Shape of YOU! Year End Review
Reading time: 1 min 49 secs
What is the shape of your life?
Ponder the 12 critical areas in life to see what your life looks like right now. Rank each one from 1 Ugg, very bad to 5 Perfect wouldn't change a thing above, and see how your life looks. A simple year end review that also provide a visual showing the shape of your life today. Check back from time to time to see how your life is changing.
Discussion
Happy New Year! I was looking for a New Year Themed viz to build this weekend. Knowing many people take stock of where things are going in their life, I thought I would play on the idea - "What is the shape of my life today?" using a radar chart—the shape of the graph changes based on a user's input.
Goals
Create a Radar Chart
Add user inputs to a viz as the only source of data
Make a New Years Themed vis
Challenges
Two challenges were immediately apparent. First, Tableau doesn't have a default radar chart as an option. I did find a way to create one using a hack in this blog post. Since the goal of the self-challenge was to create a Radar Chart, I moved forward. The second challenge, Tableau, doesn't have an easy way to have a viz created with only user input. Finding a hack on how to add user inputs, I got started. One thing I discovered, I did need some data to begin designing in Tableau. To solve this issue, I created a google sheet that listed the 12 areas critical in life as my design foundation. I selected these items based on Chris Guillebeau's blog post, a great one for year-end personal evaluations.
Results
Project goals achieved! A radar graph that the shape changes dynamically based on user inputs. I learned how to create a Radar Chart, have user inputs, and design a vis only based on user inputs. Though most multi-dimensional life reviews use Radar Charts, making this chart type in Tableau Software does not work well. If the goal of this self-assignment did not include a Radar Chart, a different chart would have been a better choice. By choosing another chart type, I would lose the "Shape Of You" concept.
Final Thoughts
A viz requiring two unused Tableau hacks is not a great starting point. The viz worked. Though it is possible with a more traditional data set, I might have been able to make the Radar Chart look better. Radar Charts in Tableau are very hacky. This project will most likely be the last time I use this graph style. The output is subpar, in my opinion. Creating a viz without data and only user input is possible. In the future, I would make a generic standalone dataset.
Share your shape with me on Twitter @YvonFitz #ShapeOfMe.