Assignment #1

Halloween Visualization

Assignment #1

Halloween Visualization

This module’s assignment is to create a data visualization using data collected about
trick-or-treaters in Cincinnati, OH. This can be a single chart, a collection of charts or a
dashboard, whatever is necessary in the story or analysis that is shown.

The Data

·         The data is available in two formats

o    “Halloween data for Excel 2016” is a crosstab which is ideal for creating visualizations in
Excel. Numbers in data file for Excel are cumulative.

o    “Halloween data for Tableau 2016” is unpivoted which is ideal for creating visualizations in
Tableau. Numbers in data file for Tableau are not cumulative.

·         Data has been collected since 2008 and is updated annually on the DataPlusScience.com
blog.

o    https://www.dataplusscience.com/HalloweenData.html

·         The trick-or-treat count was recorded in 30 minute intervals.

·         The night of trick-or-treating has always been on October 31st each year (some
neighborhoods change the night of trick-or-treating).

·         Official trick or treat hours are from 6pm-8pm, but there are often "stragglers" past 8pm
that are not turned away. These stragglers are counted in the 8pm-8:15pm time slot. There has never
been a trick-or-treater past 8:15pm.

·         The type of candy did not vary year by year. It is always a general mix of candy
purchased in bulk variety bags.

·         Location of home:

·         Neighborhood: East Walnut Hills/Evanston

·         being a corner house on the neighborhood border likely increases the number of
trick-or-treaters

·         City: Cincinnati

·         State: Ohio

·         Country: United States

·         Zip Code: 45207


The Assignment

1.        Determine a story or goal for the visualization.

Examples:

·         Homeowner dashboard summarizing Halloween

·         Forecast future trick-or-treaters or estimate future candy need

·         Explore variation of the number of trick-or-treaters year by year


2.        This is a very simple data set. There are only a few years of data broken down into 4
half-hour time blocks with cumulative totals. Think broadly about the data.


       Examples:

·         The data is time series data – any additional choices?

·          What comparisons can you make?

·          What table calculations can be made?

·         What additional data can be appended from other sources to help tell the story or
complete an analysis?

 NOTE - be very careful because there are many pitfalls at this step.


3.) Build a data visualization


“"I like the exercise because it is not too large a dataset it enables students to work with
Tableau, mash datasets, and apply some of the first principles of data visualization." - Martin
Wielemaker, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, University of New Brunswick