Visualization occupation census count

This project responds to the growing interest, both internationally and nationally, to data visualization as a means to better understand research data. It lies in the expectation that new, more visual, methods for presenting data in the future will also prove to be important for the provision of research material in the data archives of DANS. This project aims to experiment with visualization of data in a dataset so to gain experience for future developments.

As a subject of study the job count of 1899 is taken. In this project the data has been made suitable for two specific forms of presentation, a dynamic Treemap and a dynamic population pyramid, which are interconnected. By making selections, the user can understand the occupations that were exercised in 1899 and the characteristics of the persons who exercised these professions. The project has resulted in an application where the user can explore the relationship between the variables like gender, marital status, region (province level), occupational class, occupation and age group. This visualization can be viewed via the Internet.

There are further possible extensions to this visualization example by displaying data at the commune level, the inclusion of the variable position in the profession, a more detailed job classification or another interaction with age classification. The conclusion of this project is that it is quite possible to develop specific visualizations of data that DANS has available. This contributes to the understanding of the data. It does however require specific knowledge and resources. The amount of work also depends on how the data are available and the suitability of the data for this purpose. The experience gained in this project could provide input for further research. Further research can focus on visualization of other data sets or a further optimization of the available data material for visual applications.

More information:
www.drasticdata.nl
End report [pdf] (only available in Dutch)