The Possibility of Marriage

Image courtesy of pengrin

1. What dataset will you use for your final report?

     I chose a large dataset that details currently married men and women around the world. This dataset is provided courtesy of the United Nations data site, compiled in 2012, and reaching back to pull data from as far as the 1970's.

2. Describe the dataset. What kind of data does it contain?

     In this dataset, it's possible to see the amount of men and the amount of women married in the different countries of the world. It's broken down into age categories, time periods, and sex (men/women), as well as whether or not the numbers include consensual unions (the unions that are not formally recognized by dominant laws). The UN also provides great detail on the further areas of the population that have been excluded from the dataset, and other limitations such as low census return rates.

3. Is there anything about your data that you don’t understand? How will you find this out?

     One thing I'm not certain of with this dataset is whether the numbers represent a percentage of that age group within the population, or something else. I have this doubt because of the ridiculously high numbers in certain populations. 96% of men aged 40-44 in 2008 in Afghanistan seems steep. Conversely, it's confusing to see that only 80% of women in the same place, year, and age bracket are married. I think this might be explained by the ratio of men to women being lopsided, but it's something I'll have to explore.

4. What are some questions you hope to answer with your data? List at

least three.

     To start, I'd like to know which country/year/age/sex has the highest number of married people, and which has the lowest. That's the obvious stuff. I'd like to contrast first world countries with each other, and also with third world countries. I'd like to compare European countries with North American countries, as well, to see if I can find a discernible difference that might be attributed to different cultural practices. I'm also interested in finding out which countries have the highest ratios of men to women married, because, as noted above, there are discrepancies there that intrigue me. Finally, I'm interested in answering the question of how marriage rates in different countries have changed over time. 

Infographic Critique - Assignment #1 (AKA "All the Dots")

    This infographic allows you to compare your height and weight with the heights and weights of the NFL 2015 athletes. It's a fantastic tool if you want to see which men share your body measurements but make far more money than you with them. Oh, and if you're at least 161 lbs., and 5'8". Everyone else? Sorry, this tool is not for you. 

    If you manage to fall into the elitist body-type bracket, this graph gives you the ability to see how you stack up, but it doesn't tell you how to properly employ that ability. Instead, there is a single title which explains the content, and then a whole array of confusing options with no descriptive, nor any opening introduction to clue the user in. An introduction would have been a welcome addition. What does the bar chart at the top do? How do I properly use the various search options? How do I tell which of these players is single and makes the most money?

    If the lack of explanation wasn't complicated enough, all you have to do is turn your gaze to the right of the page and allow your mind to boggle at the vast array of dots.

                                                              Dots, everywhere.  

                                                               

     The dots on the outskirts have names, the dots on the inside do not. Why? Space issues aside, I couldn't tell you, because it's just not clear. It might have been better to forego the labels altogether, especially as it gives you an option to do so in the search fields which makes the labels (and the option to forego them) seem like unnecessary clutter. An info box pops up with the name and stats when you mouse over it, anyway. The same thing could have been done with the various search fields on the left hand side of the screen, where an info box describing how to use each particular function would have had more impact and been more helpful.

     Finally, less is more. Get rid of the dots and the lines and the shades of beige and blue-green, at least at first. Start with a clean slate and give the user the choice to overwhelm themselves with dots. There is an 'All' option so there's no worry that they won't be able to see every single beefy athlete at once if that's what they want to do.