Below are some of my featured visualizations. See more by using the navigation bar on the left.
This was my first time participating in #ProjectHealthViz, which is a monthly challenge using real health data. For July's challenge, I looked at all of the medical costs and appointments associated with a particular child's treatment for a traumatic brain injury and vision impairment. This was really cool for me, because as a former special education teacher, I worked with children who had similar challenges. As a teacher, I'm not sure I had the awareness of the vast medical costs that many of my families incurred.
For the challenge, I tried to create a clean visualization with limited colors that would tell the story of Alice's medical journey. This was also my first time creating a longer viz (I normally just stick to the standard desktop window size). For the full interactive version, click on the image or click here.
(Click on the images to see the full versions.)
What works with the original visualization
Very interactive, allowing the user to customize their view
Big takeaways are called out at the top
Time series makes it easy to see trends
What could be improved
Lots of colors which are difficult to quickly interpret
Unclear flow, making it difficult for the reader to know where to focus attention
The map is helpful for context, but it is double encoded and difficult to interpret
What I did
Refined the focus to look at just two main areas: total applications and positive decisions
Incorporated narrative into the visual
Created a per capita view of positive asylum decisions to provide context (thanks for the idea Eva and Sarah!)
Reduced the number of colors
I originally created a different visualization including waffle charts, but based on feedback from the #MMVizReview I realized I would need to rethink my approach because providing pure percentages of positive decisions without context of number of applicants or population size could be misleading. Ideally I would have loved to create a waffle chart for each country and provide different ways to interact with the visuals, but I'm still only about 4 months into my self-taught Tableau journey and wasn't able to do that in a reasonable amount of time. I also would have liked to include more interactivity in my viz, but I think the simple version would work well to provide a simple overview. I'm excited to keep learning so that I can create visuals exactly how I image in the future!
I am so honored that my viz was selected as one of the favorites of the week!
(Click on the image to see the full interactive version on my Tableau Public.)
At first, I wasn't sure if I would attempt this month's challenge because I was nervous about creating a radial visualization. As someone who only opened Tableau for the first time in April 2019, is entirely self-taught, and hasn't thought about trigonometry since high school, I knew I had some work to do!
I began by considering what types of visualizations lend themselves well to this type of view. I tend to almost always err on the side of a simple bar chart to convey the big idea, but I decided to keep an open mind. I also wanted to tell a story about something that would be relatable and interesting. That’s when I thought about climate change. I realized that if I look at global warming over time, I could use a radial visualization to see interesting spikes and trends. I read through a bunch of tutorials and practiced creating radial charts (Kevin Flerlage’s tutorial was especially helpful https://www.kevinflerlage.com/2019/02/whos-afraid-of-big-bad-radial-bar-chart.html). I’m not naturally the most mathematically inclined, so I spent way too long playing around with the radius, but I finally made it look right!
Past the radial viz, I wanted to provide a context of what this means for the world currently as well as in the future. I researched implications for continued warming of the world and shared outcomes that scientists think are likely if we reach a 2 degree Celsius warming. I also shared steps individuals can take to help combat climate change (however I really think governments and corporations need to make changes as well). Overall this was a fun challenge that helped me acquire lots of new skills!
Check out my viz, along with over 50 others (!) on the Storytelling with Data blog.
(Click on the images to see the full versions.)
I had so much fun participating in my first #MakeoverMonday challenge!
What works with the original visualization
Simple line chart
Clear axis labels
Good use of color
What could be improved
No commentary on the line chart
Unclear title
What I did
Reworded title
Removed axis lines for simplicity
Added labels (I think I probably should have labeled all start points as well...)
Added BANs and commentary + a rainbow reference line!
It was interesting to research how social change happens. I found that a 25% minority opinion seems to be a magic tipping point.
My lines are also interactive, so if you click on the image and go to my Tableau Public page you will see a changing view by hovering on the lines
I was THRILLED when my first ever submission was chosen as one of the favorites! Check it out!