Welcome back to the RWFD Recap! The latest dataset to be completed was all about High Education. Now, this is currently a fascinating topic for me as my oldest daughter has started dabbling in her college search and understanding how students are measured, and what colleges and universities are looking as has become an area of deep research for me.
Some great entries for this dataset, but these two really stood out to me, so let’s dive in!
The first one comes from Joti Gautam (Profile / Viz) who delivered a couple or really nice elements that caught my eye as I was reviewing all the entries. The first think that grabbed me was the distribution of SAT scores in the marginal histogram. The second element that I really like on this one was the Correlation viz that allows the user to explore different demographic elements. Overall, it’s really easy to consume; I love the KPIs, and the integrated filtering in the dot plot at the top. One thing I noticed to be careful of is the double-encoding of the data. On the distribution of GPA, the bar length and the color of the bar are based on the same value, and this theme runs throughout the dashboard. One method to consider is maybe highlighting the highest value, or perhaps just leave it neutral if it’s easy enough to spot without that highlighting color.
The second comes from Dzifa Amexo (Profile / Viz), who delivered a very clean, very clear, high level view of the incoming class. The one thing I really loved about this visualization was the inclusion of the insight notes that are below each chart like a footnote. The way the footnotes are worded I could see this sitting on a university’s website giving this analysis to interested students.
One thing that I would provide feedback on is the GPA breakdown bar chart. Because of the size of the bars, and their relationship to each other, having them white makes it a bit hard to read. I’d consider a light grey perhaps, or, making the bars thicker may help the readability in this case.
The last viz comes from Lisa Trescott (Profile / Viz) who delivered a really sweet infographic! Having received a few of these in the mail I had to do a double take because it is DEAD ON stylistically based on all the mailings we are getting currently! Again, I could see this being on a university website, and just as easily being sent in the mail. I love the PDF download button… it’s a little touch, but as you are collecting information on universities, this type of thing is great for students to grab as a “take away”. While the radial bar chart isn’t best practice, in this case, it’s an eye catcher, and that’s what these type of metrics are all about! Also, the little bar chart icons leading to the score breakdowns for the testing stats is really well executed.
Alright, the next dataset is live, and it’s all about Solar Energy and the Energy sector. The dataset has 3 tabs on the file, so be sure and check them out. One is the actuals, on is a four hour future forecast and the last is a full day future forecast. Be careful as you piece them together!