Visual Analytics

  Florida is home to some of the best beaches in the U.S., with soft white sand, clear blue water, and endless sunshine. Whether it’s the lively shores of Miami Beach, the serene vibes of Siesta Key, or the natural beauty of Destin, there’s a spot for everyone. My visualization breaks down beach access across the state, showing which areas are the easiest to reach. To make it more engaging, I added text and vector graphics in Illustrator, highlighting key locations and making the data pop. Florida isn’t just about great beaches—it’s about the experience, from sunset views to beachside adventures. 

Tableau and Geographic map For this week's assignment, I worked with a dataset about public beach access sites in Florida, which includes over 100 locations with addresses and coordinates. I used Tableau to create a map showing where these sites are across the state. Counties with darker shading have more beach access points, while lighter counties have fewer. Pinellas County, where St. Pete Beach is located, stood out with a lot of access points. This makes sense since it’s a popular spot for both locals and tourists. To improve the map, I would add a legend to explain the shading and labels to highlight important beaches like St. Pete Beach. Using dots or markers to show the exact locations of each access point would also make it easier to understand. These changes would make the map clearer and more helpful.

For my first blog post, I chose the California Wildfire Map from the Los Angeles Times as it provides valuable insights into the active wildfires in the Los Angeles area. This interactive map shows fire origins, perimeters, and evacuation zones, offering a real-time view of where the fires are and how they are spreading. I find this visualization important because it presents crucial information that residents, emergency responders, and anyone affected can use to stay informed. This map aligns with Visual Analytics as defined by Keim et al. (2008) by offering both interaction and intelligence. Users can interact with the map by zooming in and adjusting the view, which makes it easier to explore detailed areas of interest. The real-time data from Cal Fire adds an aspect of intelligence to the map, ensuring that the information presented is accurate and up-to-date. This combination of user-friendly interaction and timely data makes the map an effective example of visual analytics, helpin...