business

Overview:

This project is intended to give you an opportunity to explore data visualization with Tableau, and work with a larger data set than is typical for textbook exercises. Using data the US Census’s American Community Survey (available to download from Canvas in module 1), you should use the data dictionary and both Excel and Tableau Public to find an “interesting” story, that is to say a relationship in the data that you find interesting, amusing, frightening, or concerning.

Assignment:

Find two or more variables in the Census data that tell an interesting story. Create a data visualization (or set of data visualizations) that illustrate this story. Your data visualizations might be as simple as scatter plots or more ambitious (geographical visualizations, animated charts). Complete this twice, once using Excel and once using Tableau Public. Make sure at least one of these graphs is very strong. Beneath your stronger graph, include a short paragraph reflecting on whether your graph follows the advice for graphs offered by your textbook (you may choose to ignore this advice, but if so you must acknowledge it and justify your different choice). You will then write a short (roughly ½ page) summary of your story. Include a title page, follow academic writing conventions and write in a professional tone, and save as a word document or .pdf file.

Data Note:  Be careful about the "Person's Weight" variable.  This does not mean "how much this person weighs" it means "how much weight to assign this person's answers."  If you're curious (not required) you can read about statistical weighting here: http://www.applied-survey-methods.com/weight.html (Links to an external site.).

Grade Note: Be sure to "check yourself" against the rubric below.  Did you compare/contrast Excel vs. Tableau?

Rubric (40 points total):

8 points: Data Visualization

8 points

Viz is appropriate for topic, appealing, and includes nuance, such as some measure of uncertainty

7 points

Viz is appropriate for topic and appealing

5 points

Viz is appropriate for topic or appealing

3 points

Viz is somewhat appropriate or somewhat appealing

1 point

Viz included

8 points: Graph Execution & Reflection

8 points

No unjustified deviations from textbook advice

7 points

One unexplained/unjustified deviation from textbook advice

5 points

Two unexplained/unjustified deviations from textbook advice

3 points

Three or more unexplained/unjustified deviations from textbook advice

1 point

No reflection included, and that's easy to see (e.g. heading but incomplete)

0 points

No reflection included, but it took work to tell that (not there, and not explicitly omitted)

8 points: Clarity of Data Story

8 points

Clear and concise explanation of data story

7 points

Somewhat unclear or overly long explanation of data story

5 points

Marginal explanation of data story

3 points

Poor explanation of data story

1 point

No explanation included, and that's easy to see (e.g. heading but incomplete)

0 points

No explanation included, but it took work to tell that (not there, and not explicitly omitted)

8 points: Mechanics, Title Page, Spelling, Formatting, etc.

8 points

Clear title page, no spelling errors, clear formatting

7 points

The sorts of errors only picky people care about (margins, ugly fonts, effect/affect…)

5 points

Errors that distract from the work at hand (cursive fonts, dangling participles…)

3 points

Errors that make reading unpleasant or difficult (cursive fonts in bold, split tables…

1 point

Egregious errors in mechanics (obscure meaning)

8 points: Compare/Contrast Excel vs. Tableau

8 points

Keenly insightful comparison with reference to your particular situation

7 points

Insightful but generic (not personal to you) comparison

5 points

Reasonable comparison

3 points

Weak comparison

1 point

Any comparison at all