Visualization and votes for Obama
I thought this interactive graphic on the New York Times website was cool on a couple levels. First, it's a perfect example of how to make a VERY simple and intuitive data visualization that allows the user to see multiple dimensions of a data set by making easy choices. Really freaking cool in that regard.
But just as importantly, I got some really interesting insights out of this tool:
- Older people don't like Obama. Click the 60+ button and look how radically the result skews toward Clinton.
- The New York Times has a REALLY screwy definition of how to segment household income. I'm not a social scientist, but splitting the income demographic so that there are three bands between $0 and $50k (household) and one band for $50k+ seems very odd. There is a HUGE difference between a family earning $50k and a family earning $150k and the data won't reflect this visualized this way.
- I'm not yet convinced that race isn't a bigger factor than sex. Especially when you view how the "white vote" and the "women vote" stacked up by these measures.
Anyway, cool tool and some interesting insights.
