Linear Frequency
MAT 259, 2012
David Gordon

Introduction
For my first visualization project, I investigated the impact of the recent financial crisis on the Seattle Public Library (SPL) checkout activity. I searched for all transaction titles between 2006-11 containing each of three financial terms: "debt", "invest(ing)", and "real estate". Since the 2008 real estate market collapse increased personal debt, while decreasing confidence in the stock market, I hypothesized that SPL transactions related to "debt" would increase, while transactions related to "real estate" and "investing" would decrease.

Background
and Sketches
I decided to use a simple graph format to display transaction frequencies, with each term displayed side by side according to year. I experimented with several different color and labeling schemes, before deciding on the final version.


Query
'debt'
select year(cout) as year,count(*) from inraw where title like '%debt%' and deweyClass != 'null' and year(cout) >= '2006' group by year order by year;

'Invest'
select year(cout) as year,count(*) from inraw where title like '%invest%' and deweyClass != 'null' and year(cout) >= '2006' group by year order by year;

'Real Estate'
select year(cout) as year,count(*) from inraw where title like '%real estate%' and deweyClass != 'null' and year(cout) >= '2006' group by year order by year;

Total Transactions
select year(cout) as year, count(*) from inraw where deweyClass != 'null' and year(cout) >= '2006' group by year order by year;
Explanation
I used three queries in this project. Each returns the transactions from 2006-11 containing either the term "debt,"invest," or "real estate."

Process
I worked on the data visualization first, then added the labels and text. In my initial version, the text size and color palette were distracting, so I reduced the label size and added a more neutral color palette.

Result and
Analysis
As I had hypothesized, the titles containing "real estate" dropped in frequency throughout the period, seeming to reflect the decreasing confidence in the housing market, whereas titles containing "debt" increased, possibly due to a growing concern around issues of personal debt and budgeting. Titles containing the term "invest" also showed a decrease in checkout transactions, further supporting my initial hypothesis.


Code
I used Processing.

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Source Code