Avg Steps

Avg Calories

Avg Sleep

Overview

This dashboard analyzes Fitbit quantified self data to explore relationships between physical activity, calorie expenditure, sedentary behavior, and sleep patterns. The dataset was obtained from a publicly available Fitbit export containing daily activity and sleep tracking data.

Data and Preparation

The data was cleaned in R using the tidyverse and lubridate packages. This included converting date variables, extracting day-of-week labels, and aggregating sleep data to the daily level. The activity and sleep datasets were then merged by user ID and date to allow direct comparison across behaviors.

Analytical Approach

Each question is paired with a visualization suited to the type of relationship being explored: - Scatterplots show relationships between continuous variables - A boxplot compares activity across days of the week - A time-series line chart evaluates activity consistency over time

Design and Visualization Choices

This dashboard follows course principles of clarity and simplicity. Visual clutter is minimized through a clean theme and limited gridlines. Color is used consistently to highlight patterns without distraction. Separate tabs are used to organize each question, improving usability and reducing cognitive overload.

Tools Used

The dashboard was built in R using flexdashboard for layout, ggplot2 for visualization, plotly for interactivity, and tidyverse for data preparation.

Key Questions

1. How does step count relate to calories burned?
2. Which days have the highest activity levels?
3. Does sedentary time reduce calorie burn?
4. How consistent is activity over time?
5. Does more activity relate to better sleep?

Steps vs Calories

Interpretation

There is a clear positive relationship between steps and calories burned, indicating that higher physical activity leads to increased energy expenditure.

Activity by Day

Interpretation

Activity varies across the week, with some days showing higher median step counts than others.

Sedentary Time vs Calories

Interpretation

The trend suggests that as sedentary time increases, calorie burn tends to decrease slightly.

Steps Over Time

Interpretation

Step counts fluctuate over time, showing that average activity levels vary from day to day rather than remaining stable.

Sleep vs Activity

Interpretation

The relationship between sleep and activity appears weak, suggesting that more daily activity does not necessarily lead to longer sleep.