Module 5: Analytical Data

The purpose of this week's lab was to practice using a number of different data visualization techniques to combine maps and graphics on an infographic. I chose to show the relationship between food insecurity and obesity based on 2018 data from the County Health Rankings National Data. Food insecurity is being without reliable access to sufficient quantities of affordable, nutritious food. Without access to affordable, nutritious foods, households often have to choose between amount or quality of food. Often the most affordable foods available in high quantities are cheap, processed foods high in fats and sugars and low in nutrition. There is a relationship between eating low quality food and obesity. This means there is possibly a link between food insecurity and obesity. Because obesity is increasing in the US, it is important to find relationships which could explain some of the causes of obesity. Below is my final infographic showing these two variables.
Fig 1. Infographic showing the relationship between food insecurity and obesity in 2018.

The most challenging parts of creating this infographic was making sure all the elements would fit onto one page and the infographic would be visually balanced. One of the easiest ways to make sure my maps were the same size and everything was evenly organized on the page for visual balance was to employ gridlines. I added gridlines around the margins and then created gridlines at the very center vertically and horizontally. I also employed the neat line, lines and titles of the graphics to organize the elements on the infographic for visual balance. 

For my scatterplot, I chose to use Counties with food insecurity versus obesity so that the plot would look more complete and denser. 

I wanted my idiographic to focus on the food security issue rather than obesity because it is a less common variable to explore. Therefore, my bar chart is focused on food insecurity. I organized my data from largest to smallest in Excel and pulled the 3 states with the highest and lowest food insecurity. I chose to use states and not counties since states are more generally recognizable. I also chose to chart the associated obesity percentages as another way to show the relationship between the two variables. 

I chose to use US averages for each of my variables and felt they were best represented as pie charts. Pie charts are eye catching and easy to read, especially for averages of a population. For the average obesity pie chart, I calculated the average US obesity and also checked the stats against the CDC data which was close. I created the pie chart in Excel. For the food insecurity pie chart, I found statistics on the USDA website about food insecurity status for households in 2018. The data broke out the food insecure variable into two categories, low and very low. I felt this information added a little more value and interest to the infographic.

For my maps, I used two warm graduated colors, shades of red varying in value for obesity and shades of yellow varying in value for food insecurity. For consistency, I used these same color values in the other charts and graphs on the infographic. I used a darker background and light text to create visual contrast and hierarchal organization to draw attention to the maps and graphics. I sized the text for legibility as much as possible. Some of the text on the graphics is smaller than I would have liked but shrank as the graphic was sized to fit in the space. If this infographic is changed to poster size, however, then that text would be legible.


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