In’t Maps Brilliant: Understanding Data Through Visualisation Dr Daniel Vickers Lecturer in Social and Spatial Inequalities Department of Geography University of Sheffield OACUG Seminar, Royal Statistical Society, London, 15 th September 2009

Contents Thinking of Numbers in a Different Way Bringing Numbers to Life Adding Place to Data Taking the Place out Again

Thinking of Numbers in a Different Way

Bringing Numbers to Life

Adding Place to Data

Taking the Place out Again

Thinking of Numbers in a Different Way Numbers without context ≈0 Relative positions can be more important than values Relative positions without values ≈0 Identifying the BIG numbers

Numbers without context ≈0

Relative positions can be more important than values

Relative positions without values ≈0

Identifying the BIG numbers

OAC Recap Puts all 223,060 UK Census OAs into groups based on social characteristics Hierarchy of 7, 21 and 52 groups 1: Blue Collar Communities, 2: City Living, 3: Countryside, 4: Prospering Suburbs, 5: Constrained by Circumstances, 6: Typical Traits, 7: Multicultural.

Puts all 223,060 UK Census OAs into groups based on social characteristics

Hierarchy of 7, 21 and 52 groups

1: Blue Collar Communities,

2: City Living,

3: Countryside,

4: Prospering Suburbs,

5: Constrained by Circumstances,

6: Typical Traits,

7: Multicultural.

Using statistics to understand a complex world Understanding = Knowledge Another 223,030 rows here

Understanding = Knowledge

Bringing Numbers to Life I Live in a Prospering Suburb I have not got a clue what that means

1: Blue Collar Communities

2: City Living

3: Countryside

4: Prospering Suburbs Oh, I see

5: Constrained by Circumstances

6: Typical Traits

7: Multicultural

That looks like our street! Yes, but these don’t

Yes, and using, different things to visualise them helps us understand So we can use numbers to understand our neighbourhoods And maps can add to our understanding even more!

Adding Place to Data

Adding Place to Data The Dog was right!

12% of the people What a lot of Green 90% of the area

Taking the Place out Again….but increasing our understanding 12% of the people = 12% of the area

Making Maps Brilliant data + context + visualisation = Brilliant! areaclassification.org.uk [email_address] shef.ac.uk/sasi Ahh! A talking Dog

data + context + visualisation = Brilliant!

areaclassification.org.uk

[email_address]

shef.ac.uk/sasi