Overview
This purpose of this project is to demonstrate and assess your knowledge and skills in using data
visualization effectively to gain understanding of and insight into data. The assignment is to create a
dashboard of two or more charts designed to visualize the data necessary to answer one or more
questions about the data.
Data
Any public dataset can be used for this assignment. For example, this assignment provides an
opportunity to further analyze the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Some datasets include:
Johns Hopkins University (World): https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19
New York Times (US): https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data
You can also find other datasets, or combine these or other datasets, so long as all of the datasets
are publicly available.
These datasets have created some comprehensive dashboards as well as some more targeted
analyses that focus on a smaller number of charts.
A comprehensive example: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
A large collection of more focused charts:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
A nice dashboard set up by Illinois professor Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider comparing growth
curves: https://91-divoc.com
Platform
The preferred visualization system for this assignment will be Tableau. You can use Tableau Public
which makes the dashboard publicly available. You can use Tableau Desktop but you will need to
make your dashboard available on some publicly available server so the TAs can grade it.
Alternatively, you can use any other visualization system so long as it enables you to complete this
assignment without utilizing any tools above what is available in Tableau. The TA's may not be able
to provide you with any support for any systems beyond Tableau, so if you choose an alternative,
you may need to go it alone.
Required Elements
All students will be required to show a dashboard that includes the following two elements:
Multiple charts (at least two) displayed simultaneously on the same screen at the same time.
The ability to provide details on demand in at least one of the charts.
Students taking the course for 4 credit hours will be required to implement the following third
element. Students taking the course for 3 credit hours have the option to implement this third
element, and will earn its points as extra credit for the assignment.
The ability to support cross filtering between the two charts.
An example of such a dashboard is available at:
