Insert the graphic you found below and provide the URL of the original source.

link to Graphic

1. What data are being visualized? Where did they come from?

The data being visualized include grade levels, home prices, and commute times for major metro city areas and their surrounding cities. Grade levels were drawn from Stanford Education Data Archive test scores. Home price data came from a national real estate brokerage, Redfin. Commute times were drawn from the Census Bureau.

2. Which data dimensions (observations/rows, variables/columns) are mapped to which visual cues?

The x-axis of the plots displayed represent grade levels as compared to the average. The y-axis shows real estate costs per square foot. The metro area name appears at the average grade level and average real estate cost per square foot. Lines are drawn from the metro area name to other points to show how different cities deviate from the grade level and real estate cost averages. The size of the circles represent district populations, larger circles for larger populations. The color of the circle indicates whether the average commute for a person living in this district is greater than (pink) or less than (green) 30 minutes.

3. How does this shape your understanding of the data?

The plot of New York City shows that the better-performing schools are often in suburbs. It is cheaper to live in suburbs than in the heart of New York City. This can be seen on the plot by looking at the lower right side. There are many smaller suburbs with low housing prices and well-performing schools. However, people experience longer commutes when they live in these suburbs.

4. If you liked the visualization, what is it doing well?

I like that the visualization is interactive. While I can look at general trends, I can click on a point on the plot to get specific information like population size, exact commute time, and exact grade level. There is also a search tab below each plot so I can search for a specific city that I have in mind.

5. If you disliked the visualization, what would you change?

While I like the visualization, I did not find it very intuitive at first. My first assumption after looking at one of the visualizations was that the line from the metro area name to a circle represented the distance from the city center to that city’s location. That was a very wrong assumption. I found it difficult to interpret the plots at first glance.