Week 14 viz: Improve a viz
Choose a graph to improve, and reproduce/improve it in R or Tableau. Please upload one document that contains the original graph, your improvement(s), and some explanation of what you improved.
There are two options for this assignment:
Option 1
Find a graph elsewhere and improve it. For this option, you only have to improve one thing, because reproducing the graph is a challenge in itself. Pros: more satisfying. Cons: could be harder.
Here are some ideas of places to look:
- Most things from Statista could be better. I don’t recommend trying to download the data, it’s more headache than it’s worth. Manual data entry is probably your best bet.
- If we were doing a Copy the Masters assignment this semester, you’d be using FiveThirtyEight. Most of these are graphics where you’ll need their dataset, from GitHub. Some easier ones from there include:
- Pulitzer prizes don’t lure readers from Do Pulitzers Help Newspapers Keep Readers?
- More players transfer to the U.S. than to any other country from American Chess Is Great Again
- What do health inspectors care about? from How Data Made Me A Believer In New York City’s Restaurant Grades
- Most common first names from Dear Mona, What’s The Most Common Name In America?
- The 2020 election matters to most voters from Why Many Americans Don’t Vote
- Pick a graphic from a visualization in the wild. I think most visualizations this semester were pretty complex, but it could be fun!
A couple more ideas I had in my pocket
- The Hennepin County revenue sheet mailed to homeowners. (I looked online and couldn’t find a digital version, but this page on assessment is full of PDFs with piecharts that could be redesigned.)
- Barcharts on mental health from the NIMH
- Piecharts on cancer rates from USA facts
Option 2
Improve a graph you made earlier in the semester. For this option, please find at least 5 things to improve. Pros: maybe easier to do. Cons: could be hard to find a ton to change, not as satisfying.