Make Geographic Data Visual

DouglasGPratt.com

www.PersonalChange.info

DouglasGPratt.com

Displaying data in a table …

• … can make it difficult to read.

State 2010 Census 2000 Census Average 2010 Average 2000 Ca l i fornia 37.3 33.9 16.7 15.2 Texas 25.1 20.9 16.7 15.2 New York 19.4 19.0 16.7 15.2 Florida 18.8 16.0 16.7 15.2 I l l inois 12.8 12.4 16.7 15.2 Pennsylvania 12.7 12.3 16.7 15.2 Ohio 11.5 11.4 16.7 15.2 Michigan 9.9 9.9 16.7 15.2 Georgia 9.7 8.2 16.7 15.2 North Carol ina 9.5 8.0 16.7 15.2

Same Data

How to display data(a recommendation)

Representative Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecAnna 86 90 96 93 93 80 80 96 91 89 83 99Bob 97 94 92 89 87 84 82 80 78 75 73 71Charlene 87 93 98 98 98 100 96 92 92 94 97 99David 81 82 84 85 87 88 90 91 93 95 96 98Erica 99 96 94 91 89 86 84 81 79 77 75 73

In this sales example, Bob and Erica have 12 months of decreasing sales …

However, David increased his sales every month. Using a chart, his progress is easy to see compared with the average monthly sales.

Put bad data in a table and good data in a chart.

= It is difficult to see trends in a table.

GOP Primary Data

http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-republican-primary-schedule/

In this election year, I wanted to know when Tennessee’s primary is scheduled.

Using Bing.com,

I found the following website:

Part of table

Blank map using Bing.com

Final results using Paint

I imported the map into Microsoft Paint and used the fill tool to add the appropriate colors to the states. Finally, I added a legend to help orient viewers to the color scheme.

In conclusion

It only takes a little effort to visually transform data into information.

Even simple tools can be used.

Focus on data that you see and ask, “How could this be presented visually?”

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@DouglasGPratt