Challenge Overview
In Engagement, Ohio, the future is now! For years this sleepy bedroom community was a secret gem in the heart of the state. But now the word is out and the people are running, not walking, to buy up their claim on this bit of paradise!
Anticipating rapid growth, the city of Engagement, Ohio USA is doing a participatory urban planning exercise to understand the current state of the city and identify opportunities for future growth. About 1000 representative residents in this modest-sized city have agreed to provide data using the city’s urban planning app, which records the places they visit, their spending, and their purchases, among other things. From these volunteers, the city will have data to assist with their major community revitalization efforts, including how to allocate a very large city renewal grant they have recently received. As a visual analytics expert, you have joined the city planning team to make sense of the data provided by these residents.
Challenge 1: Demographics and Relationships involves understanding the city’s demographics. Given social networks and other information about the city, you will analyze the available data to prepare a one-page fact sheet about the city’s demographics, its neighborhoods, and its business base.
In Challenge 1, you will use visual analytic techniques to address the following questions:
- Assuming the volunteers are representative of the city’s population, characterize what you can about the demographics of the town. Provide your rationale and supporting data. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- Consider the social activities in the community. What patterns do you see in the social networks in the town? Describe up to ten significant patterns you observe, with evidence and rationale. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- Identify the predominant business base of the town, and describe patterns you observe. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- From your answers to questions 1-3, assemble a one-page summary that provides the key information to share with residents about the town.
Challenge 2: Patterns of Life considers the patterns of daily life throughout the city. You will describe the daily routines for some representative people, characterize the travel patterns to identify potential bottlenecks or hazards, and examine how these patterns change over time and seasons.
In Challenge 2, you will use visual analytic techniques to address these questions:
- Assuming the volunteers are representative of the city’s population, characterize the distinct areas of the city that you identify. For each area you identify, provide your rationale and supporting data. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- Where are the busiest areas in Engagement? Are there traffic bottlenecks that should be addressed? Explain your rationale. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- Participants have given permission to have their daily routines captured. Choose two different participants with different routines and describe their daily patterns, with supporting evidence. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- Over the span of the dataset, how do patterns change in the city change? Describe up to 10 significant changes, with supporting evidence. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
Challenge 3: Economic considers the financial health of the city. Over time, are businesses growing or shrinking? How are people changing jobs? Are standards of living improving or declining over time?
Consider the financial status of Engagement’s businesses and residents, and use visual analytic techniques to address these questions.
- Over the period covered by the dataset, which businesses appear to be more prosperous? Which appear to be struggling? Describe your rationale for your answers. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- How does the financial health of the residents change over the period covered by the dataset? How do wages compare to the overall cost of living in Engagement? Are there groups that appear to exhibit similar patterns? Describe your rationale for your answers. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- Describe the health of the various employers within the city limits. What employment patterns do you observe? Do you notice any areas of particularly high or low turnover? Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
The Grand Challenge requires you to put together your insights from Challenges 1, 2, and 3 to summarize your assessment of the city and recommend where the city improvement grant should be invested. Use your insights from Challenges 1-3 to answer the following questions:
- What are the most pressing issues for the current residents of Engagement, if historically average growth takes place? Describe the rationale for your answers. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- Assuming historical trends continue, where should the city invest to improve its citizens’ lives? Describe the rationale for your answers. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- If the anticipated rapid growth takes place, what are the greatest areas of need for city investment? Describe the rationale for your answers. Limit your response to 10 images and 500 words.
- What are the greatest areas of uncertainty in your assessment? What would help reduce this uncertainty? Limit your response to 100 words and 3 images.