improvements I made to the existing visualization.
Consequently, the first task was to choose an existing datset. As I was always very interested in economy and politics, I have chosen the U.S. Household Income Distribution by State dataset from Makeover Monday / https://data.world/makeovermonday/2018-w-3-u-s-household-income-distribution-by-state.
So, first of all lets check out the initial visualization. You can find the visualization that I have chosen to improve here:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/household-income-distribution-u-s-state/
In the following, you will find my review of the visualization as well as what I have improved. I decided to provide a final Data presentation.
What is well with the initial visualization?
1) The title is simple and clear so that everyone can understand
2) The ordering of the states by the highest income level from smallest to largest is easy to recognize
3) The colors are all distinct from each other (I’m not color blind) and carry a meaning (‘alarming’ colors for low income households such as red)
4) The labels help add context to the stacked bars and they aren’t too distracting.
5) Income group boundaries are easy to relate to
6) Data source is mentioned
What could be improved with the initial visualization?
1) There’s no indication as which year the data represents
2) The colours and labels across more than 50 rows (1 for each state) make this a very busy chart
3) Red and green in combination make this a difficult viz for people with colour blindness
4) As it’s not interactive, you can’t sort by a different income level, therefore it’s not easy to compare different states without reading the labels, which is slow.
5) Are there regional/ geographical differences? This is left unclear as the way the data is represented cannot answer the question
Pre-processing done on household income dataset:
1) Downloaded datset (Excel file) on https://data.world/makeovermonday/2018-w-3-u-s-household-income-distribution-by-state
2) Made necessary calculations
3) Created Excel charts
4) Created Tableau file
How did I improve the existing data visualization?
1) There’s clear indication which years are represented
2) The colors are designed for people with color blindness
3) There is information on different income levels
4) There is information on geographical developments
Finally, here are screenshots of my improved visualizations:
You can finde my full presentation here:
Please find all my other links mentioned in the blog below here:
1) Link inital datset / Makeover Monday:
https://data.world/makeovermonday/2018-w-3-u-s-household-income-distribution-by-state
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/household-income-distribution-u-s-state/
2) Link to Tableau file:
https://public.tableau.com/profile/jochen.krause#!/vizhome/HouseholdIncomeDistributionacrosstheUS/USHouseholdIncomeDistribution
3) Link to Medium Blog:
https://medium.com/@krause.jochen/udacity-data-visualization-nanodegree-capstone-project-67695359e80e
4) Link to full Presentation: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AoirQQO9w_c1i3z-zqL-Wdda7TT_?e=C0dNMg