TENZER VISUALIZATION CONTEST
FALL 2022
FALL 2022
The Tenzer Visualization Contest for Fall 2022 is created for all current DePauw students. It involves participants using the Tableau Public visualization platform to create an interactive dashboard for a provided data set. For this contest, we will be using an interesting data set about reported Bigfoot sightings across the United States. The data visualization skills that you'll learn, practice and improve are practical and can be applied throughout your tenure at DePauw and/or post-DePauw as a professional. This contest is suitable for students who have never created any type of visualization and/or have never used the Tableau platform. Tenzer Interns have worked with this data set, helped to create this contest, and may serve as judges. Your results will be kept confidential (being shared only with Tenzer personnel and the judges) so please don't be shy to try!
For this contest, you are required to use the Tableau Public software and online sharing platform. Tableau Public is free to everyone and available for PC and Mac. Click the icon to the left to sign up for a free account and then download the software and post your visualization to your portfolio.
You'll be using a simple but fun data set from The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) that we downloaded from data.world on 09/06/2022. We further cleaned it in preparation for this contest. Each row represents a single reported UFO sighting and includes the county and state, season, latitude and longitude of the sighting, a brief text summary, the date of the sighting, and multiple fields for weather conditions at the time of the sighting. Click the icon on the left to download the required data for this contest.
The following examples were built by Ayusha Bhattarai '25 and Minh Do '24 during their Tenzer Technology Internships at DePauw University in summer 2022 and fall 2022, respectively.
First time using Tableau? Don't worry! We recently hosted a similar contest for incoming DePauw first-year students. Tenzer director Michael Boyles hosted a kickoff workshop, which you are invited to view here. Our director introduced the center and then walked through the most basic features and functions of the Tableau Public software while creating a working example. While that workshop used a different data set, the topics covered relate very well, and data is very similar. Additionally, please see the subsequent questions for additional tutorials and videos from Tableau. Finally, we have a growing community of DePauw students who have used Tableau so you might even consider talking to a friend or classmate.
Here is the online How-to Videos page for Tableau Public. We recommend concentrating on the following videos first as these may best relate to this contest:
1. Tableau Public Overview
11. Creating Your First Chart
12. Using the Show Me Tool Bar
13. Understanding the Logic of Charts
14. Combining Sheets on a Dashboard
15. Adding Interactivity to Dashboards
16. Dashboard Formatting
21. Adding a custom visualization in Tooltip
And here is the online Free Training Videos page from Tableau Desktop. Tableau Desktop is technically a separate software, but most of its features that you may leverage for this contest work similarly in Tableau Public. These are the Tableau Desktop video sections that are recommended:
Getting Started
Visual Analytics
Dashboards and Stories (but ignore the Stories videos)
Mapping
The goal of this exercise is to use the provided data set to create and post an interactive dashboard to Tableau Public. In order to be considered for prizes, your visualization (an interactive dashboard) must meet the following minimum criteria:
Use the provided data set
Contain at least two separate but related charts
Set the size of your dashboard as “Desktop Browser<1000x800>” and ensure it is visible to anyone using the link that you submit
Give your data visualization a single main title (which captures the essence of the dashboard as a whole)
Include a text box (small font is fine) on your dashboard, or add the following note to your metadata description box… “Data made available by The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) but downloaded from Tim Renner's data.world portfolio on 06/09/2022. It was further cleaned on 07/25/2022 by personnel from the Tenzer Technology Center at DePauw University."
Include your name and expected DPU class year in the dashboard itself or in the metadata description box.
Your dashboard can focus on one state, a region of states, or perhaps you aren't going to show geography at all, and instead, you may choose to look at the chronology of the reported sightings and/or the weather conditions during the sighting. Remember to make different visualizations than the examples shown above. Be creative. There are lots of possibilities. Just be sure to use the provided data and meet the above minimum criteria.
Lastly, you may take inspiration from any number of sources, but plagiarism in any form will disqualify participants from this contest. We want to see your ideas and skills, not someone else's work!
Definitely not! Our goal is to encourage and promote your learning new technology and data visualization skills. These are valuable, real-world skills which can be leveraged in future DePauw classes, independent projects, internships or your professional life after you’ve left the University. Only basic computer skills are assumed; no knowledge of programming or statistics is required: students from all majors are encouraged to participate. This contest is designed to get you started with Tableau while also providing a fun summer opportunity before the fall semester.
The submission form will close at 5pm ET on Monday, November 14, 2022. We will not accept late entries.
This contest is open to all current DePauw students.
Judging will focus on clarity, accuracy, creativity and aesthetics, but it will be very friendly and forgiving. Here are some recommendations:
Prepare and present a concise and accurate story; focus.
Ensure you have an accurate title and perhaps a short description.
Think creatively and bring your own style; even seemingly small things like color choices and layout can have a big impact and will help separate your visualization.
Less material that is clearly presented with clean aesthetics is usually better than multiple clumsy charts that don’t coalesce.
We intend to have at least one grand prize, other top finishers, and perhaps honorable mentions as well. Prize packs will be determined later and may feature technology equipment and/or DePauw swag, gear or clothing.
Winners will be announced via email and on this page as soon as possible after the deadline but no later than the end of November.
We will only judge one submission from each student. If you make 2 or more submissions, we'll simply use the most recent while ignoring the others.
Your visualization only needs to be visible to anyone with the direct URL (so that we can view and judge it). We won't share or post your visualization without your explicit consent. If you have any doubts or concerns about it being viewed more broadly or with random people finding it (i.e., what we typically refer to as public), just list it as “not visible" on your Tableau Public portfolio. This will ensure that only people with the direct URL can view it.
No. You are expected to use the provided data set as it is given. Use of any other dataset is subjected to disqualification from the contest.
Now that you have read this far down the page, here are some additional tips on creating a better visualization to win! Data visualization is used to create a narrative while also allowing the audience to view and draw insights and form their own story with the data.
Here is a very useful link to better understand the skill of creating a better visualization. Read through the material and try to implement it in your visualizations. Below listed are some other tips which can be of help.
Accuracy and clarity are critical, but artistic expression and aesthetics are also important
Less material that is clearly presented is often better than a bunch of seemingly random charts that don’t coalesce
Focus on telling a story; do not try to impress us by demonstrating a bunch of Tableau Public features and functions
Even seemingly small things like color choices and layout can have a big impact and will help separate your visualization
Check your work carefully; ask yourself how each chart, title, color, font, data point, etc. is contributing to your visualization
If you have any other questions about the contest or Tableau, please feel free to contact Minh Do at minhdo_2024@depauw.edu, who is currently working as a Tenzer intern and will be helping to judge this contest. You can also reach out to director Boyles at michaelboyles@depauw.edu.
Nelson Mandela
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS
Grand Prize Winner: Khue Tran '25
Runners-up: Loc Chanh Nguyen '25 and Nam Khanh Hoang '25
Honorable Mention: Cody Cao '23